The locomotive is undergoing an extensive rebuild to operating condition for a third excursion career, under lease by the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation.

[4] By early 1979, the Clinchfield Railroad (CRR) operated a steam excursion program under the leadership of general manager Thomas D. Moore Jr., using 4-6-0 No.

1, but as per request of their parent company, the Family Lines, the CRR began searching for a larger steam locomotive to expand the program.

2716's restoration, when Thomas Moore was forced to resign for participating in a scandal to defraud the CRR.

[14] Additionally, the locomotive had its bell swinging from the top of its smokebox and carried the round "SR" emblems on its air compressor shields.

[16] It was put into storage at the Irondale workshop in 1985, after attempts to weld cracks in the firebox failed.

[17][19] After Norfolk Southern ended their steam program in late 1994, the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (FWRHS), the owner of NKP No.

765, reached an agreement with the Kentucky Railway Museum to sign a new lease to operate No.

[2][20][21] In January 1995, the locomotive was moved to the FWRHS' location in New Haven, Indiana, and work began to revert it to its C&O livery and to repair its firebox with new sheets and patches.

2716 were completed, and the locomotive pulled a freight train on the Toledo, Peoria and Western (TP&W) around Logansport.

2716 pulled some excursions on the TP&W and the Winamac Southern (WSRY) during the Logansport Iron Horse Festival.

2716 was towed back to the KRM, and the locomotive remained on static display there for the next sixteen years.

2716's appearance was temporarily altered to resemble a Louisville and Nashville M-1 Big Emma locomotive No.

[28] In May 2018, the KSHC partnered with the CSX Transportation to move the locomotive to a former Louisville and Nashville rail yard in Ravenna, Kentucky to build a new rail-based tourist and community development center.

[29] In November 2018, the KSHC acquired three pieces of rolling stock from the Indiana Transportation Museum (ITM) such as an auxiliary tender No.

[30] In January 2019, the Big Rivers Electric Corporation in Henderson, Kentucky salvaged a pair of Buckeye three-axle, roller bearing trucks from a flatcar, which was abandoned at their facility property in Hawesville, Kentucky; and donated them to the KSHC to replace the old friction bearing trucks underneath No.

[38][39] In September 2022, the KSHC purchased new boiler flues from the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum's nearly identical No.

[42] In October 2023, the KSHC received $1.9 million from the Government of Kentucky to aid the locomotive's restoration and its potential area.