Guest Speaker Ralcon Wagner

  A special presentation by author/historian Ralcon Wagner will delve into the research behind his just released book titled Tennessee Central The First 50 Years.

           For over 60 years, the Tennessee Central Railway spanned 296 miles, linking western Kentucky with middle and east Tennessee. Visionary businessman Jere Baxter consolidated several railroads over the course of five years. By 1904, his new railway was serving numerous coal mines on its eastern end. The colorful regional road was loved and revered by citizens in the cities it served. The scrappy homespun railroad would spend most of its existence fighting for survival as it faced aggressive competition from other railroads and fended off bankruptcy on several occasions. (Excerpt from Barnesandnoble.com)

As an author and historian Wagner has been an avid railroad enthusiast all his life. He started researching the history of the Tennessee Central more than 50 years ago. For this volume he has selected rare archival images from several historical groups and from his own collection, most having never been published. Wagner has written articles for national historical magazines and is the author of Nashville’s Streetcars and Interurban Railways and South Nashville. He is a member of the TCA Music City Chapter Board of Directors. He lives in Nashville.

Some of our members have not attended monthly meetings due to travel time and distance. This is one IS worth the effort. Get your Christmas, Birthday, and Father’s Day shopping done early as copies of the book will be available. Mr Wagner will be making a copy available to CMRC for our library.

He will be staying in Crossville for dinner so there will be social or Q&A time also. Make a point of being there on February 13, you really don’t want to miss this.