Santa Fe No. 1316

Santa Fe No. 1316 is a 1309 class 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1911 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). As of today, it is the sole survivor of Santa Fe's 1309 class locomotives and currently resides at the Texas State Railroad between Palestine and Rusk, TX. It is one of four steamers that the TSRR uses to operate their tourist excursion trains.
==History==
Santa Fe No. 1316 is a 1309 class 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1911 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). 1316 is one of 329 Pacific type locomotives built for the AT&SF, as well as one of 28 of the class 1309 series locomotives. They were originally built as four-cylinder compound locomotives with two internal and two external cylinders, but it plagued them with mechanical issues and design flaws, most notably, not being powerful and fast as the AT&SF expected them to be. As a result of this, the AT&SF rebuilt some of them to conventional two-cylinder locomotives, with 1316 being the first one to be rebuilt.
1316 was initially used for fast passenger service by the AT&SF, but later downgraded to secondary passenger service in favor of larger 4-6-4 "Hudson" and 4-8-4 "Northern" type locomotives. 1316 was converted from burning coal to burning oil in the 1930s and later downgraded again to freight service on mostly shortlines when diesels took over passenger service in the 1940s. 1316 was later retired from the AT&SF in October 1954 and immediately donated to the Fort Concho Museum in San Angelo, TX, becoming the sole surviving 1309 class locomotive by the end of the decade.
1316 sat on static display at the Fort Concho Museum until it was sold to the Texas State Railroad between Palestine and Rusk, TX in 1980. Two years later, in 1982, 1316 was restored to operating condition where it was painted in a sharp green paint scheme and renumbered to TSRR 500. Following the restoration, 500 was used on daily tourist excursion trains between Palestine and Rusk alongside running mates Tremont & Gulf No. 30 (renumbered to TSRR 400), Southern Pine Lumber Company No. 28 (renumbered to TSRR 300), Texas & Pacific No. 316 (renumbered to TSRR 201), Southern Pacific No. 2248 (renumbered to TSRR 200), and the TSRR's diesels.
500 was later taken out of service for a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) mandated overhaul at the end of the 2002 operating season since the FRA had imposed the infamous 1,472-day boiler inspection for every operational steam locomotive in the United States in response to the Gettysburg Railroad No. 1278 boiler explosion that happened on June 16, 1995. However, upon being disassembled, the TSRR discovered that the locomotive's boiler was in a horrid condition, following more than two and a half decades of running. The state of Texas offered the TSRR funding to build 500 a new boiler that's designed to powerplant standards, but unfortunately, the TSRR didn't have enough funding nor time to build 500 a new boiler while also maintaining their other operable steamers at the time. As a result of this, 500's mandated overhaul was tragically cancelled.
500 was eventually reassembled and cosmetically restored back to AT&SF 1316 in 2020 and currently sits on static display at the newly constructed Hall of Giants display site along the Palestine Wye in Palestine, TX alongside T&P 316 and 610. But once the TSRR finishes the overhaul of 316, they will eventually restore 1316 back to operation again in the not-too-distant future.
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:Built in 1911
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:4-6-2 steam locomotives
Category:4-6-2 locomotives
Category:Santa Fe locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:American locomotives
Category:American steam locomotives
Category:United States
Category:Restored locomotives
Category:Preserved locomotives
Category:Passenger locomotives
Category:Excursion locomotives
Category:Locomotives featured in media
Category:Sole survivor
Category:Texas State Railroad
Category:Preserved steam locomotives