Arriving at Summerville Station. At just over 50 miles each way, the round trip from the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's depot in Chattanooga to the little station in Summerville, GA is one of the nation's longest regularly scheduled steam excursions. The train leaves Chattanooga around 9 AM and doesn't get into Summerville until almost 1 PM. By that time, the passengers are ready to hop off and stretch their legs. Fortunately, there's plenty to do during the 75-minute scheduled layover. Passengers can watch the turning and servicing of the locomotives in the yard, or they can head off into town to look for lunch or do some shopping. The return trip to Chattanooga doesn't get back until roughly 6PM, so it's an all-day trip. Fortunately, it's an all-day trip that's available once or twice a month, not once or twice a year. Normally, the power will be either Locomotive #630 or #4501, but about 4 times a year, the museum will doublehead with both, which was the case on this particular day.
