I remember the 610 for sure, she was an oil burner, I put my then girlfriend on that train when it stopped in Hickory and drove to Statesville to pick her up. That was her first train ride and probably her last.
That was during the 77 convention if I remember correctly. Bill was covered in fuel oil when the draft extinguished the fire mechanisms out of Montgomery Tunnel in Shawsville
You can hear how bad 610 was treated, her once mighty low tone, now a squeaky girly scream, her mighty chuffs drowned by her always popping safety, overloaded overworked and under maintained.
In my opinion, it’s was probably due to rush hours work on restoring it for the American Freedom Train project in 1976. Plus, it was plagued with running gear problems during its time on the Southern Railways steam excursion program. That’s why 610 was under maintained and unstable.
