Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis 576 is a

4-8-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type wa ...

"Dixie" (Northern) type steam locomotive built in August 1942 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) as a member of the J-3 class. Designed with some of the latest locomotive technological features of the time, the J3 class was used to handle heavy freight and express trains to aid the American war effort during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Faced with dwindling traffic and the onset of

dieselization Dieselisation (US: dieselization) is the process of equipping vehicles with a diesel engine or diesel engines. It can involve replacing an internal combustion engine powered by petrol (gasoline) fuel with an engine powered by diesel fuel, as o ...

, all of the J3s were withdrawn from service and scrapped by September 2, 1952, with the exception of No. 576. In September 1953, the locomotive was donated to the City of Nashville, Tennessee, and placed on static display at the Centennial Park as the sole surviving steam locomotive of the NC&StL Railway. The No. 576 locomotive is currently being restored to operating condition by the Nashville Steam Preservation Society (N.S.P.S) for use in

excursion service A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

on the

Nashville and Eastern Railroad The Nashville and Eastern Railroad is a shortline railroad which administers of track between Nashville and Monterey, Tennessee, of which are currently operational. The company is based in Lebanon, Tennessee. The Nashville and Eastern was f ...

and the restoration work was expected to be completed by 2024.

History

Design and appearance

During the outbreak of World War II, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) were unable to order more

diesel locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

for the increased passenger train traffic. They decided to go for steam power with the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) proposing a streamlined 4-8-4 J3 locomotive similar to the

Norfolk and Western The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisi ...

J class locomotives, but was rejected by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) due to the expensive design cost. The NC&StL's Superintendent of Machinery, Clarence M. Darden designed ten J3 (Nos. 570-579) locomotives delivered between July and August 1942 from ALCO in a non-streamlined design with yellow skirting panels, a bullet nose cone,

boxpok A Boxpok is a steam locomotive wheel that gains its strength through being made of a number of box sections rather than having traditional solid spokes (the name is a variation on "box-spoke"). Being hollow, they allow better counterbalancing ...

drivers, and a large semi- Vanderbilt tender holding of coal and of water. Because of the J3s' appearance, the NC&StL crews nicknamed them as the ''Yellow Jackets''. In 1943, ALCO built ten more J3s (Nos. 580-589) without the yellow skirting panels due to wartime restrictions so their running board edges were painted yellow, giving them the nickname ''Stripes''.. The same treatment was given to the 1942 J3 locomotives when their yellow skirting panels were removed in 1947 for easier maintenance and even the bullet nose cones were removed on all of the J3s. As opposed to the 4-8-4s nicknamed the ''Northerns'', the J3s were nicknamed the ''Dixies'' by the NC&StL.

Revenue service and retirement

No. 576 was built at a cost of $166,500 and delivered to the NC&StL Railway, where it entered revenue service on August 18, 1942. No. 576 and the other J3s handled the critical war-time material, armament and troop train movements during the rapid buildup and mobilization of the American war effort during World War II. They were only assigned to run between Nashville and

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...

, due to the turntable limitations in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, until the 110-feet turntables were eventually installed for the J3s to be turned around in Atlanta. When the war ended in 1945, the J3s were reassigned to dual freight and passenger service. The J3 class ran up to per month. As the NC&StL began to dieselize, all of the J3s were retired and scrapped between 1951 and 1952, with the exception of No. 576, which was chosen for preservation and subsequently donated to the City of Nashville to be put on static display at the Centennial Park on September 30, 1953. In 2004, a shelter shed was built over the No. 576 locomotive to protect it from the elements.

Restoration

In April 2016, the newly formed Nashville Steam Preservation Society (NSPS) made plans to restore No. 576 to operating condition for excursion service. In October 2018, the N.S.P.S. had successfully raised the necessary $500,000 to relocate and transport the locomotive out of the park and into a nearby restoration facility. On January 13, 2019, the locomotive was moved out of the Centennial Park and on to Nashville and Western trackage, where it was prepared to move from the line to

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and beyond to the Nashville and Eastern Railroad where it would be restored to operating condition. The locomotive made a final public appearance at Nashville Union Station Hotel on March 9, 2019, and the next day, moved to the

Tennessee Central Railway Museum The Tennessee Central Railway Museum (TCRM, reporting mark TCRXRailincSearch MARKs accessed September 2009) is a railroad museum located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a small non-profit facility which is preserving the heritage of rail transport ...

's workshop where the restoration work on No. 576 begin. During the restoration work, a new cab was fabricated from scratch since the locomotive's original cab was discovered to be in deteriorated condition. In March 2021, a storm struck the city of Nashville and the workshop where No. 576 was stored became severely damaged as a result. The locomotive was undamaged with the workshop rebuilt shortly after and the restoration work has resumed. On April 15, Trains Magazine went into partnership with the NSPS to launch the 'Steam the Stripe' campaign in an effort to raise $600,000 for the No. 576 locomotive's drivers and trucks to be renovated, and the locomotive's boiler to be hydrostatically tested. On June 17, 2021, No. 576's boiler and frame have been lifted up from its wheels and

running gear In railway terminology the term running gear refers to those components of a railway vehicle that run passively on the rails, unlike those of the driving gear. Traditionally these are the wheels, axles, axle boxes, springs and vehicle frame o ...

for them to be repaired. The driving wheels were sent to be repaired at the

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is a railroad museum and heritage railroad in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum was founded as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1960 by Paul H. Merriman an ...

in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The restoration work of No. 576 is expected to be completed around 2024.

Gallery

File:N.C. & St.L. -576, 4-8-4 "Northern", ALCO (Schenectady), 1942 - 10571312966.jpg, No. 576 on static display at the Centennial Park in May 1982 File:576 Being Painted.jpg, No. 576 being repainted prior to the first Open House hosted by the Nashville Steam Preservation Society to promote and fundraise its restoration

References

Bibliography

External links

Nashville Steam Preservation Society
* {{DEFAULTSORT:NCandStL 576 4-8-4 locomotives ALCO locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1942 Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Steam locomotives of the United States Individual locomotives of the United States Preserved steam locomotives of Tennessee