Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway aka NC&StL, NC&Stl.L, ncstl,  
     
 

 
 

 

 

Centennial Park Train
to get Protective Shed

Nashville Tennessean, August 22, 2003
Reprinted with permission

By Megan Moriarty, mmoriarty@nashvillecitypaper.com
August 22, 2003

Engine No. 576, the only surviving example of its class, approaches its
50th anniversary. Photo by M.J. Masotti Jr.

 

 

A train shed will soon protect the steam locomotive in Centennial Park, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary Sept. 13.

Engine No. 576, the only surviving example of a mainline NC&StL steam, J3-57 class locomotive, was given as a gift to the citizens of Nashville from the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway following the 1952 retirement of all its steam engines.

Interim Metro Parks Director Curt Garrigan said the department has appropriated $75,000 toward constructing a shed, which will protect the train from the elements.

He said the cover would be similar to the old train shed at Union Station, which was razed in early 2001, and will be put in place before the end of the year.

"The locomotive will from that point on be protected from the elements," Garrigan said.

The American Locomotive Co. built engine No. 576. Following a decline in train traffic after World War II, J3s were bumped from prime service spots to lesser passenger and freight trains. With the exception of the locomotive in Centennial Park, all of the J3s were scrapped after being withdrawn from service.

Native Nashvillian Tom Knowles, who said he was privileged to have spent many hours getting to know the engine as a young child, said since the train was only 10 years old at the time and still in beautiful condition, it was spared from demolition and given to the city.

Knowles, as well as several others, is concerned the steam engine has and will continue to suffer damage from sitting outside unprotected.

Knowles is a charter member of a RR-oriented society known as the Nashville Chattanooga and St. Louis Preservation Society.

He said the nonprofit group, which has been interested in the stabilization of No. 576 and has made a number of trips to Nashville, would return for the anniversary.

For more information on the train, visit www.ncps-576.org.

 

Nashville Tennessean, August 22, 2003
Reprinted with permission

 
 

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