Savannah & Atlanta #750

Savannah & Atlanta's lone surviving Pacific type may not have been the strongest horse in the Southern excursion stable, but she may just have been one the of the classiest. My father would have said that she "looked like a steam locomotive should look," with good lines and that all-American appeal. The brass eagle perched on the boiler-front headlight was a classy touch, one I could appreciate even as a kid. My first exposure to #750 was a 1983 NRHS-sponsored excursion out of New Orleans up to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and return. We arrived early Saturday morning at NOUPT and found 750 at the far end of the platforms, being prepped for the day's trip ahead. I remember thinking that she was on the small side for such a long line of well-worn heavyweight excursion equipment. But I was not complaining, and the day proved to be as marvelous as all those Hattiesburg runs turned out to be in the 1980s. I did not ever see her run again after that trip, but our paths would cross again a few more time in storage or on static display -- including a visit to the museum in Duluth, Georgia, in the late 1990s, when and where she sported a fresh coat of paint and was under the protection of a museum roof.