NC&StL locomotives were distinctive but disappeared all too soon.
The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway had its share of unique items and was a pioneer. Historian Dain L. Schult says the “NC,” as it was known, was the only southern road to try a Camelback and a duplex; neither type worked out. It was the first Southeast road to acquire 4-8-4s, which it called the Dixie type. In 1947, it outshopped its own streamliner, the City of Memphis, a handsome train of updated heavyweights led by a shrouded 4-6-2.
The Dixie Line, as the road called itself, ran five Russian Decapods on lighter-rail lines and kept three 2-8-8-2 Baldwin Mallets for pusher service on Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountain. Further, NC locomotives had distinctive, British-style capped smokestacks painted red. The roster’s zenith was 25 dual-service 4-8-4s. After J2s 565–569, the first Dixies, in 1930, Schenectady built two groups of 10 J3-class streamstyled sisters in 1942–43. Their different style running-board skirts led to the nicknames “Yellow Jackets” for the 570s and “Stripes” for the 580s.
NC&StL was among southern roads to dieselize early, doing so after World War II. A 1906 Baldwin 2-8-0 led the last steam run, a Bruceton-Union City, Tenn., passenger local on Jan. 4, 1953. The transition began with a 1941 order for Alco S1 switchers, 4 received by 1946. During the war came 7 each Alco S2s and Baldwin VOs, plus an EMD SW1 and an NW2. During 1948-52, NC went on a big EMD spree, taking 19 switchers of three models, 52 F units, and 37 GP7s. It also bought four GE 44-tonners in 1950 for light yard duty. NC totaled 9 F3As, 12 F3Bs, 23 F7As, and 8 F7Bs, all considered “dual-service” units, but only the B units had steam generators.
Its first six GP7s, 700-705, had switcher (Type A) trucks, which crews hated for their bone-rattling rides. The last five, 750-754, had steam generators and, like the Fs, were painted blue and gray; other diesels wore maroon with a yellow band, a livery also seen on some freight cars.
The NC&StL had been under Louisville & Nashville control since before the turn of the 20th century, and the L&N merged the NC&StL in 1957.
The NC&StL rostered a number of 2-8-0 Consolidations. Richard E. Prince photo
NC&StL J2 4-8-4 No. 567 stands outside the Nashville station in the 1940s. F. S. Moorhood photo
All of Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis’s F units, including F7 No. 817, had steam generators for use in passenger service, and were painted blue and aluminum (road-switchers were maroon and yellow). All went to Louisville & Nashville in the 1957 merger. Linn Westcott photo
Heavy with head-end cars, the eastbound Dixie Flyer departs Cowan, Tenn., on the NC&StL in April 1951. A. C. Kalmbach photo
NC’s only SW1, a 1941 vet along with two each VOs and S1s and an NW2, is front and center at Nashville circa 1950 with F units and one of 32 freight GP7s. NC never owned a six-axle diesel. Linn H. Westcott photo
Dixie Line GP7 No. 754 is equipped with a steam generator (in the short hood). EMD photo
No. 576’s tender follows close behind as the locomotive travels on Charlotte Avenue in Nashville during its 2019 move for restoration. Jim Wrinn photo
The diesel locomotives were facing south on the far west tracks of Union Station in Memphis. Although the Beaux-Arts architecture of Memphis Union Station (built 1912) had stone masonry on the front and sides, the rear was brick as shown in the background.