East Chattanooga TVRM Depot - Chattanooga, TN - Train Stations/Depots on Waymarking.com

This depot was built about 1977. It is the companion to the Grand Junction Depot. Each of these two depots make up the end points of the local train ride called Missionary Ridge at the museum.

"In 1970, the museum opened a new permanent facility in East Chattanooga to the public. At the time of its opening, there were no structures on site, although volunteers had constructed a railyard for the storage and repair of equipment and had rebuilt the abandoned rail line through the Whiteside Tunnel. The reconstructed line ended at Tunnel Boulevard as the original bridge over this road had been removed some years earlier.

With the reconstructed rail line, the museum had the ability to produce a small amount of income operating a heritage railroad by running passenger excursion trains through Whiteside Tunnel (commonly referred to as Missionary Ridge Tunnel).

Additional income was derived from mainline excursions operated biannually via the Southern Railway's Steam Program. The birth of the Southern Railway's Steam Program was brought about by Paul Merriman and TVRM, when, in 1964, Merriman purchased the former Southern Railway 4501 from the Kentucky & Tennessee Railway in Stearns, Kentucky for $5,000. The program began in 1966 when the freshly restored 4501 emerged from a 2 years long restoration which had been done at Lucey Boiler Company in Chattanooga. After many volunteer hours by TVRM members as well as paid Lucey Boiler employee work, the 4501 began roaming all over the Southern Railway System delighting onlookers and passengers everywhere.

After years of hard work and much financial discipline, in 1977 TVRM finally built the long needed bridge over Tunnel Boulevard. The Southern Railway then donated an additional mile and a half (2.4 km) of abandoned rail line. The next major task undertaken was to build the East Chattanooga Depot. This depot is a reconstruction of a typical small town depot of the 1920s. At the East Chattanooga facility, a repair shop and a turntable were added to provide facilities for locomotive repair and maintenance."
Reference: (visit link)

Is the station/depot currently used for railroad purposes?: Yes Is the station/depot open to the public?: Yes If the station/depot is not being used for railroad purposes, what is it currently used for?: It was built to be part of the TVRM local Missionary Ridge train ride. What rail lines does/did the station/depot serve?: Southern Railway Station/Depot Web Site: [Web Link]

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