Visiting Nashville: Tennessee Central Railway Museum

penny on September 25, 2012

On a recent trip to Nashville, we stopped in to visit the Tennessee Central Railway Museum. This is a cozy museum, housed in the former Mechanic’s office of the TC. It is filled with historical artifacts and staffed by enthusiastic volunteers. We spent a lovely afternoon talking with our guide, learning the history (and geography) of central Tennessee, and spending a short bit of time in the rail yard. They are actively restoring rolling stock and on weekends offer passenger excursion trains.

The Tennessee Central was a freight and passenger line that ran East-West across the state. The other two lines ran North-South. TC had a difficult history due to animosity from the other companies and was comprised of patchwork of lines purchased from other defunct railroads, at its height it ran from Harriman to Hopkinsville in Kentucky. Its heyday was prior to WWII when it ran freight from the mines and during the war when Troop trains and war equipment gave it some added life. It went into final bankruptcy and was dissolved in 1968. A nice history is written up at Tennessee History for Kids

Today, Nashville has a Commuter Rail.

Tennessee Central Railway Museum
220 Willow Street
Nashville, TN 37210
See website for hours.
There is a hobby shop housed within the museum stocking N and HO scale models. (Note: this doesn’t interest me so I didn’t peak into the shop.)

riding “history”

penny on December 11, 2007

This holiday season the MTA is running special trains on Sundays. On the V line from 2nd Avenue to Queens Plaza, every hour (about on the hour) you can catch a special “nostalgia” train from 10a to 5p. This is an ongoing until 30 December. This past Sunday E and I brought ourselves into the city and waited for this special V to show up.

As it pulled into the station (with a sizeable crowd waiting on the platform) I attempted to photograph it and failed miserably. E suddenly stepped back and I heard unhappy language escaping his lips. Apparently his battery did not properly charge so I must torture you with my terrible photos.

It was kinda fun but I guess the hustle and bustle of a weekend day in NYC in December got to me. I did enjoy the padding on the seat, for two reasons. First, those plastic seats are quite cold on dark winter mornings, secondly is that I don’t have much padding so any little bit makes me happy.

Many of the advertisements made me smile… I find the germs one quite timely. Yuck.

This is why PG is mad at me. I left her home and she isn’t very happy about it and keeps trying (along with Work) to make sure I don’t complete my final project (due tomorrow). *sigh*

"Vintage Train" ad on "vintage subway" ad on "vintage" subway ad on "vintage subway" ad on "vintage" subway ad on "vintage subway"

pg’s safety tip

penny on December 4, 2007

Just a quick safety tip today because I’m still thawing from a lunchtime excursion. It’s just REALLY REALLY windy today. My office building’s windows are still in (to my surprise), but others aren’t so lucky.

Please hold onto the railing when going up or down the subway stairs. Especially if they are icy. Hopefully those behind you won’t be rude and push you, but be really careful. If you find yourself starting to slip due to snow or ice attempt to turn it into a trip down a slide and aim for the super slick part.

Be very careful of the stairs on the SE side of 79th on the 1 (on your way to knitty city). I’ve always had a very large problem with that stairwell. It seems that the snow and ice and frozen slush builds up there.

Also be careful of a certain stairwell on the CI bound F train. I slid down it a few years ago, thus prompting this safety reminder message.

Similarly be careful crossing the streets (especially when in the early evening). When it’s dark at 5pm I’ve noticed that cars don’t care and whip around corners without thinking (oh wait they always do that) and thus far I’ve been very very lucky. I also once slid across Coney Island Avenue (by Ave P) … THAT one hurt, I wasn’t rushing I just hit that patch of ice just “right”.

Happy Hanukkah!