Railfan Trip Reports > Nashville Trip; 10/17-22

My trip to Nashville began Wednesday afternoon, the 17th of October, at 3 p.m. I had to be at my employer’s factory near King that day and left straight from the factory.

I drove up US 52, I-74 and I-77 to Ft. Chiswell, VA. There, I turned south on I-81 to parallel NS’ Radford district to Bristol. The only action I heard on this line was a local near Abingdon.

Scanner chatter picked up in the Tri-Cities area, but nothing sounded worth the time of a diversion. I proceeded down I-81 and onto I-40 for the remainder of the trip. Passing through Knoxville, there was again a lot of chatter as I continued on.

By the time I reached Harriman, it was dark, and the scanner was quiet. I decided not to stop along the CNO&TP. I finally reached my hotel, the Fairfield Inn Nashville Airport, at 10:00 p.m. Central time—an eight-hour trip with three major stops and three refill-the-coffee-mug stops.

On Thursday, I began the day along the L&N double track between Maplewood and Amqui. Just after I got off the Briley Pkwy onto Gallatin Rd, I saw a northbound pig train passing through the Nashville National Cemetery. I moved to the crossings just south of the Amqui junction and hung around there for an hour or so while I munched on a McD’s breakfast. A northbound mixed freight, Q558, was stopped just south of one of the crossings, apparently for some emergency engine repairs. I then went back to the cemetery.

There is an excellent shot of L&N searchlights at a crossover just north of the cemetery. With the security concerns, I decided to ask permission. The request was declined: the director said he’d been asked the FBI and CSX police not to allow train photography from the grounds.

As Amqui was quite unphotogenic from the grade crossings, I chose to tour the Henderson subdivision. I was proceeding up Highway 41 through Hilltop when I heard a southbound nearby. I wandered over Hilltop looking for the south tunnel portal, but by the time I found it, the train was in Goodlettsville and beyond catching.

I proceeded back up 41 through Hilltop and Courtland to Springfield. I obtained sustenance at Subway and returned trackside at Baker’s, just below Hilltop. A southbound grain train, G134, passed as I ate. After lunch, I wandered about Goodlettsville for a bit and then struck out for Kentucky.

Returning to Springfield, I took a back road out of town along the line. Deep in the woods, I came upon a barn with doors propped closed and smoke oozing from it. At first I thought it was on fire, but then I realized they were fire-curing tobacco in it. Fire-cured tobacco is used in pipe tobacco, and Springfield tobaccos are the best. It smelled like a good barbecue joint.

I drove on out through Center Hill to Guthrie. At Guthrie, a northbound mixed was preparing to leave. I chased it to Trenton, where it went in the hole to meet a southbound pig train. It turned out to be Q558 from earlier in the morning. I shot the meet and tried to chase the pig train south. Slow farm equipment outside of Guthrie killed this. It was now late in the afternoon, and I decided to go back to Nashville. No trains were observed on the return. Wings, cold Bass and high moral tone were all then found at Hooters.

The Chattanooga sub was Friday’s target. I drove around the airport and got on US 41-70S, the Murfreesboro Pike. At Smyrna, I came upon Q237 making a pickup on its way south. I got a couple of shots and headed on.

In Murfreesboro, I turned onto US 231 and drove south for about five miles. I turned left onto County Farm Rd and began a backcountry ride to Tullahoma. Just south of Wartrace, I encountered a lit intermediate signal at Bugscuffle. I stopped, returned to Wartrace, waited, and saw a northbound coal empty go into the Wartrace siding. It was meeting the autorack train. I wasn’t going to get a shot of the meet as the headend of the coal train pulled out of sight, so I piddled on to Tullahoma.

At Tullahoma, I began to hear the progress of the Q237 southward. I waited and shot it at the north end of the Tullahoma siding. It was now lunch, and the NC enters town along its “strip”. Ruby Tuesday’s was adjacent to the tracks, so I ate there. The north end of the siding is visible from the left corner of the bar, and I saw Q127, a stack train, pass while I ate.

I drove trackside through Tullahoma and saw that the stack train had stopped in the siding. I got a couple of pictures of it as well as a B&O piggyback trailer being used as a maintenance shed.

I continued south along US 41A to Decherd and Cowan. At Cowan, I finally saw the northbound the stack was waiting on; it was Q126, northbound pigs. I then crossed Cumberland Mtn into the Crow Creek Valley. With the leaves beginning to turn, I thought the Crow Valley absolutely gorgeous. As I headed south, I met Q582. I turned around and shot it at Sherwood. Stevenson, Alabama, at the jct with NS’ Memphis district, was the next stop. At Stevenson, I saw two trains: Q127 again and Q580 headed north.

Returning up the valley, I followed Q580 and got it at the entrance to double track at Sherwood. I then returned to Cowan with a brief detour to Sewanee to see the University of the South. I spent the rest of the afternoon in Cowan and saw Q129.

There was no sign of an approaching southbound, so I took US 41A, US 231 and I 24 from Tullahoma to Shelbyville, Murfreesboro and Nashville. As I drove up 24, the Hooters’ girls at Harding Place beckoned as if Sirens, and, again, I succumbed.

Saturday’s plan was to hang around Nashville and check out the sites (and sights) there. I returned to the Cemetery and waited a short while with no results. I then checked out Maplewood (the overpass looked promising) and moved downtown. Kayne Ave had a lot of possibilities, but the best place was clearly posted by CSX. Transients frequented other vantage points, so I didn’t feel too comfortable in the area.

I next explored some of the areas around Radnor. Brentwood seemed a good place, but nothing was imminent. I was going back north on I 65 when I heard a stack train leaving Radnor going south. I returned to Brentwood, but it, Q127, was passing by. I chased south along TN 255, but slow drivers prevented me from getting ahead of it to shoot it. I chased all the way to Arrington, and then returned to Nashville.

Either I misunderstood one of the crews (my hearing sucks!) or Q127 took 2 different routes on consecutive days: down the NC on Friday and on the S&NA on Saturday (the Bull Sheet shows it as an S&NA train).

It was now lunchtime. I had read of a place called The Yellow Porch near 100 Oaks Mall. I enjoyed a nice lunch there with a view of the old Kayne-Radnor main. One train passed while I dined on artichoke puttanesca with bread and olive oil.

I piddled around West Nashville for a while and then decided to go west. I would check out the Bruceton subdivision. I hit US 70 at Newsom’s Station and followed the line all the way to New Johnsonville. There, Q529 was switching in the yard. I got a couple of shots of him in the yard and then got him coming off the Tennessee River bridge west of town. As I was preparing to go back to Nashville, I heard the local ask for permission to enter the main to go to Dupont. He was told to wait because Q126, a stack train to Memphis, was approaching. This train stopped at the bridge approach and, after what seemed like an interminable wait, proceeded across. I got it, too, exiting the bridge.

I returned to the hotel seeing no more trains. For dinner, I had nice steak-and-cheese at Darfon’s, a locally owned joint of the Applebee’s/Ruby Tuesday’s/Bennigan’s persuasion. It seemed to cater to the workers from the nearby airport; it was a very pleasant place.

On Sunday, I was torn between trying the Main Line sub to Louisville, revisiting the NC or going down the S&NA Lewisburg cut off. A tally of Q trains from the Bull Sheet (old copy) indicated the S&NA should be about as busy as the NC. Since I’d already done the NC, I chose the Lewisburg cutoff.

I headed back to Brentwood and caught two northbound mixeds there (couldn’t pick up the symbols). Brentwood is the jct of the Lewisburg cutoff and the old Nashville and Decatur via Franklin and Columbia (shortlined south of Columbia and abandoned south of Pulaski). It is also the place where WSM picked the sound of the southbound Pan-American every afternoon for broadcast across the South (my father remembers hearing it as a kid in the ‘30’s).

After eating my BK sausage biscuit, Q127 came along. I got a shot of it and headed south. Taking back roads along the line, I reached US 31A. At Holt’s Corner, the Q127 was stopped on the main. I got a shot of it, and in a few minutes, a northbound intermodal arrived and took the siding.

I proceeded south ahead of Q127. It passed me near Chapel Hill as I had taken some back roads to stay close to the tracks. In the future, I’ll stick to 31A.

The stack train met Q592 in Cornersville. I waited and got a shot of the northbound at the overpass just north of town. I returned to the road hoping to catch the stack train at Decatur. As I was going through Cornersville, I saw an approaching policeman pullover and turn on his lights. He pulled me for doing 47 in a 30. He released me with a polite warning.

This delay cost me as when I reached Decatur, the stack train was already passing over the bridge. Whilst in Decatur, I saw:

CSX Q682, northbound mixed
NS A80, local
CSX MofW northbound move
NS 734, eastbound Powder River coal with UP units including distributed power
NS 739, westbound Powder River empties with more UP power, head and tail
CSX local on the riverfront
NS ??, eastbound mixed
CSX Q574

I also got some good shots of barge and pleasure boat traffic on the river. The riverfront in Decatur is a great place to trainwatch. Decatur also marked a return to my “roots”: my ancestors floated down the Tennessee on a flatboat in the 1820’s to settle near Decatur.

After Q574 went north, I returned to Nashville on I-65. It was dark, and I was hungry. I had a chicken caesar wrap at Granite Falls and a couple of beers at the Blackstone brewpub. Both places were enjoyable.

I came home on Monday the 22nd via my original route. My first stop was for gas at Harriman, and NS 116 went by while I was there. It proved to be the last train of the trip.

Nashville was an excellent base for trainwatching, and the fall colors were near peak. But the number of trains I saw would no doubt disappoint diehards. I could certainly have seen more by staying in one place, particularly between Maplewood and Amqui. However, in addition to trainwatching, this was also a scouting trip for future visits and an indulgence of my desire to roadtrip.


D. Neil McClanahan, P.E.
Engineer & Scribe
Winston-Salem, NC
dneilmc@aol.com

I visited and rode the Cowan TN Pusher district three times in the mid 80's, last I heard they had bastardized it into a local, doing industry work between shoves or pulls over the mountain and thru the tunnel.

Any sign of them parked at Cowan, or heard on the radio? Or are they a thing of the past?

Pat Flynn
KC MO

Pat,

They were in action while I was there. They came down just behind Q126, and then they helped Q127 over the mountain. From what I could tell, they shut down if another southbound requiring help is not imminent.

Neil