Steam miracle at East Chattanooga

After emergency repairs that lasted until 2 a.m., Southern No. 630 clears her cylinder cocks as she backs out of Soule Shops and onto her train bound for Knoxville, Tenn. Jim Wrinn photo

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — On Tuesday, I watched Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630 eat up mile after mile on the line from Chattanooga to Knoxville. The 1904 Consolidation’s run (with three coaches, diner Kentucky, and office car West Virginia) for the Lexington Group was effortless on this secondary main line in East Tennessee. The crew pushed the engine to its 40 mph speed limit and held it there, up and over one hill after another. But it almost didn’t happen. This is the story of the heroism that takes place behind the scenes to make the steam, the whistle, the bell, and the flailing rods possible in the early 21st century.

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s shop at East Chattanooga finished a major restoration on the engine last spring, and began operating it on the museum’s short preservation railroad. Norfolk Southern, which is using the engine as part of its new 21st Century Steam public relations program, offered use of its line to Cleveland for test runs. Throughout the spring, the railroad fine-tuned driving axle bearings that were running hot. With the running gear settled, the engine made a triumphant return Labor Day weekend on four 12-mile runs in the Chattanooga area. This Tuesday’s run for the group of historians and authors was to be the first long distance outing, so a lot was at stake.

But at 3:30 p.m. prior to running a dinner train on the Chickamauga & Chattooga for members of the Association of Railway Museums/Tourist Railway Association, the engine was sidelined with a broken leaf spring between drivers three and four on the fireman’s side. A diesel took over the dinner train, and No. 630 entered Soule Shops in East Chattanooga for work by 5 p.m. Throughout the evening and late into the night, a team of six dropped the fourth driver and replaced the broken spring with a new one. By 2 a.m., No. 630 was repaired, and at 10 a.m. the next morning, with auxiliary tender No. 51, she was ready to roll for Norfolk Southern’s invited guests. One of the TVRM team members described the emergency repairs that were made in less than 12 hours "like a NASCAR pit crew."

I like to think of it as a miracle in East Chattanooga.