September 12, 2015 – The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s Southern Railway 4501 returns to the station at the museum after turning on the wye at Citco Junction on Norfolk Southern’s mainline, during it’s return trip from Cleveland on the Norfolk Southern Mainline at Chattanooga, Tennessee with a loaded passenger train during 2015 Railfest.
4501 was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1911 for the Southern Railway, the 4501 was the first of its class on that railroad. The wheel arrangement is a 2-8-2, known as a Mikado since the first of this type were sold to Japan. 4501 served the Southern until the 1940s when the railroad began buying diesel locomotives and phasing out steam operations. It then then saw service on a small coal-hauling railroad in Kentucky. Since the mid-1960s, 4501 has pulled countless passenger excursion trains across the Southern (later Norfolk Southern) Railway. The 4501 ended its service in 1999 due to rising maintenance costs. However, with the start of Norfolk Southerns 21st Century Steam program, the 4501 returned to service this year.
Tech Info: 1/1250sec, f/7, ISO 250, Lens: Sigma 24-70 @ 24mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW.