It is hard for me to get excited about mail any more. The physical mail that shows up at my house is mostly junk mail, promotions, or bills. So I was delighted Friday night to come home to find a truly welcomed letter from my friend Bev Fitzpatrick at the Virginia Museum of Transportation telling me that it’s time to buy tickets to ride behind Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611.
Now, we’d all already heard about the public trips in June and July by reading it here online. But just in case you missed it, the locomotive pulls a VIP trip from Spencer back home to Roanoke May 30 and public excursions out of Manassas the weekend of June 6 and 7, Lynchburg June 13 and 14, and its hometown July 3-4-5. But there was something special about receiving the letter that came with an imprint on the envelope saying that inside were 611 trip details. We’ve not seen that since 1994. I poured myself a glass of red wine – alas, not Tuscan red, but red in honor of the N&W nevertheless – and read it as if I’d never seen the information before.
For me, it was like going back into the 1970s and 1980s when, every spring, Southern Railway’s Jim Bistline would sent out the annual excursion calendar. We waited on it impatiently and then devoured it in a manner of minutes, figuring out which trips were unusual, which trips were worth riding, and which trips were for photos.
So, here’s my quick analysis of No. 611’s trips:
The June 6 and 7 trips up and over the ridge between the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley should be spectacular. I’m promised to appear as an after dinner speaker for the joint Union Pacific / Chicago & North Western historical societies annual meeting in Omaha that weekend so I will have to sit that one out. This wasn’t a regular excursion for NS in the 1982-1994 era, my friend and photographer John Craft reminds me, but the engine did run this route in 1993 and 1994.
The June 13 and 14 trips out of Lynchburg to Petersburg should be a nice, long trip on home territory. The N&W line across the Appomattox River near Farmville is no more, but there’s still that amazing bridge across U.S. 29 and the former Southern Railway mainline leaving Lynchburg that is in plain view. Photographers note: There are plenty of color position light signals on this route.
The July 3-4-5 trips cannot be beat. You get the famous Blue Ridge grade in the mornings and the famous Christiansburg grade in the afternoon. Both are great rides and great for photos. On the afternoon Walton turns, I suspect that a vendor could do well setting up a drink stand at Montgomery Tunnel westbound or at Vicker Switch Road eastbound. My advice, ride a trip and photograph a trip, and enjoy the best of all worlds.
If you’re interested, today, tickets go on sale to 611 donors, and next week, on May 6, they’ll go on sale to the general public at www.fireup611.org.
Whether you’re following or riding No. 611, look for me in our specially marked Trains vehicle. We’ll be gathering photos and information for Trains, our Website, a special magazine, 611 in Steam, available in August, and a DVD, also titled 611 in Steam, available in October. If you get a good shot, please think about sending it in.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.