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Hours:
Thurs - Sat, 10 am - 4 pm
Sundays, 1 - 4 pm
May through October
Other times by
appointment
Leave Message at
931-967-3078
Location:
108 Front Street
P.O. Box 53
Cowan, TN 37318-0053
Cowan Railroad Museum
On the Internet:
Mark's Train-a-Day
Live CSX Feed
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Steam Locomotive
Steam Locomotive #1 has been the billboard for the Cowan
Railraod Museum for the past many years. Designated
by the Whyte System as Columbia Type (2-4-2), it was built
by Porter in 1920.
Formerly a tenderless “tank’ style loco, this was converted
with a small homemade tender and removal of the side or
saddle tank. The oversize cab formerly contained a small
coal bunker at its rear.
In 1979 we purchased our little 1920 Columbia-Type Steam
Locomotive from the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in
Chattanooga, TN. It is a 2-4-2 and a very rare make.
It was first owned by Mr. William Elliott Dunwady, owner
of the Cherokee Brick Company in Macon, GA, about 1920.
It was especially suited for the brick company's needs and
pulled six yard side cars loaded with clay from the clay
pits to the foundry. The engine's size was limited
for two reasons: it did not pull great weights, and
it had to be rather small to function on the Cherokee Brick
Company line.
About June 1, 1964, Mr. Walter, former president of the
National Railraod and Historical Society, purchased the
engine from the Cherokee Brick Company. Mr. Walter
had it requilt and reworded by the Charleston, SC Chapter
of the National Railroad and Historical Society. The
little engine was used to pull thousands of people in many
of South Carolina's functions.
The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga acquired
the little engine and later sold it to the Cowan Museum.
To this date it sits proudly on the track by the Cowan
Railroad Museum bringing back memories of by-gone days of
railroading with steam locomotives.
You can stand in the little engine as the big diesel-pulled
freights come roaring through on the now CSX busy line and
get the feeling from the vibration of being on board as
you hear the powerful pushers approaching with speed to
hit the 2% grade of two miles up to the tunnel through the
summit of mountain southbound.
Last run in the early 1970’s, it now silently acts as a
sentinel beckoning you to visit! The engine was repainted in 2008.
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