A(nother) Knoxville Fable

Southern 2-8-0 No. 630 and executive Fs rest together at the end of Sunday's trip.

A special departs Knoxville's 1904 station.

View from NS theater car Buena Vista while rolling toward Knoxville along the French Broad River.

Knoxville, Tenn. – This is a story about the men and women who gathered in early November 2011 in this East Tennessee renaissance city to share their enthusiasm and passion for all things steel wheel on steel rail. To those of us who experienced this year’s annual meeting of the Lexington Group, an association of historians, journalists, and railroaders, it was nothing short of a magical. To those whose recollection extends back to August 1975, you’ll recall Trains Editor David P. Morgan’s description of the National Railway Historical Society convention in the same city that summer. Morgan titled his report in the November 1975 issue “A Knoxville Fable” about the fanatical devotion of railfans at the convention and the incredible effort of the two host railroads, the Southern and the Louisville & Nashville, to make the event possible. With apologies to Morgan, I’ll appropriate his title for this report and the theme to tell you about the Lexington Group’s amazing gathering that resonates across 36 years.

First, a personal aside. This year’s Lexington Group meeting had a deeply personal meaning for me. It was the chance to close the loop on a life-changing steam railroading experience that took place when I was not yet old enough to drive. The 1975 NRHS convention in Knoxville, the same one Morgan wrote about, was the site of my first Southern Railway steam excursion. I had seen Southern 4501 on her maiden voyage in 1966, but I had never ridden behind the famous Mikado. Until now. My parents took me to Knoxville to ride the green and gold legend on the coal branch to Jellico, Tenn., and return. At the time, I was a broken-hearted teenager, melancholy about railroading because my first love, the Shay-powered Graham County Railroad short line, had shut down in June.

The trip on the 4501, leaving from the classic 1904 Frank Milburn-designed depot in Knoxville, was the antidote that I needed. I spent the entire excursion riding on a wood bench seat in the open-sided coach Missionary Ridge so I could soak up the sounds of her eight-coupled drivers fighting their way across Copper Ridge and drown myself in her soot in Elk Valley and tunnel after tunnel. This also was the chance to meet two of my childhood heroes: Editor Morgan and Southern President W. Graham Claytor Jr. They were both on board the trip, and a friend who had worked on the Graham County, David Duncan, made sure to introduce me to the aloof Morgan.

This was before the days of collecting "rare mileage," and everyone bailed off at Jellico, but not me, and this resulted in my opportunity to meet the president of a Class I railroad for the first time. I stayed on board to ride as much of the trip as I could, and it turned out that we had to go onto L&N tracks to wye the train. At the junction of the two railroads, the train sat and sat and sat. During the lull, I got to shake hands with Claytor, who was not pleased about the train being delayed by the competition. In fact, the poor trainmaster assigned to the excursion was nervous as could be, and I ease-dropped on him during a radio conversation with the L&N dispatcher. It went something like this:

Southern TM: Hey, I need a favor. We’ve been here a while, and 600 people and the president of the Southern Railway are on this train. Can you get us moving?

L&N DS: I’ll get you on our railroad as soon as I can.

Long pause.

Southern TM: Look, if this train doesn’t move soon, there will be a whole lot of hell raised about this.

Longer pause.

L&N DS: I’ll see what I can do. I’ve got some trains to run.

Breathlessly long pause. Distant rumble, audible from an open Dutch door. Shortly a piggyback train behind a pair of L&N U30Cs roared by on the way to Atlanta. A few minutes later — after the L&N had shown that it was in charge, at least on this portion of the Southern's excursion — we finally moved.

All of this was heady stuff for me. My was depression lifted. But I was not prepared for what was to come some months later when Morgan’s Knoxville fable report came out. I was floored. Not only was an event that I attended was worthy of mention in Trains, but I also recognized a Kevin P. Keefe photo of a photo runby; my goodness, the photographer, was only a few paces away from me and my 110 Instamatic! I was thrilled.

So, that is the personal history of my initial fascination with railroad history and Knoxville. Now, let’s talk about what just happened that was of fable quality. First, more than 275 people gathered to discuss railroad history, to review the past, discuss the present, and speculate on what might be ahead. They talked about the old Chicago-Florida Southland passenger train; heard about plans for the northeast-southeastern intermodal lane, the Crescent Corridor; debated the merits of railroad construction in the mid-1800s.

Secondly, two railroads stepped forward to make sure that everyone stayed in touch with what is keenly important: the experience of being on a moving train. Southern successor Norfolk Southern was gracious, hosting a trip on board its executive train down the French Broad River gorge to Asheville. Gleaming tuxedoed F units pulled the 14-car consist, which included full-length dome Delaware and theater car Buena Vista. For mile after mile, passengers marveled at some of the most spectacular scenery in the southeast on this water-level route through the Appalachians. NS also sponsored a 30-mile roundtrip on its branch to Alcoa, Tenn., behind shortline Gulf & Ohio’s Southern 2-8-0 No. 154 outbound and Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s Southern 2-8-0 No. 630 on the return. CEO Wick Moorman addressed the group and worked the executive train, going car to car. On board, you could visit with executives of Class I railroads both past and present, from Conrail’s Jim Hagen and Amtrak’s Paul Reistrup to a host of others from NS and BNSF.

G&O also offered a steam trip on its line along the Knoxville waterfront, ending just past theconfluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers, where the Tennessee River begins. The signature event came at the end of the last day’s trip when 630 pulled alongside the executive Fs. It had been cloudy, but the day brightened substantially at the sight of these classics from another age resting side-by-side; railroading is not only serious business but also a fun business as well.

Over a span of 36 years, railroading has changed dramatically in positive ways. In 1975, Southern was a bright ray of hope in an otherwise dismal time for the industry. Today, the industry is doing great, and Norfolk Southern’s new 21st Century steam-powered public relations program is a bright ray of hope to those who want to see railroading appreciated by more people. What a great event to provide a preview of what is to come in 2012 and beyond that will win NS new friends.

So, thanks to a Class I railroad, a shortline holding company, and nearly 300 passionate enthusiasts, railroad history is alive and flourishing. Siderods gleamed, EMD assemblies roared, and varnish sparkled in the sun. The love of railroading has endured another two generations. A(nother) Knoxville fable has been born.