#1 was built as a Columbian type (2-4-2) locomotive by H. K. Porter in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1920 for the Bibb Brick Company in Macon, GA. It weighs 70,000 lbs, 52,000 lbs on its 44” drivers. It has 14” x 20” cylinders and, operating at a boiler pressure of 150 psi, it delivered 11,355 lbs tractive effort.
The Bibb Brick Company was started in 1902 with a plant in Macon, GA, and its own railroad with spur tracks to the Central of Georgia and Southern railroads. After suffering adverse financial conditions, the plant and railroad were acquired by the Cherokee Brick & Tile Co., including #1, in the late 1930s.
In 1964, #1 was sold to Cole & Marion Walters in Charleston, SC, who at some stage sold it to the amusement park Pirateland in Myrtle Beach, SC, where it ran over a mile and half line through the fair grounds. It was then sold to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, TN, who next sold it to the City of Cowan, TN, in 1979. It is on display at the Cowan Railroad Museum next to the historic Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway depot built in 1904.
NC&StL #100 is a 44
ton diesel-electric switcher built by GE in 1950.
It is the first of four built for the road (#100-#103) and was used exclusively at Huntsville, AL, yard until it was sold in 1960 by the L&N (post-merger).
Two Caterpillar 1750 cubic inch V-8 diesel motors rated at 190 hp each, can operate independently, one under each hood.
In 1962, this was the first US locomotive to be equipped with radio control in such way as to not require an engineer in the cab.
NC&StL bay window class NE8 caboose was used as Radnor work train #42335, and the original NC&StL number was #153.
It was built from a worn out 1913 box car in the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis’ own shops in Nashville, TN , in about 1943.
The rail line through Cowan was built in 1854 by the then Chattanooga & Nashville Railroad and remains a busy CSX line, a good place for some trainspotting.
Above, CSX GE ET44AH #3267, GE C40-8W #7325, GE AC44-CW #278 and GE ES44-DC #5306 hauling a mixed freight train passing through Cowan. They have just climbed west from Sewanee over the Appalachian mountain crest through the Cumberland Tunnel. Right, pusher engines CSX GE ES44AC-H #3189 and GE SD80HAC #804 are on the rear.
