I rode 4501 and 630 on the double header to Summerville, yesterday, which was supposed to have been the only one of the year originally. When it quickly sold out, they added Sunday's. I rode the one that went past the burning Mill and stopped at LaFayette late at night. Diesel 1804 has to rescue the steamers and haul them back around midnight (crews expired and low water.)
Saturnr
We were able to go the whole route to Summerville this time. However, it wasn't without a few 'incidents'. First, we had to pick up #1804 at East Chattanooga, which was stuck behind 4501 (with 630 leading) and drop it off in Lafayette. After adding it to the train, we went down the ECBT (East Chattanooga Belt Terminal) and stopped at Citco (where the ECBT connects with NS and CCKY (Chattanooga & Chickamauga's reporting marks)) to pick up a crewmember of the CCKY to 'pilot' the train the rest of the way. As we were making our way thru the countryside of northern Georgia, we had to stop for a cow on the tracks. Not joking! We had to stop at Lafayette to drop off #1801 and later had to stop
again due to brake problems with the open-air car, which had to be fixed manually. We didn't encounter any problems afterward until we left Summerville for the return trip. One of the passengers decided to take a 'one-way' trip to Summerville but decided after the train had left to pay catch-up to ride the train
back to Chattanooga. We also had to stop back at Citco to drop off the CCKY employee. Everything was fine until just before Missionary Ridge Tunnel, where some people decided to sprint across the tracks, right in front of the train, to get some pictures on the other side of the tracks. This caused the train to slow down (and either 630 or 4501 to start slipping) but didn't stop. Just outside of Grand Junction, 630 was cut off the train and went into the yard while 4501 pulled the train the last few hundred yards to Grand Junction. We got back at around 6:50PM instead of the scheduled 6:00PM, but it was still a good ride. I will also note that when we arrived at Grand Junction this morning to ride the train, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis-painted GP7 #710 and Southern GP30 #2594 was sitting at the NS/TVRM interchange. I don't know if they were still when we returned at 6:50, but if they did, I figured that after everyone had gotten off the train, 4501 would uncouple from the train and run around the wye and follow 630, who'll run backwards, to East Chattanooga. Meanwhile, the two diesels will spend the rest of the night 'breaking down' the train and putting the cars onto the yard tracks at Grand Junction. I don't know if the train was set up like this yesterday, but here's how the consist looked on the trip to Summerville:
Southern 630
Southern 4501
Observation car #6604
Sleeper car
Clover Colony
Open-air coach
Closed, air-condition coach (x3)
Commissary car
Emporium
Buffet-Parlor
Silver Lake
Dining car
Traveler's Fare
Observation car
Eden Isle
Was this how your train set up? Or was it set up some other way?
