On Monday, crews from a moving company will get started at Centennial Park, preparing to haul Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis 4-8-4 No. 576 from its home since 1953 to restoration. The aim is to truck the engine out of the park on Jan. 13 about two miles to a short line, where more work will prepare the engine to move across the city to a shop.
Nashville Steam Preservation Society spokesman Joey Bryan provided Trains Newswire with this timeline of the week ahead:
• Monday, Jan. 7 — Mammoet moving crews arrive, set up equipment
• Tuesday, Jan. 8 — Temporary track installed in front of locomotive
• Wednesday, Jan. 9 — Engine pulled from shed
• Thursday/Friday Jan. 10 and 11 — Load locomotive and tender onto multi-axle trailers using jacks and gantries
• Saturday, Jan. 12 — Built in extra work day if needed and finalize everything for move
• Sunday, Jan. 13 — Roll out of the park at 7 a.m. Move could take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. Off load at Nashville & Western
• Monday, Jan. 14 — Complete off load
The public can watch the work but must stay behind the established safety barriers, Bryan said. “We have a list of safety protocol on our website (link below). There will be road closures, so people are encouraged to find a spot and not try to chase the locomotive as it’s being moved.”
Once No. 576 is delivered to the Nashville & Western, Nashville Steam Preservation crews will spend four-to-six weeks preparing the locomotive for its four-mile rail journey across town. The locomotive will be towed on its own wheels from the Nashville & Western to sister railroad Nashville & Eastern Railroad by CSX Transportation. It will then be moved to the restoration facility at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum.
Following a multi-year overhaul, the locomotive will pull public excursions on the Nashville & Eastern Railroad, between Nashville and easterly communities including Lebanon, Watertown, and Cookeville.
The steam locomotive was built in 1942 to aid in the war effort, and it spent ten years hauling trains for the NC&StL Railway. In just more than two years, the preservation society raised more than $500,000 to cover the cost of moving the locomotive from Centennial Park to the restoration facility and to kick start the mechanical restoration. An additional $1.5 to $2 million will be required for the restoration and initial operating costs.
The guidelines for safe viewing are here:
http://www.nashvillesteam.org/2018/12/locomotive-move-safety-rules-and-route-map/
It may not involve much more than boiler tube replacement, corrosion abatement, and appliance restoration, in addition to bringing the brake system up to current standards.
However, remember what Linn Moedinger of the Strasburg RR once said, “It’s always going to cost more than you think it will, I’ve never been right on an estimate yet.”
Sixty-five years out in the elements is a long time, even if it’s been under cover.
Hope for the best, expect the worst.
Sam, that has been the central theme of the restoration, that is, eveything that’s been taken apart has been in surprisingly great condition. It makes you think that the NC&StL was figuring on this being a short-term storage and it would get back on the rails in due time. As to the the other comment, “quick” will probably be defined as much as the speed that contributions come in as much as the actual man-hours required to make this happen. Can’t wait to ride behind it and chase it!
According to some information that was included in previous Newswire articles; When #576 was donated, and put into Centennial Park, she had been ‘shopped’ and was in very fine condition. Not to mention #576 had enjoyed a cover to protect her from weather, that would have further exacerbated her deterioration. It remains to be seen how much of her machinery and condition will have to be gone over to make her ‘ready to run’, the NSP group will be making those determinations as they are able to assess her condition. I would love to ride behind NC&StL steam one more time!