Everything old is new again....

[etalcos]

I'm starting to get a little excited about the upcoming 21st Century Steam trips on the CNO&TP.  Southern tea kettle, the opportunity to ride all 3 districts for the first time (for me anyway), and the chance to have the only Southern Railway coach in the train back on home rails!  Of course there is no telling how many times 829 ran the CNO&TP in regular revenue service, but that has been at least 45 years since it last happened.  More recently, its been since the end of the first steam program since any Southern Coach has done it.  

It was fun the past few years to see 829 out on the Mainline North of Spencer on the old Crescent and Southerner route, as well as the Tennessean route from Roanoke to Chattanooga, and the Carolina Special route to Asheville, among others.  But this one just feels like big time railroading.  I'm only sorry we don't have all 4 remaining E-8s out to cover the entire route in one day.

Anyway, here is an interior night shot of 829 taken in Bristol, VA a few weeks back before the Radford trip.  Thanks to GP30Rider for the fine photography work.

[E.M. Bell]

Charlie, yall do a fine job of keeping a little bit of the Southern alive for us, and it IS nice to see at least One classy looking car in that Tuscan red train! 

A brace of E8's and silverside coaches...probably a pipe dream but lordy that would be a sight to see...

[etalcos]

Contrary to what my esteemed associate, Mr. Gray, has said elsewhere, Southern Railway #4 Pullman Green IS an acceptable alternate color to the N&W tuscan red.  In fact preferable IMHO.  Its sad that we've arrived at a situation where the Pullman Green, the heavyweights and the Stainless are rare and even frowned upon in some quarters.  TVRM has a VERY nice, restored, Southern Green heavyweight that they're hiding and I don't think you'll ever see it on the mainline. 

And, 829's classic Southern look can be attributed primarily to the efforts of that GP30rider fellow.  I'm just the scrub brush operator...

[lwjabo]

I hired in late 71. AMRAK started early that year. There seem to be a lot of old passenger equipment stored. Some it seemed had be set off on spur tracks in the boonies. Naturally the hunters when they ran out of something to do shot out the windows of these old cars. Some of the old heads told me how Southern removed there new equipment in the late 60s and replaced it with older cars. They said it was a way for Southern to run off passenger business. Seeing how Southern operated later on I believe the old heads.