NNG: Southern 630 - and the TVRM - three weeks ago

Hi, all -

Three weeks ago, returning from a visit to Jackelopette and the Strasburg RR on the east coast,* I was privileged to stop by the Tennessee Valley RR Museum – home of ex-Southern Ry #630 – and to spend a day with my friend Al Phillips.  (Contrary to my earlier post, Al is not just a volunteer at TVRM, but a full-time employee who, at the tender age of 73, regularly puts in a fifty-hour week helping to maintain and restore the TVRM's fine collection of steam locomotives.)

After he picked me up at the Chattanooga airport on the evening of 02/26, we headed back to the TVRM shops - where a team of consultants was using modern radioactive-based methods to check recent welds on the boiler of ex-Southern #4501. The big 2-8-2 is undergoing not just routine maintenance but a major overhaul - including the addition of a Worthington feedwater heater that will significantly improve her performance in the years to come:


The next day was mostly spent "running errands" around Chattanooga - an industrial paradise, IMHO - picking up supplies and dropping off & picking up major components of steam locomotives.  Here's "Uncle" Al loading the core of the feedwater heater for delivery to a shop for sandblasting:


One of our journeys took us past the TVRM's depot, which overlooks an extensive yard and large collection of locomotives and cars:




After dropping off the heater core, we stopped by a foundry to pick up the rough casting for a new smokebox front:


(To be continued.)

- Rüsso

* See [ngdiscussion.net] and [ngdiscussion.net].



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2018 06:27PM by Russo Loco.