Attention all train lovers! You’ve seen weddings take place on baseball fields, in hot air balloons and while scuba diving. This weekend another unique and special wedding will take place at the Texas State Railroad’s Palestine Depot.

A couple from Dallas plans to marry on the railroad's historic, and beautiful, engine #610. The wedding takes place at noon on Saturday, July 6. The ceremony will be approximately 15 minutes, and East Texas is invited!

T & P engine #610 is the sole surviving example of super-power steam locomotives. The engine was built in 1927 at the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio. This engine combined a high capacity boiler with a modern valve gear and a four-wheeled trailing truck. The design became the prototype for American steam locomotives until the end of the age of steam.

The earliest versions were used for freight only, running at a top speed of 45 mph. By 1937 a it was rebuilt to allow these engines to run at speeds over 60 mph pulling both passenger and freight.

Engine #610 was given to the City of Fort Worth in 1951 and the city made sure it was maintained and protected over the years. In 1975, with help from Fort Worth philanthropist Amon Carter, #610 was rebuilt for use in the 1976 Bicentennial Freedom Train and pulled the train across Texas.

After this historical event she was leased for several years to the Southern Railway for excursions. By 1986 the locomotive was donated and shipped to the Texas State Railroad where it is now maintained and protected, a “Texan” for all Texas to enjoy and a tribute to American engineering genius during the golden age of steam.

 

 

 

 

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