Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, Inc.

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is founded in 1960 as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society by DuPont engineer Paul H. Merriman and General Railway Signal Company representative Robert M. Soule Jr., and it incorporates the following year. In 1969 the museum receives a land donation from Southern Railway that includes the 986‑foot Whiteside Tunnel and about 1½ miles of abandoned right‑of‑way. A permanent East Chattanooga facility opens to the public on May 7 1972, when volunteers have already rebuilt the tunnel line and created a railyard for storage and repair. The museum constructs a bridge over Tunnel Boulevard in 1977 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 6 1980, the first heritage railroad in the region to receive that designation. Expansion continues through the 1990s with the addition of the Downtown Arrow service, and in 2004 the museum partners with the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association to acquire former L&N track, establishing the Chattanooga and Hiwassee operating divisions. The organization celebrates its 50th anniversary during Labor Day weekend 2011, when Norfolk Southern launches a new steam‑excursion program that runs through 2015.