Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (reporting mark TVRM) is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum was founded as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1960 by Paul H. Merriman and Robert M. Soule, Jr., along with a group of local railway preservationists. The organization was established to preserve steam locomotives and railway equipment. The museum operates tourist excursions from stations in Chattanooga and Etowah, Tennessee. History Founded in 1960 and incorporated in 1961 by DuPont electronic engineer Paul H. Merriman and General Railway Signal Company field representative Robert M. Soule, Jr., the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum originally stored equipment at the Western Union pole yard, which was located adjacent to the Southern Railway classification yard on Holtzclaw Avenue in East Chattanooga. After the termination of passenger service to the Southern Railway's Terminal Station in 1970, additional cars and locomotives were stored at this facility in downtown Chattanooga. In 1969, the TVRM received a land donation from the Southern Railway, consisting of a property located in East Chattanooga on North Chamberlain Avenue. This donation included the 986-foot (301 m)-long Whiteside Tunnel and about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) of abandoned right-of-way. On May 7, 1972, the museum opened a new permanent facility to the public in East Chattanooga. At the time, it had no structures on site. Volunteers had constructed a railyard for the storage and repair of equipment and had rebuilt the abandoned rail line through the Whiteside Tunnel. The reconstructed line ended at Tunnel Boulevard, as the original bridge over this road had been removed some years earlier. With the reconstructed rail line, the museum had the ability to produce a small amount of income by operating a heritage railroad. They ran passenger excursion trains through Whiteside Tunnel (commonly referred to as Missionary Ridge Tunnel, because it went through Missionary Ridge). Additional income was derived from mainline excursions operated biannually via the Southern Railway's Steam Program. The Southern Railway's Steam Program was created by the Southern Railway, led by W. Graham Claytor, Jr., in 1966. Merriman had purchased the former Southern Railway 4501 in 1964 from the Kentucky & Tennessee Railway in Stearns, Kentucky for $5,000 of his own money. By 1966 the 4501 had been restored during a 2-year process, conducted at Lucey Boiler Company in Chattanooga. After many volunteer hours by TVRM members as well as paid Lucey Boiler employee work, the 4501 was operated throughout the Southern Railway System. In 1977, the TVRM constructed a bridge over Tunnel Boulevard. The Southern Railway donated an additional mile and a half (2.4 km) of abandoned rail line. The next major task of the museum was to build the East Chattanooga Depot. This depot is a reconstruction of a typical small town depot of the 1920s. The TVRM was named to the National Register of Historic Places on August 6, 1980. That was followed during that decade by expansion of the organization, and acquiring more land donated by Southern Railway. During the 1980s, the TVRM gradually added more track and buildings. The Grand Junction Depot, the TVRM Administration Building, and the National Model Railroad Association were starting to take shape during the decade, as well. At the East Chattanooga facility, a repair shop and a turntable were added to provide facilities for locomotive repair and maintenance. Beginning in the 1990s, TVRM started running trains to the Chattanooga Choo Choo (called the Downtown Arrow, now discontinued) and excursions to Summerville, Georgia on the Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway. In 2004, TVRM and the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association partnered in acquiring part of the former L&N Hook and Eye line between Etowah (Gee Creek, Tennessee) and Copperhill. Following the acquisition, the TVRM established two operating divisions: the Chattanooga Division and the Hiwassee Division. Crews and sometimes equipment are often switched between the two. The museum celebrated 50 years during the Labor Day weekend of 2011. Norfolk Southern Railway also debuted their new steam excursion program during the event until 2015. Current operations The TVRM operates local freight service and regular passenger excursions. The museum runs a regular one-hour, 6-mile (9.7 km) round-trip excursion. Mainline excursions operate on weekends from April through November. In 2004, the TVRM introduced regular excursions over the Hiwassee Loop around Bald Mountain near Farner, Tennessee. These operations originate at the station in Etowah, Tennessee, located 63 miles (101 km) northeast of Chattanooga. Passengers transfer via bus to the Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park due to freight traffic on the CSX mainline. The 50-mile (80 km) route runs east along the Hiwassee River through the Hiwassee Gorge to Farner, while extended day routes continue south to Copperhill, Tennessee and McCaysville, Georgia. This route is that of the former Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railway and is also called the Hiwassee Route. The remainder of the AK&N (later L&N and then CSX) line in Georgia is operated by the Georgia Northeastern Railroad, with subsidiary Blue Ridge Scenic Railway operating another heritage railroad from McCaysville to Blue Ridge, Georgia, and GNRR freight running south of there. TVRM also handles freight. On TVRM's Chattanooga Division, there is one industry, Allied Metals. TVRM handles switching operations, under the wholly owned subsidiary Tyner Terminal Railway Company, at Enterprise South Industrial Park (ESIP), location of the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant. Even though there are no major industries along the Hiwassee Division, TVRM has the capability to store several hundred cars at the Copperhill yard for other railroads. TVRM also operates the East Chattanooga Belt Railway, which as of early 2026 has three active customers. Restoration work TVRM has a working locomotive and car repair shop complex built in 1982, named “Soule Shops” in honor of museum co-founder Robert M. Soule Jr. In March 2011, TVRM completed restoring Southern Railway Ks-1 class 2-8-0 630 to operational status. In September 2014, TVRM completed the second restoration of Southern Railway Ms class 2-8-2 4501 for another excursion career with Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam Excursion Program. TVRM’s shop and mechanical department are able to perform almost any job pertaining to restoration and upkeep of vintage railroad equipment. TVRM also occasionally does contract work including but not limited to flue swaging, wheel turning, locomotive and rolling stock painting, diesel locomotive servicing, sheet metal fabrication, complete passenger car restoration, machining, and welding. Equipment Locomotives Visiting units Former units Rolling stock TVRM in the movies Equipment and locations owned by the TVRM have been utilized in film and television productions since the 1970s. The museum's collection includes the Pullman sleeping car "Clover Colony", which was featured in the 1959 film Some Like It Hot prior to its acquisition by the museum. A partial list of movies and music videos shot with TVRM equipment follows: Fools' Parade (1971) (Southern 4501 as B&O 4501) Eleanor & Franklin (1976), starring Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986) Fled (1996) (shot on the TVRM mainline) Mama Flora's Family (1998) October Sky (1999) (Southern 4501 appearing as N&W 4501 with O. Winston Link being the engineer) The Adventures of Ociee Nash (2003) Warm Springs (2005) (shot in Summerville, Georgia, using TVRM equipment) Leatherheads (2008), starring George Clooney and Renée Zellweger (TVRM 610 disguised as a Chicago and North Western Railway locomotive) Water for Elephants (2011), starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson (TVRM 610 disguised as a Southern Pacific locomotive) The music video for Josh Turner's 2003 country music hit single "Long Black Train" was shot on TVRM property as well. The music video for Eric Church song "Creepin'" (2012) was filmed on TVRM property. 42 (film) (2013), starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford Jackie Robinson leaves for the Montreal Royals, a minor league single-A division club under the ownership of the Brooklyn Dodgers, from the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's main station. Southern 630 also made an appearance in this movie but with a different number. See also List of heritage railroads in the United States References External links Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum