Global InformationSouthern Railway 4501 information
| Southern Railway 4501 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Southern Railway No. 4501 at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's Grand Junction Station in late August 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Southern Railway 4501 is a preserved Ms class 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotive built in October 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the first of its wheel arrangement type for the Southern Railway (SOU). In 1948, the locomotive was retired from the Southern Railway in favor of dieselization and was subsequently sold to the shortline Kentucky and Tennessee Railway (K&T) in Stearns, Kentucky, to haul coal trains.
When the K&T was dieselized in 1964, No. 4501 was purchased by a railfan named Paul H. Merriman with $5,000 of his own money and brought to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Shortly thereafter, it was returned to steam for main line excursion service on the Southern's steam program started by the railroad's president, W. Graham Claytor Jr. in 1966 through Merriman's 4501 Corporation.
Repainted in Southern's passenger Virginian green and gold paint scheme, No. 4501 operated as the main line steam excursion star of Southern's steam program until being replaced by larger steam locomotives in 1985. The locomotive returned to mainline excursion service in 1990 until 1994, when Southern's successor, Norfolk Southern discontinued the steam program due to rising insurance costs and decreasing rail network availability.
No. 4501 continued to operate for the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Merriman was a founding member of TVRM, alongside Robert "Bob" Soule, and eventually handed 4501 over from his personal property to museum property. Repainted into its original freight black livery in 1996, the locomotive was retired when its boiler ticket certificate expired in 1998.
With the upcoming of Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam Program and the success of TVRM's Southern Railway 630, the restoration on No. 4501 began in 2012 and was completed in 2014, with period upgrades such as a feedwater heater and mechanical stoker added in which most of 4501's contemporaries received in the 1940s, but the locomotive itself never received. No. 4501 currently operates in tourist excursion service at TVRM, traditionally on the longer trips to Summerville, Georgia, throughout the year and TVRM's Missionary Ridge Local and Evening Ridge Runner excursions as needed during the weekends.
- ^ Carver, M.A. (September 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form – Mikado Locomotive No. 4501". National Park Service. Archived from the original on February 24, 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
- ^ Wrinn (2000), pp. 4–7.