Steam's Final Hour by Tom Rock at Ozark Airfield Artworks Aviation Art

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"Steam's Final Hour"

Railroad Artist
Tom Rock

STEAM'S FINAL HOUR
Copyright (c) 1994, T.D.R.
Productions
Sheet: 18" x 24" / Image: 12" x 20"

On Wednesday, June 17, 1953, at 3:00 PM, over a century of steam
power on the Soutehrn Railway came to a close. President Harry A.
DeButts had announced the day before that the event to take place on
the 17th would make the Southern the largest railway in the country to
be completely dieselized. It was that day the Southern's last steam
engine in service, heavy Mikado type No.6330, would pull a train from
Oakdale to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"It has taken us 123 years to put out this fire," Mr. Debutts said as he
told of the final run which would mark the end of the steam locomotive
era on the Southern. There was something symbolic about that
Wednesday afternoon in June. The best of steam power was
represented by the 6330, giving way to the best in diesel power. The
old bowing before the new. They served their purpose, these knights
of the past, on their specialized, remarkable assignments. The millions
of miles of tireless service they gave cannot be reduced to cold figures
here, they are already a part of America; of the World.

After a brief ceremony with company officials, she had come to the
very end of the line. So it was that, on Wednesday, June 17, 1953, at
3:00 pm in the afternoon, an era, an epoch, ended. It's like we shall
never see again.

(TIES Magazine July 1953; Chattanooga Times Newspaper June 21,
1953)

This Southern Railway Centennial print is signed by the last two
surviving members of the 6330's crew.