By Railfan & Railroad Staff

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Iowa Interstate 2-10-2 6988 will lead a series of excursions out of Oxford, Iowa, on August 21, to benefit a local fire department. The Chinese-built steam locomotive will make four trips that day and tickets will cost between $10 and $20. Tickets are now on sale. 

The Oxford Fire Department benefit trips are the first excursions announced for the locomotive this year. Earlier this year, the railroad asked the Federal Railroad Administration for a waiver of compliance to push back a required 15-year overhaul of the locomotive so it can run this fall. Iowa Interstate officials wrote in the filing that they anticipated “about 40 service days in 2021,” if they get approval. The locomotive was last in excursion service in 2019. 

Locomotive 6988 is one of two QJs that Iowa Interstate purchased from China in 2006. Over the years both locomotives have been used for community events. Locomotive 6988 has been altered to look more like an American locomotive but the second one — QJ 7081, which is presently out of service — looks as it did when it was running on Jitong Railway in China in the 1990s and early 2000s.