About this property
Southern Railway 4501 is a preserved 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotive. Built in October 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, No. 4501 was the very first locomotive of its wheel arrangement type ordered for the Southern Railway (SOU). It was assigned to pull freight trains on the SOU system until 1948, when it was retired from revenue service in favor of dieselization, and it was subsequently sold to the shortline Kentucky and Tennessee Railway (K&T) in Stearns, Kentucky, to haul coal trains. When the K&T was dieselized in 1964, No. 4501 was purchased by a railfan named Paul Merriman for $5,000 of his own money, and he brought it to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Shortly thereafter, it was returned to service for mainline excursion service on the SOU's steam program in 1966 through Merriman's 4501 Corporation. Merriman was a founding member of Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) in Chattanooga, and in 1975, he donated No. 4501 from his personal property to the museum. Repainted in SOU's passenger Sylvan green and gold paint scheme, No. 4501 operated as the primary excursion attraction of Southern's steam program, until it was replaced with larger locomotives in 1985. In 1991, the locomotive returned to mainline excursion service, but in 1994, it was removed again when the SOU's successor, Norfolk Southern (NS), discontinued the steam program due to rising insurance costs and decreasing rail network availability. Repainted into its original freight black livery in 1996, the locomotive continued to operate for TVRM until 1998, when its boiler flue time certificate expired. In 2011, following the start of NS' 21st Century Steam program and the success of TVRM's Southern Railway 630's return to service, restoration work on No. 4501 began, with upgrades such as a feedwater heater and mechanical stoker. No. 4501's restoration was completed in 2014. The locomotive currently operates in tourist excursion service at TVRM, particularly on their Missionary Ridge Local and Evening Ridge Runner weekend excursions if needed and longer trips such as the Summerville Steam Special to Summerville, Georgia. In 2026, it finally returned to its SOU Sylvan green paint scheme.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Mikado Locomotive No. 4501
This page lists Mikado Locomotive No. 4501. A full Aubrey report for an address near it pulls together this listing alongside battlefield records, land patents, and every other historical record within a chosen radius:
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Questions about this property
When was Mikado Locomotive No. 4501 listed on the National Register?
Mikado Locomotive No. 4501 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 27, 1979.
What type of historic resource is Mikado Locomotive No. 4501?
Mikado Locomotive No. 4501 is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Mikado Locomotive No. 4501?
The period of significance for Mikado Locomotive No. 4501 is recorded as the civil_war era, specifically around 1911.
Can I research the history near Mikado Locomotive No. 4501?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Mikado Locomotive No. 4501 will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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