 the tennessee valley railroad museum railinc, search marks, accessed september 2009 is a railroad museum 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 who were concerned with saving steam locomotives and railway equipment for future historical display and use. ==history== founded in 1960 and incorporated in 1961, 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 1971, 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 also included the -long whiteside tunnel and about 1Â½ miles (2.4&nbsp;km) of abandoned right-of-way. in 1970, the museum opened a new permanent facility in east chattanooga to the public. at the time of its opening, there were no structures on site, although 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 operating a heritage railroad by running passenger excursion trains through whiteside tunnel (commonly referred to as missionary ridge tunnel). additional income was derived from mainline excursions operated biannually via the southern railway's steam program. the birth of the southern railway's steam program was brought about by paul merriman and tvrm, when, in 1964, merriman 
Heritage_railroads_in_Tennessee Museums_in_Chattanooga,_Tennessee National_Register_of_Historic_Places_in_Tennessee Railroad_museums_in_Tennessee Railway-related_listings_on_the_National_Register_of_Historic_Places Transportation_in_Chattanooga,_Tennessee