Serving Knoxville's industries. A Southern Railway local freight works its way past industrial complexes in the suburbs of Knoxville, TN, with a few loads to deliver on a fine spring morning. Although there are lots of dead give-aways that this image was created in the 21st century, this locomotive is portrayed doing what it did for a living in this very area, for roughly 60 years. Southern Consolidation #154 was built in 1890 for the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway (ETV&G), which became Southern Railway just a few years later as part of a larger merger. She worked the Southern lines out of Knoxville to Bristol and Asheville for most of her life, and finished out her career as the Knoxville Yard Switcher. Given her history it is most appropriate that her "retirement home" is right here in Knoxville. Her normal gig is hauling the "Three Rivers Rambler" tourist trains for Gulf & Ohio Railways, but on this day, she hauled a short freight consist for a Historic Transport Preservation (HTP) charter, hosted by John Craft. The train is pictured here, running along the James White Greenway, headed east.
