NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As soon as the end of next year, Nashvillians could once again hear a distinct whistle that once rang through Music City as locomotive No. 576 pulled passengers and freight through the area.
The World War II-era steam locomotive has been under restoration for nearly five years now, with a team of over 100 volunteers making sure every nut and bolt is put together just right so that the historic engine can make excursions out of Nashville for many years to come.
“We’re at this point now where we see the finish line in sight and, in the next year or so, we’re going to be testing the boiler, having the steam test, and that’s when the steam locomotive itself will come back to life,” said Joey Bryan, Vice President of the Nashville Steam Preservation Society. “You’ll get to hear all of the sounds and sensory experiences that inspired so many, including musicians that incorporated those sounds in their music.”
Originally built in 1942, the locomotive spent 10 years of its life moving troops and supplies, as well as other routine passengers, across the Southeast. The tracks ran from Nashville west to Memphis and down to Atlanta, with stops along the way in Chattanooga.
After it was put out of service, the steam engine became the backdrop of thousands of family photos in Centennial Park. Kids would climb on the train and play in the cab, pulling on the throttle and various knobs inside. It also made appearances on album covers and in other media, with Johnny Cash posing in front of locomotive 576 on the cover of Life Magazine in 1969.
“It’s really been a treasure here in Nashville,” Bryan said. “When the opportunity came to bring it back to life and give people a sense of what it was like to travel back in the day, we just jumped on it.”
In 2019, it was towed to the Tennessee Central Railroad Museum by the Nashville Steam Preservation Society to become a fully working locomotive again. Over the years, bringing locomotive 576 back to operation has been a shared dream for many volunteers and staff members who have lent a hand in the restoration.
A lot of ‘ups and downs’ in the restoration process
Stephen Hook, the volunteer coordinator for the Nashville Steam Preservation Society, was still a sophomore in high school when he joined the team. Since then, he and his team of volunteers have put in nearly 45,000 hours of work on the project.
As one might expect, restoring an over 80-year-old train has come with a set of unique challenges.
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“It’s a lot of work to take those out, put them back in, especially with the way material costs have increased from COVID. That was another major challenge,” Hook said. “Trying to crowdsource the funding and fundraising, even with our very generous matching grants and generous donors, that’s a big hill to overcome the way the prices came up.”According to Bryan, the Nashville Steam Preservation Society is currently just about $250,000 shy of where they’d like to be to finish the restoration. However, money has continuously flowed in from donors from all 50 states, and even some across the globe. To date, more than $2.6 million has been raised for the restoration.
“It really stands to the common dream and goal that everybody here, both in this building and the people who have donated, share in the desire to see this engine operate and see what it can do for the community, both in Nashville and all the surrounding areas,” Hook said.
‘It’s going to be emotional is an understatement’
One of the surprises Hook said the team is keeping in their “back pocket” is what the locomotive is going to look like when it rolls out in a fresh coat of paint. With a fresh set of wheels and most of its parts together, the locomotive looks the most like a train it has since the restoration began. All that’s left is a bit more work on the boiler, a few other components and extensive testing, including a hydrostatic test.
“The boiler is the part of the locomotive where we harness our energy from, so with the amount of work we’ve had to do to it, that will be a real big turning point for the project when we get to do that test,” Hook said. “That will basically say, ‘All of our work that we’ve done up to this point is solid and ready for service.’ After that it will be a pretty quick put back together phase.”
Their goal is to start running tests in 2025. Barring any hiccups or unexpected challenges, locomotive 576 could be pulling public excursions out of downtown Nashville to Lebanon and Watertown by the end of 2025.
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To help cover the remaining costs, Bryan said the Nashville Steam Preservation Society currently has a $25,000 matching grant, meaning every donation made through the end of 2024 will be matched “dollar for dollar.” Donations can be made online by visiting the Nashville Steam website.
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