Texas and Pacific 610

Texas and Pacific 610, also known as "Will Rogers", is the only surviving example of the Texas and Pacific Railway's (T&P) class I-1AR 2-10-4 "Texas" type steam locomotives. Built by the Lima Locomotive Works in June 1927, No. 610 and its class were based on Lima's prototype "Super Power" 2-8-4 design, and the T&P rostered them to pull fast and heavy freight trains.

No. 610 last ran for the T&P in 1949, before it was retired, the following year. It was then put on static display at the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. In the late 1960s, No. 610 was at risk of being scrapped before the 610 Historical Foundation, led by Dave Pearson, acquired the locomotive. In 1975, work began to restore No. 610 to operating condition, and the following year, it pulled the Texas portion of the American Freedom Train.

From 1977 to 1980, No. 610 was leased by the Southern Railway to pull excursion trains for their steam program. In 1981, No. 610 returned to Fort Worth under its own power. The following year, it moved to a small museum complex for display. In 1986, it was moved again to the Texas State Railroad in Palestine, Texas. As of 2024, No. 610 remains in storage under Texas State Railroad ownership, and it is towed outdoors for display during occasional events.

Construction and design
During the 1920s, the Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P) was undergoing a restructuring process, under the guidance of the company's president, John L. Lancaster. Lancaster sought for the T&P to acquire faster and more powerful locomotives than their G-1 Class 2-10-2 "Santa Fe" types, to compete with intercity truck services and to assist the booming oil industry of Texas. In 1925, the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio constructed and demonstrated their prototype A-1 Class 2-8-4, which was designed by William E. Woodard and was proclaimed as a "Super Power" locomotive with its high horsepower output.

The A-1 was tested on the T&P's future parent company, the Missouri Pacific (MoPac), and T&P executives were impressed with the A-1's performance. As a result, in June 1925, the T&P placed an order for ten copies of the A-1 to be built and delivered, but with ten driving wheels, instead of eight, and they would consequently become the world's first locomotives to be constructed with a 2-10-4 wheel arrangement. The new 2-10-4's (Nos. 600-609) were classified as I-1's, and the wheel arrangement was named the "Texas" type, on behalf of the T&P. They were equipped with several design features that were identical to those on the Lima A-1, including 63 in diameter driving wheels, articulated side rods, articulated trailing trucks, and Baker valve gear.

The I-1's were also equipped with 29x32 in cylinders and a boiler pressure of 250 psi, and they were able to produce 83,000 lbf of tractive effort, as well as 96,000 lbf with the activation of their Franklin Railway Supply booster. The T&P was satisfied with the performance of their I-1's, so in 1927, the railroad ordered fifteen more copies from Lima, and they were built and delivered during the summer. The fifteen locomotives (Nos. 610-624) were classified as I-1A's, since some of their design features were altered from those on the I-1's; their throttle type was changed to allow room for an ornate flange on the smokestack, and the boiler pressure was raised to 255 psi, which boosted the locomotives' tractive effort to 84,600 lbf (97,900 lbf via booster).

The T&P ordered additional altered batches of 2-10-4's from Lima in ensuing years; the I-1B's (Nos. 625-639) in the spring of 1928, the I-1C's (Nos. 640-654) in the summer of 1928, and the I-1D's (Nos. 655-669) in the fall of 1929. At seventy locomotives, the T&P owned the largest fleet of 2-10-4's in the United States, until the introduction of the Pennsylvania Railroad's J1 Class in the early 1940s. The only major design flaw the T&P 600's had was their poorly counterbalanced driving wheels; at 45 mph, the driving wheels would lift off the rails, so the locomotives received a speed restriction to travel at lower speeds, despite their abilities to travel at higher speeds.

In 1937, John Lancaster—envisioning the outbreak of World War II and the ensuing military traffic—ordered for all seventy of the T&P 600's to be rebuilt at the railroad's Lancaster shops in Fort Worth to fix their counterbalancing issues and to extend their speed limit to 70 mph. The locomotives received new valve pilots, lightweight nickel-steel main and side rods, and disc driving wheels shipped from the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the 600's became equipped with steam and signal line equipment for passenger service. Each 600 received an "R" in their classification names, and the rebuilding process took place between December 1937 and August 1941.

Revenue service
No. 610 was the first locomotive of the I-1A class, being built in June 1927 at a cost of $106,656.41, and it was delivered to the T&P that same month. No. 610 was mostly assigned in revenue service to pull heavy long-distance freight trains on T&P's 860 mi mainline between Texarkana and El Paso, and en route, the locomotive would travel through the cities of Marshall, Longview, Dallas, Fort Worth, Abilene, Midland and Odessa. No. 610 also regularly pulled freight trains out of Shreveport, Louisiana.

No. 610 was originally restricted to operate below 45 mph, due to its poorly counterbalanced driving wheels, but in August 1938, No. 610 was rebuilt at the Lancaster shops in Fort Worth with Baldwin disc driving wheels and lightweight nickel-steel rods to eliminate its speed restriction, and it was reclassified as an I-1AR. During World War II, No. 610 and other 600 locomotives were assigned to pull trains of military soldiers and war materials on the El Paso-Texarkana route and on the MoPac from Longview to Palestine, and beginning in 1939, they pulled trains from Fort Worth to Denison.

In 1945, John Lancaster retired from the T&P, and William G. Vollmer succeeded him as president. Under Vollmer's guidance, the railroad began to order diesel locomotives from the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) to replace their steam fleet. Having accumulated 1,152,872 mi in revenue service, No. 610 was removed from service in July 1949, and then it was officially retired from the roster in February 1950. The T&P completely dieselized their operations by the end of 1951.

First retirement
In January 1951, after Fort Worth city mayor F. Edgar Deen requested to Vollmer that the T&P preserve a steam locomotive, Vollmer had No. 610 withheld from scrapping and donated to Amon G. Carter, who was a local publisher and a board chairman of the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show. Carter, in turn, donated No. 610 to the Southwestern Exposition, and arrangements were made to relocate the I-1AR to the exposition grounds near the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum, with the Frisco Railway providing a spur line to allow the locomotive to enter the new display site. On January 27, No. 610 was put on static display at the show grounds, and a dedication ceremony was held where the locomotive was named after humorist and philosopher Will Rogers.

Following the ceremony, vandals began to remove parts from No. 610, but in 1952, Carter had a fence propped up around the locomotive for protection, and the exposition spent $500 to replace the missing parts. In 1955, No. 610 became the last remaining example of T&P's 2-10-4 fleet, since the rest of the 600 locomotives had been scrapped; I-1BR Class No. 638, which had been on static display at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas since December 1949, was scrapped after being heavily vandalized. Also in 1955, Amon Carter died, and without his protection, No. 610 was slowly tarnished by the outdoor elements in ensuing years. By 1968, both the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show and the city of Fort Worth had disavowed ownership of No. 610, and they were unable to maintain the locomotive.

Local Fort Worth residents feared a repeat of No. 638's scrapping, and they launched a campaign for the city to donate No. 610 to a group of railfans and experts who would be able to keep the locomotive in good condition. In April 1969, the Texas Christian University, a fraternity of Phi Delta Theta, began to redevelop their property alongside the Will Rogers Coliseum, and in doing so, they were to rip up a portion of the spur line that connected No. 610's display site to the National Rail Network. In June, local machine shop owner David F. Pearson learned that No. 610 was going to be landlocked, and he also feared the locomotive would be scrapped.

He and a small group of fellow railfans negotiated with the city of Fort Worth to obtain ownership of No. 610, and the city agreed to sell the locomotive to the group for a token fee of $1, with the stipulation that it be moved out of the display site. No. 610 was subsequently moved out of the Coliseum property and to the Frisco Railway’s north side yards for temporary storage, and then it was moved again to the Fort Worth Army Depot. Dave Pearson had decided to restore No. 610 to operating condition and use it to pull excursion trains between Fort Worth and Dallas, and he created a nonprofit organization called the 610 Historical Foundation to begin the project. The foundation launched a fundraising campaign to cover the initial estimated restoration cost of $10,000, and they began searching for steam locomotive experts for help.

In 1970, the 610 Foundation began to negotiate with the T&P for permission to pull passenger excursions on their Dallas-Fort Worth mainline, but MoPac’s vice president-operations, E. L. Manion, declined to allow the group trackage rights, citing it would disrupt the safety and regular freight operations on the right-of-way, and all suitable facilities were unavailable. The foundation also negotiated with other railroads—including the Santa Fe and the Rock Island—for trackage rights to operate No. 610, but to no avail. During the early-mid 1970s, the 610 Foundation struggled to raise the required funds.

Renovation and American Freedom Train service
In 1974, the cross-country American Freedom Train (AFT) was being developed to celebrate the 1976 Bicentennial of the United States, and a nationwide search for a steam locomotive for use in pulling the train was underway. The 610 foundation negotiated with the AFT Foundation to allow No. 610 to pull the Freedom Train throughout Texas and possibly other parts of the southwestern United States. By July 1974, Don Ball—the Vice President for Government and Business Relations for the AFT Foundation—promised that No. 610 would pull the Texas portion of the train in early 1976, on the condition that it's restoration be completed in time. On August 1, a new fundraising campaign was launched, and No. 610's restoration was re-estimated to cost $100,000 to complete, with $75,000 being required to be donated from Texas residents.

Simultaneously, Dave Pearson had become close friends with Amon Carter, Jr., who was a local publisher and Amon G. Carter's son, and he had joined the 610 Foundation and began funding the project. On February 16, 1975, No. 610 was moved to the Fort Worth Stockyard Area, where the restoration process began the following month, with assistance from the Stockyards Area Restoration Committee. Dave Pearson hired Chicago area railfan and steam locomotive mechanic Richard "Dick" Jensen to lead the restoration process. Jensen had to acquire around 3,000 new custom-made parts to replace those on No. 610, while other parts of the locomotive were cleaned and refurbished. Many donations were made to the restoration, including $435 from a Western Hills Elementary School art show, and a private $50,000 loan was made for work to continue without stoppages.

On October 2, the locomotive's boiler passed a state government-required hydrostatic test. Under Jensen's direction, No. 610's restoration was running behind schedule; the restoration was scheduled to be completed by December 1, but the deadline was postponed to January 1, 1976, and then to February. On January 28, No. 610's restoration was completed, and the I-1AR moved under its own power within the Fort Worth rail yards the following day. The Fort Worth and Denver Railway (FW&D) subsequently requested that No. 610 be fitted with liability insurance coverage, but the insurance cost was $10 million, and the 610 Foundation only held $2 million. The AFT Foundation quickly obtained the required coverage from their insurance brokers in California.

On February 4, No. 610 performed its first test run on the FW&D mainline from Fort Worth to Wichita Falls with an idling EMD SD7, four boxcars, and a caboose, but en route, the locomotive broke down from one of its bearings near Alvord, and repairs delayed its arrival in Wichita Falls by two hours. On February 7, No. 610 returned to Fort Worth while pulling a freight train that approximated the weight of the Freedom Train, and the run occurred without incident. The AFT Foundation's plan for the Texas portion of the Freedom Train tour was for No. 610 to travel to Odessa, where it would be swapped with Southern Pacific 4449 at the lead of the train, but for unknown reasons, the locomotive-swap was moved to Austin. On February 13, No. 610 travelled to Austin, and two days later, it was swapped with No. 4449 in front of the AFT consist.

On February 18, No. 610—with assistance from MoPac Bicentennial GP18's Nos. 1776 and 1976—pulled the consist on MoPac's mainline from Austin to Houston. Prior to the Austin-Houston journey, it was discovered that the locomotive's brake shoes did not meet federal regulations, and the I-1AR was temporarily equipped with brake shoes from the city of Austin's display locomotive, Southern Pacific 786. On February 25, No. 610 pulled the Freedom Train on the Santa Fe mainline from Houston to Fort Worth, with assistance from Santa Fe Bicentennial SD45-2 No. 5704, but the journey had been delayed by a long line of people touring the consist in Houston.

On February 29, No. 610 pulled the AFT consist into Dallas. On March 5, the locomotive returned to Fort Worth again, and it was swapped back with No. 4449, which pulled the Freedom Train northbound to Wichita Falls. No. 610 was unable to operate beyond the Texas schedule, since extensive repairs on its crown brasses were required. Following the end of the AFT's Texas tour, the 610 Foundation continued to explore ways to operate No. 610 in excursion service, but railroads in Texas still declined to host steam excursions on their mainline.

Southern Railway excursion service
During 1976, the Southern Railway (SOU), which hosted a mainline steam excursion program, decided to lease a larger steam locomotive than their existing fleet to meet demands for longer excursion trains, and they initially offered to lease No. 4449. The AFT Foundation had to decline the offer, since they had already promised the city of Portland that they return the locomotive to Oregon after the end of the Freedom Train tours, but Doyle McCormack—who was the engineer of Nos. 4449 and 610 during the Freedom Train tours—suggested to SOU executives that they lease No. 610, instead. SOU steam program manager James A. Bistline, Master Mechanic Bill Purdie, and Don Purdie subsequently travelled to Fort Worth to examine No. 610's condition. By February 1977, the SOU and the 610 Foundation reached an agreement where the former would lease the locomotive for two years; the lease was later extended to three years.

In March, Bill Purdie had No. 610 operate under its own power via the MoPac, the Illinois Central Gulf, and the SOU from Fort Worth to Birmingham, Alabama. At Mineola, Texas, the locomotive experienced a hot box that subsequently had to be repaired while it stopped at Shreveport, and then it had to tiptoe through flooded areas in Mississippi. Upon arrival in Birmingham, No. 610 was moved inside the SOU's steam locomotive workshop in nearby Irondale to be overhauled and repainted, in preparation for its first excursion runs on the Railway. The I-1AR received minor cosmetic decorations to symbolize its status on the SOU, including a brass eagle ornament above the front headlight, and a pair of round "SR" emblems on its air compressor shields. No. 610 pulled its first excursions for the SOU on July 9–10, 1977; two roundtrips between Birmingham and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and each train carried over 800 passengers. Trains magazine editor David P. Morgan subsequently requested to SOU president L. Stanley Crane that No. 610 operate with a test car in tow for a dynamometer test. On August 20, while No. 610 pulled the Piedmont Limited/610 special excursion from Alexandria to Monroe, Virginia, it towed SOU research car No. R-2, with a team of researchers—led by Bill Withuhn—recording the locomotive's horsepower output. The end results revealed that No. 610 was capable of generating 4,400 hp; the same output as two EMD SD24’s.

The excursion was also plagued with various problems; No. 610 derailed in the Alexandria yard and damaged its pilot axle, and the rerailing process delayed its departure by 1 hour; at Monroe, No. 610 had to be refueled, since the pump between its tender and auxiliary car seized up; at Remington, the locomotive burned out a brass and journal in its pilot truck, so it had to be sidelined for repairs, while a GP18 and a GP38-2 returned the train to Alexandria; the problems postponed the train's return to Alexandria to 3:30 am. Crews subsequently had to replace No. 610's pilot bearings.

On September 1, No. 610 travelled to Roanoke to participate in the 1977 National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) Convention, but hot box issues delayed its arrival by seven hours. On September 3, No. 610 pulled a doubleheader excursion with SOU 2-8-2 No. 4501 on the Norfolk and Western (N&W) mainline from Roanoke to Lynchburg, and No. 610 returned to Roanoke with five cars. On September 4, No. 610 pulled an excursion from Roanoke to Bluefield, West Virginia, but en route, as the locomotive travelled through Montgomery Tunnel, exhaust from its smokestack extinguished the fire in its firebox, and the locomotive's cab, crew, and first few passenger cars were blackened with fuel oil. After No. 610 drifted and stopped out of the tunnel, Bill Purdie had to relight the fire to continue the run to Bluefield.

The locomotive had to stay at Bluefield for servicing on its pilot truck, while N&W Bicentennial SD45 No. 1776 pulled the excursion to Cedar Bluff, and then No. 610 returned to Roanoke with No. 1776 and the excursion without incident. The I-1AR subsequently spent three days in the Roanoke Shops for necessary repairs, and oil from the Montgomery incident was cleaned off. The I-1AR was then moved back to Birmingham to determine the cause of its hot box issues; it was revealed that the pilot axle carried 5 t above its normal axle loading, after the locomotive was raised and lowered during its renovation for the AFT. By the end of 1977, the SOU steam excursions had carried 76,157 passengers, many of whom rode in trains behind No. 610.

SOU executives became ambivalent to No. 610's performance; while it was able to pull long passenger trains across the Railway’s system at 60 mph, it continued to suffer mechanical problems on some occasions. In 1979, the SOU began leasing Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson No. 2839 to assist and eventually replace No. 610 in the program, but No. 2839 proved to be unsuitable in pulling the long excursions unassisted. In 1980, the SOU began leasing Chesapeake and Ohio 2716 from the Kentucky Railway Museum, and it was planned to replace Nos. 610 and 2839 in the steam program. Having accumulated 17,587 mi and carried 53,570 passengers on the SOU, No. 610 pulled its last excursion for the railway on January 24–25, 1981; a one-way excursion from Birmingham to Memphis, Tennessee, and it subsequently travelled light to Fort Worth with a boxcar full of spare parts.

Location changes and second retirement
On January 29, No. 610 arrived at Fort Worth, and then it was put into temporary storage near the Federal Records Center. Since nearby mainline railroads still refused to host steam excursions on their right-of-way, the 610 Foundation decided to search for a location to display No. 610. In July, the 610 Foundation reached an agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA) to lease some undeveloped land adjacent to the Records Center for twenty years, and they quickly began construction on a building to store the locomotive.

On April 4, 1982, following two delays from trackage issues, No. 610 travelled to the foundation's new building on the property—then called the Quartermaster Depot—where a dedication ceremony was held. The 610 Foundation began to prop the locomotive on public display during June, and they cooperated with the Trinity Valley Railroad Club to redevelop the storage site into a museum attraction akin to the Galveston Railroad Museum. Following the death of Amon Carter, Jr. in July, the 610 Foundation began losing money to keep No. 610 maintained, and while Dave Pearson still continued to explore ways to run it, he lost faith in using the locomotive for excursion service.

During 1984 and 1985, a group in Dallas developed a $3 million-project called the "Texas Independence Express"—an exhibit train that was planned to celebrate the 1986 Sesquicentennial of the state of Texas—and No. 610 was selected to pull the consist. Plans for the bicentennial train fell through, after the group only managed to raise around $100,000, and surrounding railroads were reluctant to allow No. 610 on their mainline, fearing that its heavy weight would damage their computerized switches. During 1986, the GSA decided to redevelop the Quartermaster Depot property, so they ended their lease contract, and the museum site where No. 610 sat had to shut down. With no sentiment to keep No. 610 maintained, 610 Foundation decided to donate their locomotive in December to the Texas State Railroad (TSR), a tourist railroad that operates between Rusk and Palestine.

The Dallas group in charge of the cancelled sesquicentennial exhibit train donated their funds to help move No. 610, and the locomotive was removed from the Quartermaster Depot property and towed to the TSR's yard in Palestine. The TSR used other funds from the Texas sesquicentennial celebrations to expand their Palestine shop facility to allow storage space for No. 610. The TSR felt the No. 610 was too large for their small operations, and they began to occasionally prop up the I-1AR for display near their depot for tourists and passengers to view during the road's operating seasons. No. 610 performed one test run on the TSR's right-of-way in October 1987, and the railroad put the locomotive up for lease for people willing to operate it, but no lessors showed interest.

On August 19, 1989, No. 610 was designated as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark for being the last remaining example of Lima's early Super Power locomotive design. In May 2001, the TSR hosted events that celebrated three anniversaries, including the 25th anniversary of No. 610 hauling the American Freedom Train.