One of my prized possessions is a two page reply from him in 1977. I had written asking about future(I was in high school) employment with Southern and noticing the bicentenial decal had been removed from the picture on the 1977 calendar. My dad shot a home movie of a 4501 fan trip in Alexandria, VA, and filmed me chatting up Mr. Claytor as we walked along. I have the letter framed under a copy of Robert Wests' painting "Christmas Morning," showing the Southern Crescent in a snowy scene north of Atlanta. I met robert West in Ogden at Spike 150 and he was thrilled to meet a fan and loved the letter under his print. Small world! Trying to figure out how to post thumbnails of the pictures on here.
Nope. They owned 17 E8As. Some went to NJ Transit, others went to private owners. I am not aware of any railroad other than NJT buying them. Amtrak had leased some of Southerns" FP7s after the Piedmont went away after Thanksgiving weekend 1976. They were used on trains out of Seattle for a year or so. Some Youtube videos (Lee Witten, Amtrak rainbow to bilevels)show them paired with E8s.
"If Graham Claytor was still alive..."
Oh yeah, the Old Man was formidable. It was no surprise to me the Norfolk-Southern cancelled their steam program in 1994 when Graham Claytor died, I don't think they even waited until the body was cold!
There's no doubt in my mind he still had a lot of pull in the company and kept the program going when others wanted it gone.
Are any of those engines mentioned B units? (I'm thinking not.)
Yup, some railroad down in the Southeast would need to host. It is so tantalizing, they are all relatively close to each other. No one thought a Big Boy would run again, but my wife and I went to Ogden in May and saw the impossible. Granted, UP had the will and the resources to do it right. If Graham Claytor was still alive....
Four restored Southern E8's would look fantastic on the head-end of an excursion train, even to this steam-freak Yankee!
The problem is, where could you run it? You'd need a willing host railroad, forget NS and CSX at this time, they've got what's left of the old Southern and affiliated roads and wouldn't be interested.
Maybe a short-line somewhere. It's all hypothetical anyway.
I grew up along MP 17 on Southerns' mainline in West Springfield, VA in the 70s. Seeing the Southern Crescent in the morning and evening was awesome back then. #6900 is alive and well at Spencer, NC. #6901 is in Georgia at the Southeastern Railway Museum. #6913 is at the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum and #6914 is cosmetically restored at the TVRM. So.....wouldn't the 4 of them look sweet rolling down the NS double tracked mainlineat 79 plus mph like back in the day? I will buy the first ticket!
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