Here's why you need to ride or chase Norfolk & Western 611 in 2017

I am here to urge you, my friends, no to politely shove you, toward tracks down south come April and May. Why am I doing this? Because you need this. You really do.

Norfolk & Western No. 611’s spring 2017 schedule came out today, and while any main line steam schedule the U.S. in the 21^st century is cause for celebration, I fear that some of you may treat this with utter complacency: “These trips have all been done before. I’ve seen the engine on this line. I’ve ridden the engine on this route. I’m saving my money, time, pixels for … whatever. Blah. Blah. Blah.”

Yes, the locomotive is making its usual trips out of Roanoke, east to Lynchburg in the morning and west to Walton in the afternoon three days in a row on Memorial Day weekend; repeating its Lynchburg-Petersburg excursions from 2015; and doing the Greensboro, N.C.-Roanoke excursions via Altavista, Va., that is also did in 2016. But that is no reason to treat them like anything other than a gift. Because they are.

These are all good trips with lots of freight-only mileage, in beautiful and inaccessible places, where the engine will be working. Between the Roanoke and Lynchburg trips, you can ride or photograph a significant portion of the original N&W mainline where the engine ran in regular service. Without a diesel helper in the consist. With a passenger consist to die for. Or, as 611 excursion manager Adam Auxier says: “Who would have ever thought you could ride in a full dome on the N&W behind steam in 2017?” True that, and repeat, it does not get any better.

And then there’s the Roanoke trips: You get two legendary grades – Blue Ridge in the morning and Christiansburg grade in the afternoon — where the locomotive ran in regular service pulling the Powhatan Arrow. It will be showing off its power mile after mile. There are still the same CPLs, the same bridges, the same curves that were there 60 years ago when the Class J locomotives were staples here. In terms of history and significance, this is equivalent to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Altoona and Horseshoe Curve or Union Pacific and Sherman Hill. And remember what happened on UP with the Denver – Laramie or Cheyenne – Laramie trips – they vanished after UP took out the Laramie wye. You just never know how long things will last the way they are. That is the sobering fact on all of this.

Do I wish that 611 was running Asheville or Front Royal trips again in 2017? Yes, because those are two classic mountain climbing excursions that showcase the engine’s power and beauty. I will miss seeing the J in both of those places this coming year. But I won’t ignore three great weekends with this poignant streak of Tuscan red in steam and in motion, and I hope you don’t either. Buy your tickets. Donate if you’re chasing. Be there.