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4501 in 2005 on TVRM track 6
Built in October of 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, 2-8-2 Mikado 4501 (better known as Southern 4501) had a great service life; she worked around the Southern Railway from 1911 to the end of steam. The Kentucky and Tennessee Railway bought the 4501 and renumbered it as their 12. When 12 was retired by the K&T, a few railfans, led by Paul H. Merriman, bought the locomotive and restored it for excursion use on the Southern Railway System.
The 4501 launched the Southern's steam program, which ran for several decades until the program was ended by Southern successor Norfolk Southern in 1994. 4501 is currently owned by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the current status is mothballed. It last ran in 1998 and probably won't be operating anytime soon because the TVRM is working on a smaller locomotive that is more appropriate for their 3 mile main line. Once Known as "The Green Mikado".
