Can anyone point me in the direction of good rail fanning sites in the Nashville area? There seems to be a lot of train activity in the East Nashville area west of Gallatin Rd but I don't know where the good spots are for viewing and taking photos. Thanks.

Harding Place, on its route between I-24 and I-65 on the south side of town, passes over Radnor Yard near the hump which is just north of the bridge. On the other side of the bridge is a big automobile loading/unloading area, but the action I usually see there is trucks entering and leaving. The intermodal facility is northwest of the hump, but I've not found a good place from which to watch that. At the north end of Radnor, just south of the I-440 - Nolensville "Pike" aka "Road" cloverleaf, the rail yard condenses down to two tracks leaving/entering town. A bridge crosses the tracks from which you can get a nice view of the action...I think the street name is Melrose Avenue, but I'm not positive about that. Streets run roughly parallel to Radnor on east and west sides from which one can see some action.

Downtown near Union Station still has some freight and switching action. Several bridges cross the tracks, and a road (11th Avenue South?) runs parallel to the tracks at ground level on the west side. There is a parking garage (Clement Land Port) on the east side of these tracks.

There is a small junction and yard between Radnor and Union Station near Greer Statium where the baseball team plays.

There are some active tracts north of the state capitol building near the Bicentenial Mall -- a park and farmers' market. Several tracks cross the Cumberland River in the downtown area. I don't know how active they currently are.

The Nashville and Eastern, the part of the former Tennessee Central which runs east from Nashville to Monteray (sp), has an interchange with CSX in the Berry Hill area near the Coca-Cola plant, between Franklin Road and Nolensville Road just south of the state fairgrounds. I've seen switching there many times as I drive home from work on Bransford Avenue. Even saw a Genset in use one evening.

Downtown, near Riverfront Park, the Nashville Star commuter train between Nashville and Lebanon arrives and departs on Nashville and Eastern tracks. East of there, the Tennessee Central Railway Museum has the only remaining Tennessee Central building in Nashville. They run frequent excursions between Nashville and points east...usually Watertown but sometimes Cookeville and once in a while Monteray (sp). The museum and/or its members own a number of pieces of equipment in various stages of restoration.

West of downtown, more-or-less on the west side of the expressway loop (I-65 I think it is now labeled) and somewhat across from the NES building, is the western end of another segment of the old Tennessee Central. I've seen locomotives parked there but never trains running. It is/was called Nashville & Ashland City I believe, and was saved mainly to serve a railcar factory in Ashland City. I don't know its current status.

These should give you something to do for awhile.

railfancwb, what kind of shape is 576 in? I lived in Nashville in the early 70s and used to visit it. I know that restoration was kicked around some but as I recall the idea didn't go far.

There was a busy area, maybe a mainline, just north behind Centennial Park that they no doubt used to bring 576 in on. Is that still there? You could hear the engines and see the headlights at night of trains using it clear over across West End from the upper level hi-rise dorms of V.U. I was there then.

I haven't been to Centennial Park, where 576 is on display, recently. It is not in mint condition, but is still there.

The railroad area you mention behind the park is still there. It is a junction of some sort... That is the old N.C. & St.L. line, from Memphis I think, which (if memory serves) is the road 576 served. At one time they had major shops in that area, but after the merger with L&N, that activity was consolidated at Radnor. Most of the tracks are gone, and I believe the HCA data processing complex and its parking cover most of that space.

Many years ago, the Nashville 150th anniversary committee (sequi-centennial is the word I think) arranged with L&N to bring 4501 and its train up from Chattanooga as part of the celebration. That was so successful that the L&N approached the park about retriving and restoring 576 for excursion duty. Rumor had it that some of the folks who had never forgiven L&N for absorbing the N.C. & St.L. blocked the effort politically, saying they had rather the locomotive rust away in the park than for L&N to get it. They are getting their wish....

I heard the effort to restore 576 was blocked by the city, but not that particular version although I certainly wouldn't doubt it. That must have been early 1960s. The merger was in '57. But it seems a little strange in view of the fact that L&N actually controlled NC&SL since all the way back to 1880.

Anyway, even if the 4-8-4 576 had been restored the effort eventually would have been wasted unless CSX was willing to allow it to be run. I have no idea of their steam policy or if they have a steam program. 576 might have found itself in the position of another favorite 4-8-4, Cotton Belt 819. It was restored and used for excursions, and now just sits following the UP merger. But, at least 819 is in a covered building; 576 was out in the open when I was there, and even then looked like it had seen better days.

I knew there were two separate lines from Nashville to Memphis, the NC&SL and the L&N, but didn't know whose track that was behind Centennial Park.

I'm not sure if 576 or the L&N's Big Emmas ran into Memphis from Nashville. The western roads that came into Memphis didn't bring in their 4-8-4s and 4-8-2s, because of lack of anywhere to turn them. Frisco tried it once with one of their big ones, 1522 I think, and wound up having to take it all the way to Birmingham to turn it. Whether 576 ever made it there would probably be a good trivia question for railfans.