Visiting an Old Friend at the TVRM

Since my parents retired and moved to Tennessee last October, we haven't been sure how often we'd be able to visit. We got down there around last Christmas though, and while there the Missus saw a brochure for a "Railfest" which was going to take place in September, 2015. I'd never heard of this event - and had only a very passing knowledge of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Could we swing another visit to Tennessee within 9 months? Well, you know the answer. But it wasn't until the event got closer and I got more details that I realized this trip would actually be a homecoming in more ways than one.

You see, while the flashpoint for my getting into model railroading and railroads in general was Christmas 1982 (another story for another time), my earliest memory of a train occurred sometime in the summer of 1973. The Southern Railway's 2-8-2 Mikado #4501 was doing some mainline fantrips in Indiana that year and since we lived not too far away in Louisville, KY my parents took me to see the train. I don't know whether I have actual memories of seeing the photo runbys or if I'm just recollecting the old Instamatic snapshots of the day, but I do have a distinct memory of riding the train itself (and there are no photos of that).

Me and my dad

The best photo-runby shot of the lot

Well, the 4501 and I have traveled very divergent paths over the last 40+ years, but as I looked over the Railfest details in the weeks leading up to our trip down South, I discovered that we'd be meeting again. Not only would the 4501 be headlining the event(!), but my dad would be going with me to see her again after all these years.

Restored station we saw somewhere between Knoxville and Chattanooga

The weather forecast all week had been for rain, so I didn't bother getting tickets ahead of time. Thankfully, as you can see from the photos, the day turned out to be gorgeous! And while there was a line to get in, it didn't take us that long.

There was definitely plenty to see.

Between all the exhibits, the model railroads inside the station/museum building, and the actual mainline freight traffic, we were able to spend an entire day without getting these slightest bit bored.

The above is the first shot I got of the 4501 before it departed for its first of two trips of the day. The Norfolk Southern mainline is there in the background. Visiting from New England, I couldn't believe how many freight trains there were.

Hello old friend....

As impressive as the locomotive was (and it was, for sure), the train itself wasn't anything to sneeze at. Here's a beautiful boattail observation car bringing up the rear, just as it's supposed to.

Each time the 4501 departed, it had to nose out onto the main, then backup west past the signal and wait til the signal turned green. The above shot was taken from the tower/station as the train was backing.

And she's off! Once the train got the signal, it was two blasts of the whistle and full throttle out (being careful not to slip the drivers). The display was pretty amazing, as you can see.

Once the steam train left, we roamed around the display yard some more. Here are two special locomotives that NS donated for the day.

More mainline action

This is the regular TVRM excursion train that goes through a tunnel through Missionary Ridge.

After enjoying roaming around all the cool displays, 4501 returned for her 2nd and last trip of the day. It was much harder to get shots of her (more people, more - ahem - security) but persistence prevailed.

And I got the main shot I was hoping to get:

Once everybody was aboard, we said goodbye to the 4501 for now... but this time, I got some video:

Before we left Chattanooga, we made a quick stop at the NS yard:

Repair shops

So THIS is where all those freight trains are coming from...

Final shot of the day, looking west with Lookout Mountain in the background

We'd be leaving TN the next day, so this was a more-than-fitting end to our trip: Amazing weather, amazing trains, and a wonderful time with my dad visiting an old friend from over 40 years ago.

Cookeville & Crossville, TN

More railroad-related sites from the Cumberland Plateau . . .

The Tennesee Central Railroad station at Crossvilee, TN

Some history of the railroad in Cookeville, TN

Cookeville Station

In addition to the station, which contains a cool museum of local railroad interest and a model railroad of the town, there's a TC loco and caboose displayed outside...

 And, across the street from the station, this cool sign (and the ice cream parlor underneath the sign is a definite must-do!)

Do you know the way to Monterey? (and Nashville)

Continuing our whirlwind tour of RR-related places we discovered during our family visit down South...

We decided to head over to Nashville next - the Missus wanted to see Cheekwood Gardens and I figured, if nothing else, the passenger station might still be around to see (not to mention maybe some freight yards). As luck would have it, along the way we saw a sign for "Monterey Railroad Museum" and got off the highway for a few minutes...

Here's the station at Monterey, TN on the Old Tennessee Central. This building is actually a reproduction of the original but built on the same footprint.

Downtown Monterey looks very model-railroady, with this cool old hotel right near the station.

AH! And once inside the station/museum, you see that art imitates life! In addition to many railroad artifacts and displays, there was this cool model railroad which included an HO scale version of the town.

During its heyday, Monterey was quite a busy railroad town, with a branchline heading off for the coal mines and an engine servicing facility as well. That concrete sentinel in the photo above is what remains of the coaling tower.

And what railroad museum would be complete without a caboose on display?

While talking to the very friendly and informative folks at the station/museum, I discovered that Monterey is currently the end-of-the-line from Nashville - and the line only comes up this far in order to serve a quarry just outside of town (using that old coal branch). The line was upgraded a few years back in anticipation of a booming economy that would require daily trains. Alas, the bottom fell out of those plans and now the line is served on average about once per week - usually on Tuesdays. And we were there on a Wednesday.

But as luck would have it, not only did the sun come out to brighten an otherwise dreary day, but the Nashville & Eastern (current operator of the line) came out to service the mine on an off (for them) day!

Talk about lucky! Sorry the videos got cut off a bit. One of the hazards of using my phone exclusively for video and photos (shame on me!) is that I have to be careful with storage space. So I was being a little bit (too) frugal on the footage.

After our little sidetrip (which took a good deal longer than first expected, but for good reason!), I figured I'd had my fun for the day. But there was more to come!

The weather had been pretty sketchy so far that day and when we got to Nashville and the torrent opened up, we feared our visit to the gardens would be a washout. We weathered the storm at Nashville's famous Pancake Pantry (holy-varieties-of-pancakes, batman!) and by the time we'd finished, the sky had cleared.

The gardens and grounds were amazing (not to mention the house, which was built by the Folger's coffee family - "Good to the Last Drop" indeed!), but since this is a railroad blog, you'll want to see what you get when you combine gardens with railroads. You guessed it! A Garden Railroad!

But as you can see in the photos, this isn't your typical garden railroad...

Everything's made with natural indigenous materials and I'm told all the buildings depict actual prototype buildings of significance in Tennessee. I could have sat mesmerized, watching the trains for hours. But there was a lot more to see of the grounds and house - and we wanted to see the Nashville Union Station before it got dark . . .

Considering the time, I was actually going to pass on seeing the station this trip - but that was before the Missus had gotten on the 'net and told me a bit about what to expect. Apparently, the station had been remodeled and repurposed into a luxury hotel. The pics show how beautiful a facility it is today - and a true reflection of its as-built grandeur!

I got this shot from the balcony of the hotel's restaurant. As you can tell, there's plenty of railroad action to see. Just off the right edge of the photo was where the passenger train sheds used to be.

These cars are stranded near the building where the Folger's folks got their start (tying everything back together again).

Better view of the yards where the trainshed used to be. The station is just off the left of this photo.

Final photo, having panned left from the previous shot. What a Grand Dame of a station!

With nighfall fast approaching - and wanting to get back to my parents' place in time for dinner, we got Siri to get us out of town as quick as possible - despite the fact it was now rush hour (forgot it was a weekday - funny how vacation can cause you to lose track of time). But on our way out, we made a note of one thing we'll I'll definitely want to see next time we visit . . .

We'll be back . . .

You've heard the saying "a river runs through it" - well, in the case of many of the towns we saw during our trip, The Tennessee Central Railroad runs through it them. Not only did it go through my parents' town of Crossville, but went through Cookeville as well - two towns we'll visit in the next post...