Southern Railway 4501

Southern Railway 4501 is a 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotive built in 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Railway. As the very first of that wheel arrangement the railroad owned, 4501 served the Southern Railway hauling freight until being retired in 1966. Today the locomotive operates in tourist and mainline excursion service for its owner the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

History

4501 worked on many different divisions of the Southern Railway system from 1911 to 1948; first in Tennessee, then Virginia, Kentucky, and finally Indiana. In 1948 the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway purchased the locomotive and renumbered it as their #12. When #12 was retired by the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway in 1963, a railfan, Paul H. Merriman, bought the locomotive for The 4501 Corporation with $5,000 of his own money, and restored it for excursion use on the Southern Railway System. In 1964, after running to Chattanooga from the K&T in Stearns, Kentucky, an initial restoration was done by Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) (which Merriman founded with Bob Soule) volunteers at the facilities of the Lucey Boiler Company in Chattanooga, just blocks away from TVRM's storage facilities, which were at the time located on the former Western Union Company tracks.

1966-1994 Excursion career

After the restoration was completed in 1966, the 4501 launched Southern Railway's full scale steam excursion program, and was repainted in the fictitious SOU Crescent Green livery in which W. Graham Claytor Jr. provided to dedicate to the Southern Railway Ps-4 class. In 1967, 4501's old Southern tender was replaced with a tender that holds 10,000 gallons of water and 16 tons of coal. It was once again replaced in 1969 for an ex-Central of Georgia tender that came from a train wreck. It carries 18 tons of coal and 13,000 gallons of water.

In 1973, 4501 found her way off the Southern Railway property for a series of excursion trips on the Illinois Central (IC), the Chicago and North Western (CNW), the Milwaukee Road (MILW), the Rock Island Line (RI), and of course the Norfolk & Western (NW).

However 4501 had a collapsed dry pipe and got it repaired to continue her excursion career. Then another failure occurred in April 11, 1981, her front flue sheet cracked in Lula, Georgia and was unable to continue running. 4501 was towed back to the Irondale Workshop in Birmingham, Alabama for a long term rebuild and continued to run in 1984.

In Nov 3, 1991, 4501 teamed up with the two Norfolk & Western superpower steam locomotives J Class #611 and A Class #1218 as triple headers to run an excursion from Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA during Norfolk Southern's 25th Anniversary of their Steam Program.^[1]

21st century operations

On October 29, 1994, Norfolk Southern announced that they will end their steam program in December 7 of that year due to freight traffic that made no room on the main line to some run special steam excursions.^[2] Many of the excursion steam locomotives were sent back home to their respective museums while 4501 was sent back home to the TVRM to run the some light passenger train excursions. In 1996, the locomotive was repainted back to its original black livery to match its historical accuracy during TVRM's 35th anniversary until being retired for its boiler flue ticket expire on September 20, 1998.

4501 on display at TVRM's Soule Shops in March 2006 before being restored eight years later to operating condition once again in September 2014.

In 2008, the locomotive was stripped down for a complete boiler inspection. In June 2010, Norfolk Southern announced they would run excursions with 4501, Southern Railway 630, and U.S. Army 610, with their new 21st Century Steam program. In 2011, Southern 630 returned to service pulling tourist trains for TVRM and some of the first mainline excursion trips for the 21st Century Steam program. With 630 in operating condition, the restoration of 4501 began in 2012.

4501 being restored in April 13, 2013.

On January 8, 2014, TVRM announced on their Facebook page by posting a picture of 4501 passed its FRA hydro test, and that all of its wheels were placed back underneath it. As well as the grates and ash pan have also been replaced.^[3]

In March 6, 2014, a static steam test was performed and the 4501 passed all FRA certification.^[4] In mid August 2014, the locomotive was repainted just before restoration was completed. Per Trains Magazine and TVRM, 4501 made its first test runs on September 4 and 5 and pulled trains for TVRM's 2014 "Railfest" on September 6 and 7.

In May 1, 2015, 4501 became the first steam locomotive to operate in the 21st Century Steam program in 2015 when the locomotive returned to the mainline network for the first time in 21 years for a test run from Chattanooga to Cleveland, Tennessee and return on the Norfolk Southern trackage. Afterwards it was confirmed the locomotive was in top mechanical condition for mainline service.

In June 26, 2015, 4501 ran the Radford Rambler excursion from Bristol, Virginia to Radford, Virginia. In June 27, the locomotive pulled the Lonesome Pine Special excursion from Bristol, Tennessee to Bulls Gap, Tennessee and ran the Radford Rambler excursion again in June 28.^[5]

In September 12 & 13, 2015, 4501 ran an excursion from Chattanooga to Cleveland during TVRM's 2015 "Railfest". In September 26 & 27, 2015, the locomotive pulled the Nancy Hanks Special excursion from Macon, Georgia to Tennille, Georgia.^[6]

4501 was also planned to pull the Piedmont Limited excursion from Atlanta, Georgia to Toccoa, Georgia in October 3 & 4, 2015. But it was cancelled in October 1 due to the October 2015 North American storm complex hurricane.^[7]

As of 2016, the 4501 will stay at TVRM running some light passenger trains excursion such as the Missionary Ridge Local and the Summerville Steam Special.

Pop culture references

4501 is shown while under steam in the 1974 movie Ridin' the Rails: The Great American Train Story, starring Johnny Cash.

4501 appears several times in the 1978 movie Summer of My German Soldier, set in Georgia during World War II.

4501 was also used as the locomotive in the 1999 movie October Sky. Its role was a coal-hauling locomotive lettered for the more setting appropriate Norfolk and Western Railway and was shown several times in the film. A short clip of famed rail photographer O. Winston Link as the engineer shown in the abandoned spur-line scene. Link was particularly fond of Norfolk and Western locomotives.^[8]

The locomotive appeared in Johnny Cash's 2002 music video for the cover song "Hurt". About a minute into the video he is seen at the throttle of the locomotive.

The locomotive also starred in the 1976 television movie Eleanor and Franklin, which chronicles the life of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Modern upgrades

When the locomotive was restored for the second time in 2014 many upgrades were performed on the locomotive. The most obvious is the addition of reproduction Worthington SA feedwater heater. 4501 was sold before this upgrade could be performed, though her original cylinder castings had been replaced with new ones during her career to accommodate this upgrade. The Ms class Mikados that remained in service with Southern received a Worthington S-3½ feedwater heater and a coal stoker, the stoker addition was to comply with a Interstate Commerce Commission rule. 4501 did not receive a stoker during her time at Southern or the Kentucky & Tennessee due to an exemption clause in the ICC rule governing locomotive stoker requirements. A stoker was also added during this restoration, which was missed during her first career and she was often seen with several firemen riding on her coal pile during her past excursion career. Her boiler also received attention and was re-certified at 205 psi (1.41 MPa) a pressure increase of 5 psi (0.03 MPa) over her original operating pressure, the higher operating pressure also gives a small boost to tractive effort. This, combined with bearing, throttle, tender, and frame work, has brought her into her third career in the best shape of her life.^[9]

References

• Wrinn, Jim (2000). Steam's Camelot: Southern and Norfolk Southern Excursions in Color. TLC Publishing. ISBN 1-883089-56-5. 
• Drury, George H. (1993). Guide to North American Steam Locomotives. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0-89024-206-2. 
• Morgan, David P. (1968). Locomotive 4501. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing. 

External links

• And Then There Was One YouTube
• 4501's Blueprint Design Southern Railfan

Steam Locomotives of the Southern Railway
Passenger Locomotives	B (4-4-0) C (4-4-2) F (4-6-0) P (4-6-2) Ps-4 (4-6-2) Ts (4-8-2)
Freight and Switching Locomotives	A (various) D (2-6-0) E (4-6-0) G, H, I, J (2-8-0) K (2-8-0), Ls (2-8-8-2) Ms (2-8-2) (Ms-2) Ss (2-10-2)
Survivors	107 (G) 154 (G) 385 (H-4) 401 (H-4) 542 (J) 630 (Ks-1) 722 (Ks-1) 1401 (Ps-4) 1509 (A) 1643 (A-7) 4501 (Ms)