This is the eighth of a series of audio programs recorded while riding fan trips behind mainline steam locomotives.
Volume 8 was recorded on July 28, 1985, as Southern Railway 2-8-2 #4501 pulled a round trip excursion from Huntingburg to Evansville, Indiana, and return.
#4501 had originated the Southern Railway steam program in 1966, and had been in excursion service for nearly two decades when these recordings were made.
This trip was a homecoming of sorts for #4501. Huntingburg is located on the former Southern Railway mainline between Louisville, Kentucky, and East St. Louis, Illinois, and this line was the last #4501 was assigned to before her initial retirement by the Southern. It was in the dead line at Princeton, Indiana, that she was discovered by officials of the Kentucky & Tennessee shortline. It was her shortline career that led to her preservation and return to service.
This trip began on the mainline, with the train then taking a branch to reach Evansville. There is plenty of fast running over jointed rail, a few grades and some slow speed stack music from the venerable 2-8-2.
These are the sounds you don’t hear anymore, as even with today’s mainline excursions with #4501 you have welded rail and usually a diesel lending a hand. There is none of that here!
