Southern Railway 630 returned to TVRM rails today after her Spring 2013 Road Tour of Norfolk Southern. 630 visited Attalla, AL; Bristol, TN; Roanoke, VA; Norfolk, VA; Spencer, NC; and Asheville, NC while carrying over 6,000 smiling passengers during the two month tour.

Today's run home from Knoxville finished up shortly after noon time. Behind her drawbar were 6 coaches and 5 gondolas. She looked grand coming home minus her "protection power."

630 will be in steam this weekend as TVRM begins three weekends of Day Out with Thomas.

Looks nice, just slightly dirty, like a working engine. . .

yeah it really looks like a working engine though a bit dirty it is.

I'm trying to see the dirt that others are referring too...

My brother caught a shot of 630 passing through Rural Retreat, VA back in 2014.

I have a family history with 630.
My parents both grew up outside Elizabethton, TN and moved there when they married in 1960. 630 was then known as ET&WNC 207, and my parents still remember seeing this locomotive and 208 (now known as SRR 722) running through town almost every day until they moved out of state.
In 1981, on a family trip to the area to visit relatives that we did each years, we took a 2-day side trip to Chattanooga, and 630 was running that day. I got a cab ride on the return run, my first ever.
I've seen 630 cold twice since then on two visits to TVRM (4501 was running one time, the other only diesels), after she was restored to running condition the most recent time.
Goodness knows when I'll be able to get back there again as I live on the other side of the country, but I badly want to see 630 again in steam and get another cab ride if at all possible...

That's awesome. Little by little I'm collecting material on the #630 and #722 in hopes of writing a book one day. There's so much history with those 2 locomotives.

Crescent-Zephyr I rode one of the rare off-NS rails trips behind #722 in 1979. I have several slides I have scanned from that excursion if you would be interested. If so, contact me off-line with your email address.

My brother, who turns 56 next month, missed out on seeing one of the ET&WNC engines in steam.
Dad was going to wait until he was old enough to understand what he was seeing, so he thought 4 would be a good year. Sadly, that would place the visit in 1968, the summer after both 207/208 (630/722) left Johnson City for good, traded for two old C of G RS-3s.
Oddly, one of those RS-3s has survived and is sitting in the back of the shop area at TVRM, not far from where 630 is probably sitting at the time I type this.

Sounds great. It's about time someone wrote that.
You're going to have to include space to the ET&WNC days, as each spent a while going from Johnson City to Elizabethton and back until about 1967.
I have several photos of each from that time, but I don't own the rights to many of them except for some snapshots I have.
I also have a engineer checkout sheet from the ET&WNC for 207(630) I could scan for you once you get rolling with this project.
I've never seen 722, as it was gone from TVRM by the time I got there the first time, and of course it's all in pieces in NC now. Someday, I'd love to see her (but in one piece and hopefully under steam).

I really hope to see and ride behind 722 on the Murphy Branch one day.

There’s a good amount of material to reference for the 630 & 722 days on the ETWNC, not so much for the early days on the southern.

I keep watching eBay for old reference books and I’ve got a whole stack of back issues from the southern historical society. It’s fascinating how many different ways k-class locomotives appeared on the southern system.

I just hope that someday someone will come out with a good accurate model of 630 in O scale (heck, 3-rail would be fine if done well and I don't even model in that). I'd have to get two, I guess, and turn one in ET&WNC 207...
But for anyone looking for 630 swag, this is a great shirt:
https://www.mohawk-design.com/collections/railroad/products/southern-630-2-8-0-locomotive

Oh nice - I believe that is the couple who runs the gift shop in Spencer (or at least they did a few years back.) I've bought a few shirts from them over the years, they did one for the Steam in Owosso event - it's one of my favorites because it has the logos of all the builders represented including Kloke.