During the weekend of November 14 and 15, 2015, the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga ran a pair of doubleheaded steam excursions from the museum’s Grand Junction station down the former Central Of Georgia mainline to Summerville, Georgia. Leading the train was Southern Railway 2-8-0 #630 with Southern 2-8-2 #4501 trailing.
#630 was built by the Richmond works of the American Locomotive Company in 1904. The Ks-1 Consolidation served the railroad until 1952, when it was sold to the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina in Johnston City, Tennessee, where it was renumbered 207. The locomotive rejoined the Southern’s roster for excursion service in 1967, and operated until 1983. It was then loaned to the Tennessee Valley where it operated until 1989. #630 returned to service after an extensive rebuild in 2011.
#4501 was the Southern’s first Mikado, built by Baldwin in 1911. She served around the Southern’s system until her retirement in 1948, when she was purchased by the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway in Stearns, Kentucky. She ran there until 1963, when she was purchased for the fledgling Tennessee Valley by Paul Merriman. She was overhauled in Chattanooga before being leased by the Southern Railway for excursion service. She ran on the Southern and successor Norfolk Southern from 1966 to 1993, and continued operating for the Tennessee Valley until she was taken out of service in need of an overhaul in 1998. She returned to service in 2014.
We arrived in Chattanooga on Friday the 13th to wire #630 for sound. The right side microphone was placed on the engineer’s side running board below the sand box, aimed forward to capture the exhaust coming from the stack. The left side microphone was placed at the rear of #630’s tender, angled upward to the rear to capture the exhaust and sound of #4501.
Track 1 - Saturday morning, #630 and #4501 take turns whistling off and depart Grand Junction. The train makes its best speed of the day on the Tennessee Valley’s mainline before plunging through Whiteside Tunnel. - 7:00
Track 2 - Southbound south of Lafayette, Georgia, the track roughly follows the Chattooga River for several miles. #630 blows for a private crossing before starting into a short grade. After topping the half-mile grade, the train drops downhill for a third of a mile before the terrain flattens out. After another quarter-mile, the track climbs away from the river on a mile-long grade that crests just before crossing Ridgeway Road. - 9:40
Track 3 - Now northbound, the train climbs to the same crest of the hill in the previous track as the railroad climbs away from Cane Creek. The mile-and-a-quarter long grade approaches 0.75%. - 6:00
Track 4 - On Sunday morning, the train made an unscheduled stop at Rossville, Georgia. The engines whistle off, and then begin the southbound assault of Missionary Ridge Grade. The train slows for a slow-order as it passes under the Battlefield Parkway and crosses an overpass before resuming the climb up the grade that approaches 0.75%. - 18:00
Track 5 - The northbound Missionary Ridge Grade is nearly as steep as the southbound in the last track. After the first steep quarter-mile, the track dips down briefly before getting into the sustained grade. The train reaches the summit and then takes it easy through the slow orders before dropping downgrade into Rossville. - 30:00
Track 6 - Now after dark on Sunday evening, the engines get a run at the short but steep hill onto the Tennessee Valley’s mainline. Once on T.V.R.M. trackage, both engines slip before the train passes through Whiteside Tunnel and continues on to the end of the day’s run at the Grand Junction station. - 7:40
