Speaking of the Knoxville World's Fair, I remember a newspaper article I think in 1980 that spoke of a plan for a tourist steam train from Bristol to Knoxville using CB&Q 4960. 4960 was on the Bristol & Northwestern then. I think the idea was that hotel rooms around Knoxville would be hard to find and fair visitors would "commute" from Bristol. Apparently the plan was short lived or not even discussed with Southern Railway over whose tracks would be used. I never heard anything else about this again with nothing in the railfan press about it. I guess it was good that it never happened because the increased demand for hotel rooms was non existant during the fair.

Believe the NYC Mohawk was one of the locos checked out but the Frisco was in better shape and also likely had more of a local hook (although the NYC did have minimal passenger service into STL at the end).