Southern Railway 4501

Southern Railway 4501 is a steam locomotive built in 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Railway (US). The engine is a 2-8-2 locomotive, and was the very first of that wheel arrangement the railroad owned.

History

4501 worked on many different divisions of the Southern Railway system from 1911 to 1948; first in Tennessee, then in Virginia, Kentucky and lastly in Indiana. In 1948 the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway purchased the locomotive and renumbered it as their #12. When 12 was retired by the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway in 1963, a railfan, Paul H. Merriman, bought the locomotive for The 4501 Corporation with $5,000 of his own money, and restored it for excursion use on the Southern Railway System.

The 4501 launched the Southern's steam excursion program, which ran for several decades until it was ended by Southern successor Norfolk Southern in 1994. 4501 is currently owned by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee (which Merriman founded with Bob Soule), and was on static display. The locomotive last ran in 1998.

In 2008, the locomotive was stripped down for a complete boiler inspection, and Norfolk Southern in June 2010, announced they would run excursions with 4501, Southern Railway 630, and U.S. Army 610.

4501 has been called "The Green Mikado" because, for the majority of its excursion career, it received the green paint with gold trim that was historically used only on Southern Railway's passenger locomotives. However, being a freight locomotive, 4501 was never painted green during its original operational life on the Southern.

Pop Culture

The locomotive appeared in Johnny Cash's music video for the cover song "Hurt". About a minute into the video he is seen at the throttle of the locomotive.

The 4501 was also used as the locomotive in the 1999 movie October Sky. Its role was as a coal hauling locomotive and was shown several times in the film. A short clip of famed rail photographer O. Winston Link as the engineer was shown in the movie.

It also appears several times in the 1978 movie Summer of My German Soldier (TV film), set in Georgia during World War II.

References

• Wrinn, Jim (2000). Steam's Camelot: Southern and Norfolk Southern Excursions in Color. TLC Publishing. ISBN 1883089565. 
• Drury, George H. (1993). Guide to North American Steam Locomotives. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0890242062. 
• Morgan, David P. (1968). Locomotive 4501. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing.