Norfolk & Western No. 611: From ‘train of tears’ to a reason to celebrate

A lot of us cried when Norfolk & Western No. 611 was sidelined in 1994. The engine was in good shape mechanically. The train was in good shape — Norfolk Southern had just overhauled the coaches a couple of years before. There was no reason to quit, except that the corporate will was no longer there. There were literally tears flowing from the faces of passengers standing in the open door of a baggage car behind the engine that rainy December night in Alabama. We listened to the exhaust, memorized the baritone whistle, and watched the headlight pierce the darkness. I was one of those who held fast to the open door, listening, watching, feeling, and trying to fight back the sorrow. Something good was ending, and it didn’t set well in my soul. I still call that last public excursion from Chattanooga to Birmingham “the train of tears.”

N&W 611 gets fired up for the first time in 20 years on March 31, 2015. Ben Earp photo.

So Tuesday’s test fire of the engine was a reason to celebrate, to remember the emotions of 1994 and 1995 when NS called it quits on its excursions, and to move on. This year, 2015, is a good year to bring back the finest steam passenger locomotive ever built. When I told my boss, former Trains Editor Kevin P. Keefe, that 611 was feeling a fire in her belly and recounted that tearful night 20 years ago, he immediately came back. “Weep no more, my lady,” he said, quoting the Stephen Foster song, “My Old Kentucky Home.” As always, with Kevin, it was the appropriate observation to make.

No. 611 had an impact on many, and it will do so again. It has surely left an impression on me. I first met the locomotive as a teenager when it was on display at Roanoke’s Wasena Park, about 1975. I a senior in college when I drove through the night to Salisbury, N.C., on Aug. 22, 1982 when it made its first trip north on the Southern Railway mainline and I was in Salisbury again in 1994 on its last trip. In between, I rode the cab twice, once on the mainline at 65 mph and once doing its mightiest to climb the fabled Loops near Old Fort. I watched the J and Class A No. 1218 run their famous side-by-side, back-and-forth duet on the Norfolk & Western mainline west of Roanoke in 1987. I saw the engine climb Saluda grade three times, and romp along at full speed on the main, never breaking a sweat.

N&W 611 climbs North Carolina's famous Saluda grade in the fall of 1992. Jim Wrinn photo

No. 611 is a dramatic, powerful locomotive that has the capability to win friends for railroading and railroad preservation. I know a lot of people whose introduction to railroading comes from landmark locomotives like No. 611. Some of them become fans, some become investors, some become museum and tourist railroad volunteers, and some even become railroaders.

Welcome back, 611. We’re happy to have you among the living once more, back where you belong. You make us smile, laugh, think, feel, and yes, cry. And today, the tears are tears of joy.