The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum has been hosting the first-ever joint Southern Railway Historical Association (SRHA), Louisville and Nashville Historical Society (LNHS) Conventions and Railroad Prototype Modelers (RPM) meet. It is at their Cromwell Road campus over this weekend. The convention combines seminars, modeling clinics, exploring prototype equipment, a charter dinner train and special speakers.
The SRHA and LNHS are sharing the archives building on the TVRM campus with “The Center for Southeastern Railroad Research" at TVRM, with their respective collection of historical materials.
A special dedication is planned for the photo collection room in the Joint Archives Building.
The room will be dedicated in honor of Jim Wrinn, an SRHA founder, writer and former editor of Trains magazine.
Models being shown at the RPM meet are intricately and accurately constructed scale models of railroad equipment and structures typically requiring hundreds of hours to produce. The event is not open to the public, but to members of the respective organizations. Almost 200 participants from throughout the United States have been in attendance.
The Tennessee Valley Model Railroaders operating model railroad layout in the basement of the TVRM office building on Cromwell Road is open to the public.
TVRM Missionary Ridge Local trains will be operating on their normal schedule throughout the event featuring former Southern Railway steam locomotive 4501.
The mission of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) is to collect for preservation, operation, interpretation, and display railroad artifacts in an authentic setting to educate the public concerning the role of railroads in the history and development of our region.