The General Is "Stolen" Again

The decision was made to move the General from the Union Depot in Chattanooga on the night of June 6, 1961. Once The Georgian passenger train had passed through around 8:50 PM, there would be no one around the depot, and the work could be done undetected. The key people were on hand to do the job including William A. Gaines, Manager of Mechanized Equipment and an old NC&StL man who had worked with the General on many previous occasions. As soon as the last visitor had left the station, the doors were locked and light put out, and railroad police made sure that any curious passersby were steered in other directions.

The General under wraps at the south end of the L&N Wauhatchie Yard at Chattanooga, June 7, 1961, just prior to departure for Louisville.

The tall fence that had surrounded the General was first cut, and then the crew came in with cross ties and rail. A section of some 60 feet of rail was required to move the General out of the depot. After the temporary track was completed, a diesel switcher and two flat cars came in to hook up with the General. In the meantime others had oiled every bearing and moving part long stiff from disuse. The General's long outmoded link and pin coupler was fastened to a modern one on the flat car, and slowly the old engine began to move. She was carefully moved out on Track No. 9 of the station concourse and there covered with a heavy canvas as partial protection from the rainy weather and also to conceal it during her journey out to Craven Yard. It was around one o'clock, and the streets of Chattanooga were deserted and no one noticed the strange movement. In Craven Yard, the General was loaded aboard two flat cars and switched to Wauhatchie Yard for the movement to Louisville. At 3:53 PM, the afternoon of June 7, 1961, the General left Wauhatchie Yard securely loaded on one flat car with her tender on another and various parts in an accompanying box car, all secured by canvas, coupled behind a five unit diesel in a fast freight headed for Nashville. In Nashville it was shunted around the yard and coupled to another fast freight for the trip to Louisville. There she was carefully placed in the L&N's South Louisville Shops for reconditioning for her role in the reenactment of The Great Locomotive Chase scheduled for the following April.

While the L&N people did succeed in getting the General out of the depot without detection, an enterprising reporter of the Chattanooga News Press, T. Grady Gallant, found it missing the next morning and much press coverage was given the second "stealing" of the General. This of course was just what the L&N wanted as did all others connected with the affair.

The General in the old car shed in Chattanooga, June 15, 1961.

Again, the controversy as to where the General should be permanently displayed played fuel for the press. This time a third party entered the bickering. The City of Paterson, NJ, where the General was built, let it be known that they were also interested in obtaining the General. While there had been thousands of locomotives built in Paterson over the years, the city had not a single one on display. They finally solved this problem by obtaining one from Panama.