The NRHS Film Archive

Weible Chat Clinchfield Auto-Train Southern Chessie

1973 Weible- Chattanooga, Southern, Auto-Train, Clinchfield, Chessie ...

1973 Weible- Chattanooga, Southern, Auto-Train, Clinchfield, Chessie Steam
Weible Southern trip— Winter 1973, also Chessie Steam Special--Summer 1977.
Chattanooga, Peachtree Station, Auto-Train, Clinchfield #1 steam excursion, Chessie Steam Speical
Photographer Walter Weible 16mm ...Kodachrome original. Copyright 2025, the National Railway Historical Society, Incorporated.

1. Static shots of the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel (opened Spring 1973, the abandoned Chatanooga Union Station had been developed into a hotel following discontinuation of trains).

2. An Unusually large running of the Southern Crescent stops at Peachtree Station in Atlanta Georgia (The Mardi Gras Special, which departed New York City and Washington on February 24, 1974).

3. Auto-Train’s Lorton VA, station, shows an afternoon departure of the train to Sanford, followed by a morning arrival. In Winter 1973, Auto-train was running a second additional train that ran southward and northward on alternate days.

4. Clinchfield excursion trains.
a. Towers Tunnel (train seems to be pulled by RDC car)
b. South of Elkhorn City (KY) (pulled by EMD diesel)
c. Poolpoint Trestle (Frisbie)
d. Elkhorn City.
e. Skaggs Hole Tunnel
f. Copper Creek Viaduct
g. Locomotive #1 being added to train (possibly Kingsport or Erwin, TN).
h. Kona Tower
i. Catawba River Viaduct.
j. Marion Freight Station (Marion, NC).

5. Chessie Steam Special Baltimore to Martinsburg, WV and return via Washington DC. (1977).
a. Departing Baltimore.
b. Passing Brookland-CUA Metro station under construction (station opened February 1978).
c. Point of Rocks. Train paused for photo runby.
d. Brunswick and Harper's Ferry.
e. R Tower, Cherry Run WV
f. Martinsburg, WV
h. Passing Point of Rocks on the return trip.

Notes:

Sequence 2.:
The February 24, 1974 Southern Cresent featured ex Wabash Pullman dome 1602, and two private railroad cars: the Clover Colony (owners Larry Haines, and Rudy Morganfruth), and the PRR 120 (purchased from the Penn Central in 1971 by George Pins). Pins owned the car between 1971 and 1981; during that time the car was frequently parked in Philadelpha at 30th St. Station. This 1974 trip was one of Pin’s first commercial excursions, and writers Karl Zimmermann and Rogers E. M. Whitaker were passengers. They both wrote trip reviews, published in the NY Times and the New Yorker, respectively.
Zimmermann’s trip report:
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/04/archives/f-d-r-truman-eisenhower-kennedy-l-b-j-and-george-pins-tempo.html?searchResultPosition=1

Whitaker’s trip report:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/03/18/letter-from-new-orleans

Sequence 5.:
The canonical list of Steam Special excursions does not list an instance of the train running this exact route (Baltimore to Martinsville and return using the Washington DC routing in both directions).
https://themetrains.com/chessie-steam-special-timeline.htmShow More