Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (initialised TVRM, AAR codes TNVR and TVRM), a heritage railway, was founded in 1961 by a group of railfans that did not want to see the steam locomotives go to scrap. At that time TVRM began acquiring locomotives and freight cars.
History
In its early days, TVRM stored equipment at the Western Union pole yard near the present day Chattanooga Choo Choo in Chattanooga, Tennessee (former Southern Railway Terminal Station). After the termination of passenger service to Terminal Station in 1971, additional cars and locomotives were stored at Terminal Station itself. In 1969, TVRM received a donation from the Southern Railway to acquire a portion of land on North Chamberlain Avenue. This donation also included the 986 foot long Missionary Ridge Tunnel.
During the 1970s, TVRM began building a bridge over Tunnel Boulevard, building the East Chattanooga Depot, and running trips on the Southern Railway. The 1980s saw TVRM expanding and getting more land donated from the Southern Railway; during this time more buildings and track was added. The Grand Junction Depot, TVRM Administration Building and the National Model Railroad Association were starting to take shape. At the East Chattanooga facility, a repair shop and a turntable were added to provide facilites for locomotive repair and maintenance. The 1990s rolled around and TVRM had a locomotive ready for the Missionary Ridge Local, steam locomotive 610 was ready for service and Norfolk Southern dropped the fires on the steam excursions (Southern 4501 was the one that started it all, owned by TVRM, she is currently mothballed). The 1990s also saw TVRM running trains to the Chattanooga Choo Choo (called the Downtown Arrow, now discontinued) and excursions down to Summerville, Georgia, on the Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway.
TVRM has been a prime movie spot since the 1980s and the locomotives that TVRM owns have been in the movies (even the Pullman sleeping car "Clover Colony" that was used in the Marilyn Monroe movie Some Like it Hot; it was shot in 1959, two years before TVRM started). A partial list of movies shot with TVRM equipment:
- Last Days of Frank and Jessie James
- October Sky Southern 4501 appearing as N&W 4501 with O. Winston Link being the engineer )
- Momma Flora's Family
- Heaven's Fall
- FDR (Shot in Summerville, Georgia, using TVRM equipment)
- The Adventures of Ociee Nash
- Fled (shot on the TVRM mainline)
- Fool's Parade (SOU 4501 as B&O 4501)
Today, TVRM is still running trains and have started local service for a company next to their mainline. Visitors can take a 6 mile round trip ride and see what railroading was like in the golden age of railroading (TVRM is the official railroad museum of the State of Tennessee). In 2006, TVRM began providing excursion trains to the Hiwassee Loop with NC&StL 710 pulling the train and as a result of this expanded service, TVRM received a trainset from the defunct Hardin Southern Railroad in Hardin, Kentucky, complete with a Chessie System C27A Caboose.
See also
External links
