I had heard parts of the story but I'm glad you filled in the blanks. One quick 610 story and back to regularly scheduled ng content.....
February 18 1976...The 610 was making her way from Austin to Houston where she stopped at a little place called Navasota to take water. Myself,my father and my grandfather all met the train in town. She came in rather quietly,steam hissing from cylinder cocks and things and that whistle was enough to wake the dead! I was not that impressed initially. My grandfather himself a retired rail,said let's go watch it go by the house and perhaps you will feel a little different. So we went to his home which was about six miles from Navasota and along the Mop mainline. As we were talking amonst ourselves,we heard a whistle,just as clear as we were standing next to her. One thunderous exhaust..then another......then another....all from six miles away! It was uphill from town past my grandfathers' place,and I'd seen that hill kill more than one diesel. She kept that rhythm, but she just kept rolling. By the time she was about two miles away and whistling for a crossing,I was finally really beginning to understand the love and the attraction the old heads had for steam,the gleam in their eyes as they talked about them,the tears in their eyes describing their deaths.I could see her now,about a mile away, Cyclops eye beaming,the flashing of light on her rods and counterweights,her voice drowning out all conversation.I realized that this old girl was'nt crawling up the hill like the diesels. She was marching with an authority and purpose that was awesome,frightening,but you couldn't take your eyes off her. Her engineer saw us at the crossing and blew a little extra as he pounded by us. If the two "helper" diesels were running,I never heard them. The 610 took care of that. We watched her roar away from us,that steamboat whistle and her exhaust sounding off for more than 10 minutes afterwards. Just after the train went by I spied a look at my grandfather....his eyes were closed,and he was crying...remembering....There was no doubt at that point which way my life would take.I was gonna be a runner and that was that.
