Southern 4501 Returns to the Mainline!

May 1st, 2015 is a special day for Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam! steam program, as it was that day that Southern 4501 returned to the mainline. It was not an excursion, but instead her 'shakedown' run. Southern 630's shakedown run involved diesel assistance, but Southern 4501 strut her stuff pulling a nine car train, without diesel assistance. I'm torn between one of two videos showing 4501's shakedown run, so I'll post one of the videos on this post and then post the other on a second post to this thread.

Here's the second video:

Great to see No. 4501 running again! With all the "upgrades" she received during the rebuild, she should not be in better shape now than when she was brand new.

Below, is my favorite movie clip of No. 4501, from "October Sky". Noted railroad photographer O. Winston Link had a cameo as the train engineer, and can be seen in the final shots of the clip...
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Major Bump

Purchased from the scrap line for $5,000

If you have 1:33:22 to spare, watch:

Already posted about that, four years ago. That video is available for sale in the gift shop at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, or on their online gift shop here: https://shop.tvrail.com/shop/gift-shop/5
My thread of the video: https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?134340-And-Then-There-Was-One-A-documentary-of-Southern-4501&highlight=4501

Takes me back to my childhood when in the late 60s and early 70s we would ride excursions out of Birmingham and 4501 was often one of the engines pulling the train.

William

She's currently handling the Missionary Ridge Local at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum on the weekends, so for $22 an adult (ages 13+) and $14 a child (ages 2-12) and infants (under 2 years old) are free, you can ride behind her again. Here's a link to Virtual Railfan's Grand Junction webcam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMBPHQ0_RFE