Enjoy this blog I wrote about the most famous excursion Mikado of our time.
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I did enjoy it! All good!
Wow! with all these improvements, is anything left of the original engine beside the road number? What really struck me is the addition of a mechanical stoker, and I thought of the two firemen who kept 722 hot when she led the other Consolidation and a train of coaches from Atlanta to Birmingham in December of 1970. I did ride behind 4501 several times, in excursions out of Birmingham, but I never had the opportunity to ride her.
Thanks, Jim and Ed, for providing this information.
Thanks, Jim for sharing your Blog Here.
Here is one of my most favorite memories ( NOT my Picture [
] But of 4501 on Saluda in 1972)
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=343084&nseq=5
Adj. Link http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=343084
(Thanks, Semper Vaporo! )
In the 1970’s we were fortunate to have been able to have had the 4501 come to the Memphis area and pull several trips between Memphis, Tn, and Corinth, Ms. under the Memphis Transportation Museum, Southern Rwy, and LeBonheur Hospital as 'The Sentimental Journeys’.
Am looking forward to see 4501 back in steam, again. [tup]
Back in August of 1994, my son and I were returning from visiting my mother in Florida. We had stopped at a rest stop and I picked up some tourist advertising brochures. One of which advertised the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and it pointed out that you could ride a train from one end of the museum track to the Museum Shops a few miles away and YOU COULD TAKE A SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR OF THE SHOPS.(Pardon my emphasis there, the reason will be apparent soon).
We stopped at the Museum grounds and depot at the north end and signage encouraged us to climb into the cabs of several different engines on display. We wandered all over them. FUN!
When the train arrived from the south, the engineer invited my son into the cab (I was sure jealous and my son sure gloated! hee hee hee!) My son then climbed down and we boarded one of the passenger cars.
We took the train south, through Missionary Ridge Tunnel, to the Museum Shops. There we watched as the engine was turned on the turntable, ran around the train to couple onto the other end and we watched it leave, so we could go take the tour of the shops… I was a bit surprised that we seemed to be the only people doing so.
We went down a nice concrete walkway to the shop buildings and there in the middle of the walkway, just outside the buildings was a sign:
Authorized Personnel
Only
No Admittance
to the Public
NO TRESPASSING!
Hmmmmm… That is NOT what the brochure said!
We looked around for something to do until the train came back and found several rows of various freight cars on parallel tracks with nice concrete walkways between them (on the depot side of that infernal sign!).
Several of the cars had signs
Link didn’t work for me… is this right?:
You know something is WRONG with the forum software when the Editor of the magazine (d’Boss) can’t post a ‘hot link’. [:(]