Steam & Excursion > SR 4501 Coal Stop

Heading to Louisville in 1972, my wife and I took Amtrak's Floridian to Birmingham then the Southern Crescent to Atlanta then a Southern ferry trip to Louisville via the Rathole out of Chattanooga and Knoxville behind 4501. Along the way in southern Kentucky, the 4501 stopped for coal at a mine where it got a fresh load right out of the loader that normally loaded hopper cars. They just pulled into the mine's siding and loaded up. During the stop, the crew serviced the engine. It went the rest of the way to Louisville on that load of coal. It was hot and overcast that day but still a trip to remember.

In the second picture, you can see Bill Purdie at the extreme left, mostly obscured by a man he was talking to.

-JH

---

---

Panamerican99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the second picture, you can see Bill Purdie at
> the extreme left, mostly obscured by a man he was talking to.

And I believe that's Walter Dove in the gangway.

Interesting stop. This would have been Sunday, July 23, just a few weeks after the Saluda trip.

PS - if you had told me they had done this without pictures, I never would have believed it ;)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/12 09:47 by johnacraft.

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

John Troxler

Great historic photos of SOU 4501 Jim; can't wait till she hits the rails again!

Jack Bejna
Los Angeles, CA

It's good to know that all the rail equipment in this photo, as far as I know, is still around. 4501 at Tennessee
Valley Railroad Museum; the Man O' War, I believe, went to the Western Maryland; the canteen may be at TVRM if that's WT-51 but all of the canteens were saved afik. Thanks for posting. Mr. Herron, don't you wish you could go back and do it again?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/12 20:00 by AdamPhillips.

Yes, the Man O' War is at WMSR. Along with with 1 other N&W coach (541?) and 2 of the Southern cars (one has since gone to KRM).

Mr. Herron, don't you wish you could go back and do it again?

I plan to when 4501 gets rolling again! But it won't quite be the same without Bill and Sarah Purdie.
-JH

What may be most missed is the conveyor-equipped gon to assist in coaling on the road...an interesting piece of Southern ingenuity that really helped keep things moving. Have a few slides of it in action somewhere; sometimes it would be tucked behind the tender(s) on ferry trips.

--Mike