Dollywood Express: Spring on Iron Mountain (very late upload) April 29, 2023

My goodness this video is late. This is an old video from spring of 2023 that I have tried for the longest time to get edited together. Other projects have gotten ahead of it, and more relevant projects have taken up time that otherwise would have been spent on this video. This was supposed to be uploaded way back in May of this year, 2023, and it would have been my coverage of my annual spring trip to Dollywood. The engine at the head end was number 70, a Baldwin-built 12-28 1/4e narrow gauge 2-8-2 mikado type steam locomotive.
She was built in 1938, and was used in Alaska on the White Pass & Yukon Railway. In 1941, the US army requisitioned the locomotive to haul troops and supplies to build the ALCAN military highway. She would later be joined by another now Dollywood engine, number 192. 192 and 70 were very hard workers, and were the main engines ferrying supplies. In 1945, world war 2 ended, and in 1963, she was officially retired. However, unlike most WP&YR engines, she would not be scrapped. In 1977, she and her sister 71 were purchased by a theme park named Silver Dollar City Tennessee to supplement their previous engine 192 (mentioned earlier). 70 was restored to operation in 1985, and has continued to haul 7-car passenger trains up the steep grades of Iron Mountain even past the transition into Dollywood. She is wearing a 3-chime Crosby flat top whistle, although she normally wears a Southern Railway 3 chime step top whistle.
This video was recorded on April 29th, 2023. That was coincidentally the same day that railroad engineer John Luther “Casey” Jones had his fatal wreck.