Southern Railway 4501

Southern Railway 4501 is a class "Ms" 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotive built in October 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the first of its wheel arrangement type to be built for the Southern Railway. In 1948, the locomotive was retired from the Southern in favor of dieselization and was sold to the shortline Kentucky and Tennessee Railway in Stearns, Kentucky to haul coal trains.

When the K&T was dieselized in 1964, No. 4501 was purchased by a railfan named Paul H. Merriman with $5,000 of his own money and brought to Chattanooga. Shortly thereafter it was returned to steam for excursion service on the Southern Railway's steam program managed by the railroad's president W. Graham Claytor Jr. through Merriman’s 4501 Corporation. In 1979, the locomotive was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Initially turned out in Southern's passenger Virginia green with gold stripping and silver details with whitewall tyres, No. 4501 operated as the main star of Southern's steam program until being replaced by larger steam locomotives in 1985. The locomotive ran again from 1991 until 1994, when Southern's successor Norfolk Southern discontinued the steam program due to rising insurance cost and decreasing rail network availability.

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