Southern Appalachia Railway Museum is a railway museum headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
History
The Southern Appalachia Railway Museum was founded in 1990.[1] The museum collects antique locomotives and rolling stock to run on their 7 miles of track from the K-25 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to an interchange with Norfolk Southern at Blair, Tennessee and back. The museum formerly ran an excursion train along this route using their rolling stock.[2] The ride runs over former Southern Railway trackage. The excursion train's name was the Secret City Scenic using Oak Ridge's nickname the "Secret City". The museum does an annual trip and railfan weekend. The excursion train typically ran on the first and third weekend of each month with the exception of special trains. A freight railroad still uses the tracks with the Scenic sometimes using some of the engines. The museum is currently restoring a Southern EMD E8 #6913 among other projects. The museum's ticket office is an old guard station that has been restored.
In 2000, the reuse committee of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee approved a lease of land to the museum for a visitor center, train depot and repair shop.[3]
In 2016 the museum ceased passenger excursion train operations but continues the restoration and preservation missions while seeking out a new home for excursions.
