The town of Rural Retreat, VA was made famous among steam aficionados by the Christmas Eve 1957 recording of train 42, the eastbound Pelican, arriving and departing after making a flag stop. The n... (more)

Southern 630 is flat out pickin' 'em up and layin' 'em down through the "rip-rap" swag just west of Meadowview. It doesn't take much imagination to recall how this looked every day back in the '50... (more)

With cylinder cocks wide open, Southern 630 gets underway from Bristol with an excursion for Radford. The morning eastbound passenger departure back in the mid-'50s was number 46, the streamlined ... (more)

Southern 630 slowly backs her train through the east switch of the siding at "Ford" before gaining the main line beside the passenger station. The classic State Street crossing (the rear half of t... (more)

After a brief stop to check rod bearings, Southern 630 is underway again on the return leg of a Radford to Bristol excursion. The train is running near to the schedule of number 45, the westbound ... (more)

Standing at the very spot where stablemate Southern Railway Ts and Ts-1 Mountains took over from the N&W Mountains on trains like the Memphis Special, Washington-Chattanooga-New Orleans Limited, a... (more)

A member of the TVRM steam crew checks the rod bearing grease on the engineer-side Southern valve gear of the 630.

Southern 630 takes leave of Abingdon, VA after a station stop. The train is running close to the schedule of number 45, the old Tennessean.

Eastbound Southern 630 passes a barn with a nice mural just east of Chucky, TN.

Southern 630 is westbound from Radford to Bristol on the Pulaski District with a steam special. On the east side approach to Marion, the 1904 Richmond Consolidation follows the same path as N&W Cl... (more)

Southern 630 is westbound from Radford to Bristol on the Pulaski District with a steam special. Eastbound 16T is in the hole at Wysor, the east control point of the siding just west of Dublin, VA.

Eastbound Southern 630 passes through Jonesborough, TN--Tennessee's oldest town, and the capital of the lost state of Franklin. The train is headed back to Bristol from Bulls Gap.

Not much else you can say about this one. I saw myself in this shot--albeit some 55 years or more in the past. The steam locomotive is an intoxicating beast, and it draws people to it like a moth ... (more)

This wooden office car is most likely the oldest Southern Railway passenger car in existence. Its long and strange history began in 1870, when it was built for the South Carolina & Georgia Railroa... (more)

On a perfectly dreary and rainy morning at Fort Worth, the power of Amtrak's Inter-American--a St. Louis to Laredo train at that time--is fueled and watered at the former Santa Fe passenger statio... (more)