Alco and EMD on freight in the Secret City of Oak Ridge

[E.M. Bell]

This past Friday (10/24/14) while on the way to Chattanooga for the 4501 trips,  Carmon and I managed to cross another thing off the list of things we have wanted to photographed.  I got word that the HRC would be running a train from Oak Ridge, TN to the NS interchange at Blair that afternoon, and we just happened to be to close to pass that up. 

A little background..  The HRC (Heritage Railroad Corp), which is owned by EnergySolutions, operates the former Southern Branch from Blair, TN to the site of the old K-25 facility near Oak Ridge. The line was built in the early 1940's  to serve the highly secret government facility that was used to develop the first Atomic weapons in the USA.  At the height of the  Manhattan project, over 75,000 people worked or lived in the area which, at that time, did not even officially exist.

Over the years, most of the area has been re-purposed for other industrial uses, although there is still a small DOE presence and areas that are still off-limits to the public. The HRC RR provides shipping for the industries located there, offer's space for rail car storage and mechanical work.  The line is also used on the weekends by the Southern Appalachia RR museum (SARM), which offers rides on beautifully restored cars pulled by vintage diesel power.

While it is usually easy to shoot the SARM trains on the weekends (which I have done a time or Two), freight operations are somewhat more elusive. Most of the on-site switching is done in Non-public areas, and trains run sporadically on a "As-needed" basis to the NS Interchange. 

With that said, we felt lucky to be able to shoot them outside of the "plant", and the fact they were using a oddball duo of a Alco C420 and EMD GP30 was the icing on the cake. We finally got to Chattanooga that night a lot later than planned, but it was worth the delay!   If you are ever in the area on the weekends, be sure to stop by and take a ride on this very historic  line with SARM...you wont find a better bunch of folks anywhere!

You can find the entire set from Oak Ridge at this link, and stand by for some more goodies from our weekend!  >>>>>>>> http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/2014_rail_shorts_

10/24/14

VLIX 2064 passes One of the massive concrete buildings that once made up the K-25 plant and the  core of the "Secret City" in Oak Ridge, TN. It was here that the materials for the first Atomic Bombs used in WW2 were manufactured, where up to 75,000 people once lived in a city that did not exist....it was here that the history of the world and warfare would change forever.


The unlikely duo (in 2014) of VLIX Alco C420 #2064 (former LV & D&H)  and former L&N GP30 #1030 cross the bridge over Oxier Creek near Blair, TN Friday afternoon with the outbound interchange for the NS. The train is operating over the former Southern branch line built to serve DOE facility at Oak Ridge.


"The best of both worlds" If a person had a liking for products from ALCO or EMD, then this picture might put a twinkle in your eye. ALCO C420 #2064 (Former LV and D&H) and EMD GP30 #1030 (Former L&N and SBD) bring the  interchange from Oak Ridge, TN up to the NS interchange at Blair Friday afternoon. You never know what you might find hauling freight in the hills and hollars of Tennessee!


GP30 #1030 idles at the NS interchange at Blair, Tn as the crew starts to sort out the inbound cars


2064 works hard away from the interchange with a 23 car cut headed back to Oak Ridge


The inbound trains crosses the Poplar Creek bridge on the edge of the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge.

[leroy]

EM... Ya found our pets... We are buddies with one of the guys that runs the Waldens Ridge and we go out and check on him from time to time (...if we can find him; he is a busy man...)...

As i remember there are two Alco C420's out there... The black one that you photographed and one that was painted yellow/gray L & N -- i think it is an old Tennessee Central unit...  There are also a couple of RS1's hid out on the reservation and out of service (...i think; bad flanges...); but they are still there...

There are also several cabooses; along with one of my favorites---an old Southern Transfer Caboose; but, sadly, it needs a bunch of restoration....

There are lots of goodies hid out on the K25 reservation.... There are several old coaches and the fluted side Southern's that the Southern Appalachia Railroad Museum runs...

Ya did good finding the boys switching at Blair, it happens at pretty random times...

By the way, the pictures are great... Good job...

leroy

[Matt L]

OMG!!! Nice catch with the C420! I can remember when she and her sisters handled the hot shot Apollo and Mercury runs for LV in the mid '70s, and then D&H runs on the Southern Tier Mainline in the late '70s/early '80s. Strangely enough, the majority of ex-LV C420s now reside in the South, as per my friend Scot's LV survivors page:

http://www.frontiernet.net/~scottychaos/LVRR_locomotives.html