Tennessee Trips – Jim and April's Roadtrips

Chattanooga Trip with Jim

May 29, 2024 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

Well, I guess it’s about time I posted something on my 5 day train chasing trip to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum at Chattanooga, TN and points between!

I’ve been trying to do this trip for a couple months now, but due to the museum having issues with getting their Southern Railway 630 locomotive up and running for the new season, it didn’t happen when I had planned, so the trip got postponed a few times. I finally hit the road on April 26th and got back home to Kentucky on April 30th. I caught a lot of steam action on SR 630 and also on the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision and the Norfolk Southern CNO&TP District. I’ve not really railfanned the Chattanooga Sub much at all and never done so on the CNO&TP District so both were pretty much new territory for me!

On day one I spent making my way from Nashville to Chattanooga, TN on the Chattanooga Sub and thanks to the help of Reed Redding on spots to check out I was able to catch several photos of the line that I’m very happy with. Below are a couple of my favorites from this stretch of the trip. If you’d like to see more from this subdivision then visit this link to my photography website.

Loaded Coal train CSX 904 passes the old Spanish style depot at Bridgeport, Alabama as it heads south on the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision, on April26th, 2024.

Loaded Coal train CSX 904 passes the old depot at Tullahoma, Tennessee, as it heads south on the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision, on April 26th, 2024.

Then for two days, with fellow railfans Bryan Burton and Dak Dillon, I spent chasing the Southern Railway Steam locomotive 630 and Thomas the Tank Engine on many runs between Grand Junction in West Chattanooga to East Chattanooga and back. It’s not really a very long run, but there’s several good spots to capture these trains in operation, which you can see from the photos below. Here’s also another link where you can view other images from this and past trips to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, which I highly recommend!

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s steam locomotive Southern Railway 630 departs Grand Junction at West Chattanooga as it heads to East Chattanooga, Tennessee with the daily local, on April 27th, 2024.

The Iconic Thomas the Tank Engine leads a passenger train over the Chickamauga Creek Bridge as it heads to Grand Junction at West Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 27th, 2024.

Now, the last part of my trip was along the Norfolk Southern CNO&TP District and this was pretty much all new territory for me. It was a very successful trip thanks to the help of two fellow railfans, Andrew Stephenson and Matt Murphy!

For this leg of the trip I started out on the afternoon of April 28th and railfanned the district till the evening of April 30th, when I made my way home! I think this trip was one of the most successful 3 days of railfanning on Norfolk Southern that I’ve had in a long time, if not forever! An outstanding trip and caught a lot of action in interesting locations! Below are again a couple of my favorites and here’s a link to more!

A trio of Norfolk Southern engines lead NS 168 as they make their way across the New River Bridge northbound on the NS CNO&TP (Rathole) Subdivision at New River, Tennessee. On April 29th, 2024.

Norfolk Southern 890 passes the old mine loadout at Revilo outside Sterns, Kentucky as they head southbound with a load of coal on the NS CNO&TP (Rathole) Subdivision, on April 29th, 2024. The coal was picked up at Warrior Coal mine on the Paducah and Louisville Railway, outside of Nebo, Kentucky and is headed for the TVA power plant at Kingston, Ky under stormy skies.

So, what’s coming up for me down the road? My next planned trip is to southern California to visit friends in September and my plan is to revisit my old stomping grounds in the Cajon Pass and Tehachapi mountains in the central part of the state. Stay tuned!

The Steam Chasers in Nashville, Tennessee

March 16, 2019 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

I have a core group of about 4 railfan friends; Ryan, Dave, Bill and Bryan, that I hit the road with. This weekend was the first time since a steam train trip to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga back in 2017, that we all five have been on a trip together and we had a great time despite the overcast, dreary and raining weather.

On Saturday March, 9th, 2019 the five of us made a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to see the movement of the NC&StL Steam locomotive at Union Station in downtown Nashville, Tennessee as part of it’s movement by CSX Transportation with it’s renumbered CSXT 576 unit.

After several hours on display the locomotive was then towed on its own wheels to the restoration facility at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum, where it will undergo and estimated two years of restoration. The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company operated in the southern United States in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville in December 11, 1845, built to 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee. By the turn of the twentieth century, the NC&StL grew into one of the most important railway systems in the southern United States.

The plan is to run 576 in excursion service out of Nashville once the repairs are complete. Below is a live video I did from Union Station.