No. 2248 of the Grapevine Vintage Railroad has an interesting history. She began life as a member of the Southern Pacific's T-1 class of 4-6-0s, delivered in 1896-7 by Cooke Locomotive Works of Paterson, New Jersey. Eventually several members of this class of Ten-Wheelers were assigned to fire control service in northern California. They were equipped with pumps and a 1,000-foot hose and hauled water cars and equipment where needed to fight forest fires or fires in tunnels and wooden snow sheds. At the end of the steam era, No. 2248 was rebuilt and assigned to exhibition train service by the Southern Pacific. When her flue time expired in 1959, she was retired and purchased by a private collector.

In 1974, the Texas State Railroad acquired No. 2248 and restored her to service, but she was retired again after five years. In 1990, the Fort Worth and Western Railroad purchased the engine and again restored her to operation in 1992, hauling the "Tarantula Train," a Grapevine, Texas, tourist attraction. We see her in that role in a photo I took in Fort Worth in April 1992. Today she is owned by the Grapevine Vintage Railroad but is inoperable. No. 2248 retains her nineteenth-century features including slide valves and Stephenson valve gear.