November in Nashville

We went to an “Open House” on November 5th to see the No. 576 Steam Engine that is being restored in Nashville. The engine was built in 1942 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (NC&StL). For nearly a decade, it ran from Nashville to Atlanta and Memphis. The engine was donated to the city of Nashville and was put on display at Centennial Park in 1953.

No. 576 on display at Centennial Park in 2008

We moved to Nashville in 1981 and took our boys to Centennial Park on occasion and Chris always liked to see the engine – and could climb on it until it was fenced in, and a shed was put over it in later years. She sat in the park exposed to the elements for 66 years! It was a rainy January day in 2019 when 576 was moved out of the park and made her way down the road for restoration at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum (TCRM). Here’s a few photos of the engine on the remote-controlled flatbed.

The coal tender had its own ride.

Chris has several videos of that day (and more) on his YouTube channel.

Here is what we saw at the Open House:

576 looks quite different from that rainy morning in 2019! She is in pieces – all in the process of being restored at TCRM. Chris gave us a little tour – he has been volunteering some of his time in the restoration project.

Here are the leading truck and trailing truck; the big drive wheels are in Chattanooga being restored.

Here’s Jim and Chris with the cab.

..and the coal tender.

By the way, over the years, 576 has been featured on some album covers – this one with Johnny Cash made the cover of Life Magazine on November 21, 1969!

You can read more about 576 at this website. And an informative video here.

While at the museum, we were also able to see some of the train cars on display. This car is part of an excursion train that runs to Watertown 2-4 times most every month. Car 4717 was built in 1953 and has quite a history!

On our drive home, we were treated to a beautiful sky as the sun set!

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 

Jim continued to work daily – except Sundays – on clearing the small trees, scrub and dead stuff at our property in Pegram. We got a start on the driveway!

November 7 – look at previous blog for “before” photos!

On Friday, November 11, we left the campground at Montgomery Bell State Park with Acey’s mileage at 95,372,5 and Thor’s 108,972. We moved to Grand Ole RV Resort in Goodlettsville, it’s a quite a bit further to go to our lot, but there are no campgrounds near Pegram! The weather has not been our friend either; when temperatures go below 32F, we need to bring in the water filter, water softener and hose to prevent freezing. We have already had a few cold nights like that, and more to come; that’s why we are heading to Florida on December 1!

By November 17, Jim had made lots of progress and leaves have settled in the gravel.

Looking from the house site to the street:

Looking from house site to the back of the property:

We will have help with the larger trees that need to be taken out.

Linda has been busy getting quotes on windows, lumber, insurance and other details – and was able to play Bridge a few times. We also had dental and medical appointments while we were “home” in Nashville.

It has been great to be able to go join our Sunday School class and worship services in person at Stephens Valley Church. We ate lunch out afterwards with Chris and Eve most Sundays.

On Fridays we met Chris at Yazoo. It was really cold one Friday when Oscar and his “dad” came bundled up as they stopped by for a pint and filled up a growler.

Linda’s brother Rob drove up from South Florida to be here for her birthday and Thanksgiving. He will stay at Eve’s with his macaw – and Eve’s cat is not happy to have a feathered houseguest, but tolerated it well last year.

On Linda’s birthday we had a memorable day. We started out visiting our property where Jim had one more day to use the backhoe before it needed to be picked up.

Chris met us out there and we showed Rob around… things will (hopefully) look quite different when Rob visits from South Florida next year!

It had gone below freezing the previous night and our neighbor at the campground noticed water leaking from Acey; he informed the campground manager, and he called Jim – he got the water supply for the fridge turned off. We later discovered the filter for the water to the icemaker and water-thru-the-door of the fridge had cracked causing the holding tank to drain thru the broken filter. We should have removed the filter before the freeze last night… Lesson learned; we need to not have that filter inline during freezing weather! It sits in an un-insulated area behind the fridge and is basically inches from being outside. The carpet around the fridge got wet as the water leaked. There were a few places we wanted to go, but that may happen another time… Enough on that issue! 

Later, we met for a little family party at Yazoo with cake and pizza. 

                                    Rob, Linda, Teddy Bearsevelt, Eve, Jim and Chris

Our friends Linda and Craig invited us for lunch another day. We celebrated two Linda birthdays and got caught up with all our goings-on – and theirs – and showed them our house plan. We always enjoy time with old friends!

                     Some photos from our Thanksgiving Day at Eve’s home!
                                                   Rob, AJ, Marlin and Dulce

Well, no one took photos of the delicious food or the fun time we had playing Tripoley! It was great to have some family time.

Sunday, we had lunch out after church – Rob’s last day before he heads back home.

Some of the larger trees have been cut down on our property, more progress!


Nov 27

We Zoomed early so Chuck could join us from across the pond, then had one last visit to Yazoo before Rob heads south in the morning – we’ll be meeting up with him again in a few weeks for Christmas in Florida!

Tank had spent some time outside catting about and was worn out when he came home again, so he didn’t know Rob brought Marlin near for a photo op!

We have been considering different exterior ideas for the new home;  Hardie cement siding, a new siding product called Diamond Kote or brick – and after much deliberation, we decided to go with brick; it stands the test of time, and we like the look of brick. We have decided on using Andersen for the casement windows – lots of decisions to make! We took stuff back to storage, left our Nissan with Chris and picked up our bicycles. Eve came over for one last meal with us before we leave in the morning. 

Yep – it’s time to get out of the cold weather – it was 22F this morning when we woke up December 1 – definitely time to head south for the winter!

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2 thoughts on “November in Nashville”

  1. Thank you for posting! It’s amazing that the train only ran for a decade. Yet it has become a Nashville landmark. Looking forward to more reports on the progress of your new home.

    1. Thanks Ted! There won’t be much to report on the home until April, but we’ll see!
      It’s nice to be in Florida where we probably won’t be experiencing freezing temps and have to play with the water supply… and we can get back to some bicycling!
      See you on Zoom 🙂

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