Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company that operated in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville on December 11, 1845, built to 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge[2] and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee.[3] By the turn of the twentieth century, the NC&StL grew into one of the most important railway systems in the southern United States.[4]: iii, Dedication
Overview
1851–1957
Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad
4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
1900: 1,189 miles (1,914 km)
The railroad's named passenger trains included:
The railroad came to be advertised as the "Dixie Line", beginning in the 1920s.[9] The railroad also operated the Quickstep (name dropped before 1910, then known as Nos. 3 and 4), Georgian, City of Memphis, Volunteer, an unnamed night train (formerly the Memphis Limited), a Nashville-Hickman local, plus a through sleeping car from the Tennessean on Nos. 3 and 4, a Chicago-to-Augusta, Georgia, train. Another part of the train split at Chattanooga and continued as a Southern Railway operation through eastern Tennessee, and onward to Washington and the Northeast Corridor.[10]
The railroad also operated unnamed trains between Nashville and Atlanta via Chattanooga, between Memphis and Paducah, Kentucky, between Dickson and Hohenwald, between Nashville and Hickman, Kentucky, via Union City, between Decherd and Huntsville, Alabama, and other short routes.[11]
Surviving equipment[edit]
Two 4-4-0 locomotives from the NC&StL's predecessor road, the Western and Atlantic are on display in museums: The General and The Texas are in the Atlanta suburbs of Kennesaw and Buckhead.
In 1953, the NC&StL donated its last steam engine, No. 576, to the city of Nashville. Originally known as a Yellow Jacket, the J3-57-class 4-8-4 locomotive was manufactured by the American Locomotive Company ("Alco") in 1942. The NC&StL referred to their 4-8-4s as Dixies, while most other railroads called them Northerns. It has been on display in Centennial Park since then. In 2016, the city of Nashville allowed the Nashville Steam Preservation Society to take out a 23-year renewable lease on the locomotive. The locomotive is currently at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum under restoration to working order and use for weekend excursion runs from downtown Nashville east to Watertown.[12]
Two other NC&StL steamers survive, 0-4-0Ts that used to work in the shops. They are stored in Taylorsville and are in either private ownership or abandoned. They appear to still have yellow-painted handrails.
In 2004, a former NC&StL EMD GP7 diesel locomotive, No. 710, was restored to its original paint scheme by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. The TVRM also has the tail car from the city of Memphis on display at its Grand Junction Yard in Chattanooga.
In 2007, Huntsville terminal switcher No. 100, a former NC&StL GE 44-ton Diesel (1950) was moved from Mt. Pleasant to the Cowan Railroad Museum in Cowan. Though subsequently an L&N engine (number 3100), she was cosmetically restored to original scheme and number. In the process, the locomotive was found to be runnable. It is important as the first transistorized remote-control locomotive in the U.S. (converted in 1962).