23 reasons to be excited about this weekend’s Norfolk Southern steam trips

After departing Bulls Gap, Tenn., train 976 swings through an S curve on the east side of town with Southern 2-8-0 No. 630 leading a public passenger excursion part of Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam program on April 6, 2014. Photo by Samuel Phillips.

We’re now at the start of the fourth season of Norfolk Southern’s 21^st Century Steam excursions, and they’re anything but boring. Each year and each trip is a little different than the last. Last weekend, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630 operated out of Bristol, the city that straddles the Tennessee-Virginia line. That was a repeat of successful trips that were run in 2013. Unique are this weekend’s excursions. The steam locomotive is on the point of two trips each day out of Grundy, Va., to Devon, W.Va., on a remote former Norfolk & Western coal branch. A lot of people will be out to see the train. Here are 23 reasons to be excited about these trips.

1. The route never saw an excursion during the original Norfolk Southern excursions that ended in 1994. Rare mileage fans will love these spanking new miles 36 miles.
2. Odds are somebody will show up who rode the Norfolk & Western’s last passenger train that ran here in 1957, the Tri-State Limited.
3. Speaking of train names, the official name of the excursion seems to be unclear. Local groups call it the Tri-State Spring Rail excursion because it starts in Virginia and touches Kentucky and West Virginia. NS calls it the Tri-County Mountaineer.
4. The original railroad out of Devon was a W.M. Ritter-owned 42-inch gauge railroad with geared Shay and Climax locomotives that was built in 1903 as the Big Sandy & Cumberland, according to the Norfolk & Western Historical Society’s handy timeline and the online Buchanan County History Project.
5. The Big Sandy & Cumberland ran a mixed train on the route.
6. While Ritter ran the railroad for lumber, N&W wanted it to haul coal. The big railroad bought out the little railroad in 1928 and set about making it a standard gauge operation over the next three years.
7. Rebuilding the line meant construction of an almost entirely new railroad on the Grundy end due to steep grades on the narrow gauge that weren’t fit for standard gauge rod engines.
8. Despite major rebuilding, the route still has 1.8 percent grades.  
9. The route has two significant tunnels, 3,766-foot Raitt and 1,600-foot Devon. Raitt was the fifth longest tunnel on the N&W.
10. NS knows this line as the Buchanan Branch.
11. N&W power steam here was the big stuff, comprised of 4-8-2s and 2-8-8-2s that were used on mine runs as well as passenger trains. Yes, folks, this was big time Y6b territory back in the 1950s.
12. This is new territory for 630. The engine has spent precious little time on the N&W.
13. If you’re looking to thank someone for this trip, find Pike County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford. According to local newspapers, he tried “to establish a train excursion with another railroad company for seven years” then gave up and wrote a letter in 2012 to Norfolk Southern Corp. President Wick Moorman. Rutherford thinks it’s a good way to promote tourism in his corner of the world.
14. Looks like he’s right. Numbers confirm that. Seating capacity is about 500 passengers per run. The first weekend sold out so quickly that TVRM added a second Saturday. Ridership over the three days of excursions will be three times the entire population of Grundy, the seat of Buchanan County and home to the relatively new (1997) Appalachian School of Law.
15. The excursion ends ends at the NS main line in a wye at a location called Ought One. The wye pops out of a tunnel onto a bridge over the Tug Fork River. Bet the modelers would love that one.
16. The train consist is the longest to date for No. 630, and it includes two SD40-2 helpers and 15 coaches.
17. The excursion train consist is colorful … mostly Tuscan red, three stainless steel cars, and one Louisville & Nashville blue coach.
18. Look for a newly restored coach named Ohio State University.
19. An advocacy group, Friends of Coal, has a sponsored coach in the consist.
20. Speaking of coal, No. 630 burns it, and while it’s plentiful in this part of the world, the locomotive brought its own. Four gons of coal for fuel will be parked nearby, but won’t be part of the excursion consist.
21. TVRM put extraordinary efforts into getting No. 630 ready this spring after finding cracked boiler braces last winter and in order to reach those parts having to go to the trouble and expense of installing a new crownsheet and hundreds of new staybolts.
22. No. 630 has put in an amazing mainline performance since 2011 that is remarkable for a locomotive that saw limited service during its 1968-1977 Southern Railway excursion career.
23. Savor this time with No. 630 on the main line. This is most likely the last mainline season for the locomotive. TVRM is finishing bigger and more powerful 2-8-2 No. 4501 (the subject of our May 2014 Trains cover story that’s available now), and once it goes to work, probably this fall, No. 630 will return to museum train duties and occasional work on TVRM’s Georgia short line excursions.

Best of all, the weather forecast looks outstanding with partly cloudy skies and highs in the 70s. Be safe out there, stay off the tracks, and watch out for each other.