Earlier this month I picked up a couple of books that are updates to the Beebe and Clegg, "Mixed Train Daily", and are
ones I am really glad to have found. They are Mallory Hope Ferrell's "Slow Trains Down South", Vol. I&II. There are
fantastic photos of steam railroads, many of them, that ran until fairly recently, and that I had never heard of...many
more than in MTD. Like MTD, one has a photo file in the back of assorted branchline, mostly side door, cabooses, which
increases the value of this find to me.
While a great many of these roads are pictured (if you are concerned about not enough room for a layout, one is
described as serving a gravel pit and only having trackage a few hundred yards long), one loco is mentioned as coming
from the Chattahoochee Valley RR, but no other info is given about this road. I had recently visited the Cattaloochee
Valley on the east side of the Smoky Mountains in Tenn./N.C. but do not think these are the same. I seriously doubt that any railroad got into the remote Cattaloochee Valley, sort of another Cade's Cove. Who/where was the Chattahoochee Valley RR? Confused?
Also there was an interesting reference to "Panama Moguls", over a hundred 2-6-0's from three builders sold to the government and used to build the Panama Canal. When canal was finished, many came back to the U.S. and were snapped
up by short, logging, and industrial lines and a few were some of the last steam power. They vaguely resemble a 2-6-0
that MTH did several years ago.
