Following a weekend of successful Norfolk Southern Employee Appreciation Excursions, Southern 630 made a spirited run home today from Knoxville. She will not take to the mainline again until the Labor Day Weekend Railfest trips to Cleveland, TN, and return.

Personally, I am very pleased with the locomotive and crew performance during this adventure. Watching her drag about 1,200 tons (including the road slug set) at 40 mph today was enough to bring smiles to the faces of not only all of us but William J. Purdie and A. Paul Brock as well. She has finally fulfilled the role envisioned for her some 45 years ago.

PS - Keep an eye on YouTube. I am sure some videos of today's show will appear there soon.

A big Thank You to all involved!

Mike Tillger

Mr. Ray,
I would like to personally thank you and the TVRM staff for putting on a wonderful show with the 630. I got to watch the 630 come to Knoxville the past weekend, and it really was an awesome expierence. Also were the road slugs powered up for today's trip back to Chattanooga.
Thanks to you Mr. Ray and all who were involved in this excursion, and feel free to pass on my thanks to all involved at TVRM and NS. I hope to see you guys trackside in the near future.

Thanks Mike and dwtrainman. We all need to thank Norfolk Southern and the Norfolk Southern Foundation for making this happen. A lot of other TVRM people were also involved in staffing the train as well (I was one of them). It's been a great effort so far and we're all looking forward to Birmingham in September!

The road slug set was rather quiet for the 3/4 of the trip. The first big assist that I noted was coming up White Oak Mountain (at McDonald, TN) and the dismals appeared to be adding just enough power to maintain track speed.

When I saw her at Cleveland the diesels sounded like they were in idle.

Passing the newly-restored depot in Cleveland, Tennessee....

Were you driving the PT Cruiser?

Not when I took the photo...