NS Steam Train to Knoxville
Nov. 8
Photos by Dave Ingles
| One of two extremely unusual trips operated in conjunction with the Lexington Group meeting was a one-way steam trip from Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's Grand Junction station in eastern Chattanooga, behind its 2-8-0 No. 630 (of earlier Southern Railway excursion fame, and before that on the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina as No. 207) for the 104-mile trip up to Knoxville on NS's ex-Southern main line, in the glory days the route of the Tennessean, Birmingham Special, and Pelican (of which I rode the latter two in 1965-66). It would have no diesel, and Dutch door photography was tolerated if you were discreet. This was a TVRM trip, not a Lexington event, and for those interested, a morning bus ride from our Knoxville downtown Hilton hotel to TVRM was provided, with bus pickup once the train reached Knoxville. This first photo is an early-morning view southwest from the Knoxville hotel, toward the University of Tennessee campus. The building in center toward the bottom, with the peaked roof, is the former L&N passenger station. Look closely and you'l see the L&N sign, preserved, at its right corner, the northwest corner of the structure. It was saved to be part of a key Expo display area when the city in 1982 hosted the big Knoxville International Energy Exposition. The Expo structures were on the former station tracks area to the south (left) of the head building. The only passenger train serving it in 1965-66 when I was at U.T. was an overnight remnant of the Flamingo between Cincinnati and Atlanta, one or two coaches behind a slew of head-end cars, on which I rode one round trip to Cincy and made one northbound-only ride from Atlanta to Knoxville.. The train came off a few years before Amtrak's start-up; the depot was on stub-end tracks from a wye off the main just north of the L&N's Tennessee River bridge west of downtown. |
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| The buses left mid-morning in order to be in Chattanooga in plenty of time for the train's noon departure. Don't ask me whom I handed my camera to for making the group portrait in the hotel lobby before we boarded the buses, but from left are this writer and my travel companions Chuck Weinstock of Pittsburgh (to my left) and Rick Moser of Naperville, Ill. (right), with fellow Lexingtonian Pete Stonitsch of Waukesha in between Chuck and Rick. |
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| TVRM's Grand Junction station is inside a wye, for turning locomotives, and has a number of nice pieces of rolling stock displayed between the parking lot and the depot. When our bus arrived, TVRM's Southern GP30 was hostling the passenger cars for our special. The TVRM property is just below and adjacent to NS's main line, and a westbound freight went by soon after I was out photographing. |
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| An important man behind all this was Bill Schafer, a long-time friend now retired from NS (he began with Southern Rwy.) and serving as TVRM's publicity manager. He and wife Linda live in Virginia Beach, but he makes frequent trips to Chattanooga. NS provided the cars for the special, as it was officially part of NS's "21st Century Steam" program; our consist was: coach 26 New York, coaches 28 and 29, both named Powhatan Arrow for their original train use, diner 19 Kentucky, and business car 21 West Virginia. |
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| Before 630 arrived from TVRM's East Chattanooga shop, toward the city, I shot a few items on display. As an Alco RS1 fan, it was nice to get a "double," with TVRM's ex-Army six-motor RS1 8669 and former Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay 913, lettered for its last owner, Hartford & Slocomb. Wabash caboose 2774 is far off-line, but of course in the NS family. |
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| Central of Georgia 4-4-0 349 is one of at least 5 CofG steam engines preserved, none of them large. |
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| By the by, No. 630 backed into the station area and turned on the wye, then coupled to our train. |
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| Soon we were ready to go, and after a photo line duly recorded the front end (there would be no photo stops en route), we departed at 12:12 p.m. |
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| Among my mileage-collector friends on board were Alan Butler of the Boston area (standing), retired from a PC-Conrail track supervisor career, and Clark Johnson, operator of dozens of rare-mileage trips thru his High Iron Travel Corp. |  |
| As we got rolling on the main line, we soon passed an ex-Southern SW1500 at work, and waiting on a connecting track was SD40-2 3462, about 12:25 p.m. |
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| Although it was a short train, I tried a few "vestibule shots" on curves. |
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| Since I would attend the Lexington meetings, during which papers and visual shows are presented, sans camera, I took the opportunity to photograph friends, many of them mileage-collectors, who were on board. You had to be a Lexington Group member to ride this train. |
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| Railroader Andrew Fox | Messrs. Weinstock, Ingles, Moser | Ron Goldfeder of St. Louis | |
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| As we neared Knoxville, we crossed Fort Loudon Lake, perhaps the "scenic highlight" of the ride. We arrived at the unloading point, a parking lot west of downtown in Knoxville at about MP 131.5, at 3:25 p.m., and eventually buses came by to take us back to the hotel. |
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