Has there ever been an attempt to take the ex-Clinchfield 4-6-0 locomotive #99 away from the Casey Jones attraction at Jackson,Tenn? I would like to see it on the Great Smoky Mountains tourist rr or as an exhibit at the North Carolina Transportation museum.Maybe even a group in East Tennessee could form to acquire and rebuild it for use on the annual Santa Claus trains if by some small chance CSX would allow it.Maybe the city of Kingsport,Tenn merchants would fund such a venture to keep the Santa Train tradition alive.Please don't flame me, just a late night idea I wanted to throw out here.

WINK638@aol.com

> Has there ever been an attempt to take the
> ex-Clinchfield 4-6-0 locomotive #99 away
> from the Casey Jones attraction at
> Jackson,Tenn?

I don't know if anyone ever made an attempt to get the locomotive away from the Casey Jones folks, but I have notes here that say that the locomotive was evaluated as a possible restoration-to-operation candidate in the early 1980s, at which time it was reported to be prohibitively expensive to restore.

It has, apparently received a cosmetic restoration, and looks pretty good. Sorry I don't have more details. I take hideously poor notes sometimess.

Steam Locomotive Information

Interesting to note is that the former Black Mountain RR, later the Yancey RR after dieselization, was never removed after abandonment. Recently, a motorcar group began operating over part of it, but has apparently met with local resistance. Local property owners reportedly had some trackage bulldozed into a nearby waterway to stop the nuisance, which law enforcement would not punish. Besides No. 99, this line was also the last home of the famous "Clinchfield No. 1" 4-6-0 that later ran extensively, and briefly hosted a tourist RR, using an ex-BEDT 0-6-0 in the 1960s.

> I don't know if anyone ever made an attempt
> to get the locomotive away from the Casey
> Jones folks, but I have notes here that say
> that the locomotive was evaluated as a
> possible restoration-to-operation candidate
> in the early 1980s, at which time it was
> reported to be prohibitively expensive to
> restore.

> It has, apparently received a cosmetic
> restoration, and looks pretty good. Sorry I
> don't have more details. I take hideously
> poor notes sometimess.


Yancey RR discussion
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