The thread below reminded me of something that I've wondered about a few times.

Southern Railway didn't keep any real records of the first years of its steam excursions - some time after 1971 Jim Bistline started to keep records, and put together an incomplete list of previous moves. Jim Wrinn and I took Bistline's records and put it together with other information to flesh out the chronicle (much of it is published in part in Jim's book "Steam's Camelot," but for space reasons many ferry moves aren't listed).

We know there are errors and omissions. One in particular that bugs me is that I distinctly remember seeing a steam locomotive in my home town when very young (around '67 or '68). I recall being in the cab, carried by my father (no doubt to keep me from damaging the locomotive), and the crew playing the "firedoor treadle game."

Yet the first record of steam between Birmingham and Meridian is 4472 in 1969 (that wasn't it - no British accents, and 4472 doesn't have an air-actuated firedoor), and 722 in March 1971 (when I would have been 8, a bit old to have a memory of being held in my dad's arms).

Two possibilities exist: that 4501 ran from Birmingham to York, AL or Meridian, MS between 24 July and 24 November 1967. Or 630 might have made a similar trip in the fall of 1968.

Can anyone out there help me? Is this the product of a child's overactive imagination?

JAC

I think it had to be 4501 or maybe 750. Was 630 active at that time? And 722 made it's first appearance at the NRHS Convention at Charleston in 1970. 4501 began running in 1966.

-Jim Herron

> The thread below reminded me of something
> that I've wondered about a few times.

> Two possibilities exist: that 4501 ran from
> Birmingham to York, AL or Meridian, MS
> between 24 July and 24 November 1967. Or 630
> might have made a similar trip in the fall
> of 1968.

> Can anyone out there help me? Is this the
> product of a child's overactive imagination?

> JAC



hrvideo@mindspring.com

I apologize for the previous photo of IC 2613. I didn't realize it was in the message.


hrvideo@mindspring.com

> I apologize for the previous photo of IC
> 2613. I didn't realize it was in the
> message.

Jim,

Absolutely no apologies necessary! Loved the picture.

Todd


TKMSMullens@wmconnect.com

Jim,

The pic of 2613 intrigues me. I saw that engine at Union Station in Nashville one night. It had 2 L&N diesels behind it and a long string of coaches. It was dark and I was a kid, so the only photo I have is a newspaper clip from the next morning's paper. It was a commemorative special for L&N. Could that be the same train? Seems like the buzz on the platform was that they ran out of coal, hence the diesels. Thanks for rekindling the memory.

JWC

that other Chattanooga website
mail@steamvalley.com

John-

Yes, IC 2613 was at Nashville Union Station on the evening of Oct 27, 1959 while pulling the L&N's 100th Anniversary Special from Louisville. Since L&N had no operable steam power by then, they "borrowed" the 2613 for the occasion. The engine ran out of coal at Gallatin, TN after receiving coal at Bowling Green, Ky. L&N officials cut off the coaling procedure too soon and there was not enough to make it to Nashville. The diesels had followed the train as protection power from Louisville.

Initially, L&N officials wanted to sidetrack the 2613 at Gallatin and continue the trip with diesels however the IC has sent it's Louisvile roundhouse superintendant Jimmy Dobbins along. Mr. Dobbins insisted on taking the engine into Nashville and rebuilding the fire and running it back to Louisville. He wasn't going to allow the L&N to leave his engine on a rural siding by itself. So, the train was pulled to Nashville by the diesels and the 2613 was sent to Radnor roundhouse where coal was delivered and the fire was re-built. The train arrived back in Louisville at 3 am, 5 hours late.
En- route back to Louisville, the big engine took it's 14 car train over 80 mph several times. It was the first main line excursion I rode.

-JH

hrvideo@mindspring.com

I think 4501 also ran a trip in the 1970s from Louisville to Nashville. Besides those two trips, I don't think there has been a steam excursion on the L&N's "main stem" for quite a while. L&N 152 has only made it as far south as Lebanon Junction on the line.

david.wilkins@inisightbb.com

> I think 4501 also ran a trip in the 1970s
> from Louisville to Nashville.

Perhaps you're thinking of the April 1980 visit 4501 made to Nashville for the city's Bicentennial. It ran from Chattanooga to Nashville, then ran four trips to Columbia, TN, and back (out one way, back the other as I recall). It then ran back to Chattanooga.

JAC

> I think 4501 also ran a trip in the 1970s
> from Louisville to Nashville. Besides those
> two trips, I don't think there has been a
> steam excursion on the L&N's "main
> stem" for quite a while. L&N 152
> has only made it as far south as Lebanon
> Junction on the line.

Jim,
I would be most interested in seeing any kind of documentation of a Louisville/Nashville 4501 trip. That would be one that escaped my research at TVRM. And a photo of the engine going through a station on the line would seal it. Must admit I have not heard that before. There was a 4501 trip to Nashville in 1980, but it was from Chattanooga.

JWC

that other Chattanooga website
mail@steamvalley.com