Grapevine Vintage Railroad announces return to service for rehabilitated 117-year-old locomotive
GRAPEVINE, TX – The Grapevine Vintage Railroad announced today that “Puffy” will ride again. The tourist railroad’s 117-year-old steam engine No. 2248, affectionately known as “Puffy,” will return for a series of short excursions beginning Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. The locomotive, a former Southern Pacific 4-6-0, has undergone extensive repairs since being sidelined in December 2010. Puffy will head short excursion trains each Friday evening until Thanksgiving, when the North Pole Express begins holiday runs. GVR’s GP7 diesel locomotive will assist. GVR crews have been working in earnest for several months to return Puffy to the road. A piston, rings and cylinder cap were machined to fix damage during a run to Hodge Yard in Fort Worth almost three years ago. At the time, the failure was the second in two years that forced the locomotive out of service. In September, Puffy could be seen making short test runs from the shop in Grapevine. Puffy, built…