The Nashville Steam Preservation Society and Tennessee Central Railway Museum will host an open house on Nov. 7, featuring Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway 4-8-4 576 under steam. The locomotive had its fire lit for the first time in 74 years in July. This will be the first opportunity for the public to witness the locomotive fired up since the early 1950s.
The open house will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and guests can enter a raffle to blow the locomotive’s whistle. In addition to NC&StL 576, RJ Corman Railroad Group will have one of its America 250 locomotives on display next to the steam locomotive.
Volunteers will be on hand to answer questions about the steam locomotive and its future. To date, Nashville Steam has raised more than $3 million toward restoring 576, and while the restoration is nearing completion, there is still some work to do.
“Donations have come in from people in almost every state and several foreign countries,” said Joey Bryan, Vice President of Nashville Steam. “We are so proud of the progress we’ve made, but we’re not done yet. We anticipate an additional $500,000 is needed to complete the mechanical work and testing so that we can finally raise the curtain for her encore performance.”
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway 576 was built in 1942 by the American Locomotive Company and was one of 20 J3-class 4-8-4s built for the railroad. It hauled fast freight and passenger trains between Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia for only a decade before it was retired in 1952 and donated to the City of Nashville for display in Centennial Park.
After more than six decades on display, 576 was removed from the park in 2019 for a full restoration by the Nashville Steam Preservation Society, which was granted a lease by Metro Nashville in 2016. Since then, the locomotive has been under restoration at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum and is expected to operate in 2027. Nashville Steam intends to operate excursions with 576 over short line railroad Nashville & Eastern.
— Nick Stewart
