As reported by Trains magazine...
ROANOKE, Va. – Legendary Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611 will shake off 20 years of inactivity to pull its first mainline passenger train May 30 from its restoration site in Spencer, N.C., to its hometown of Roanoke where a gala celebration awaits the reborn 4-8-4.
Later, you will have 11 opportunities to ride or photograph the Tuscan red streamlined beauty in action on Virginia rails in June and July with departures from Manassas, Lynchburg, and Roanoke, officials with the Virginia Museum of Transportation say.
The 220-mile, one-way May 30 trip will see the powerful Class J stride along the former Southern Railway main line and enter home rails at Lynchburg. There, the engine will retrace its regular service route when it pulled N&W’s named passenger trains across the fabled Blue Ridge grade. The locomotive is expected to arrive between 2 and 4 p.m., stopping at the O. Winston Link Museum in the former N&W passenger station in downtown Roanoke. The engine is expected to run with no diesel helpers.
The train will be for invited guests and VIPs and no tickets will be sold. The celebration at the depot will be free and open to the public and additional events will be announced for that weekend, Virginia Museum of Transportation officials say. May 30 is significant because it is 65 years and one day after the engine entered service, and one year after its appearance at the Streamliners at Spencer festival, kicking off the restoration at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer.
The first opportunity for the public to ride behind No. 611 will come the following weekend with excursions between Manassas and Riverton Junction, a 102-mile roundtrip on former Southern Railway tracks. A morning trip will take place June 6 and both morning and afternoon trips will take place June 7. This takes place during the 21st annual Manassas Heritage Railway Festival.
The following weekend, June 13 and 14, the engine will pull 260-mile round trip excursions between Lynchburg and Petersburg.
Independence Day weekend will see No. 611 running July 3, 4, and 5 from its hometown. Each day it will pull morning trips from Roanoke to Lynchburg, a 98-mile roundtrip, and each afternoon it will pull a 42-mile roundtrip to Walton and back. The afternoon trips send the locomotive across famed Christiansburg grade.
Complete info, coming soon at: http://fireup611.org/
ROANOKE, Va. – Legendary Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611 will shake off 20 years of inactivity to pull its first mainline passenger train May 30 from its restoration site in Spencer, N.C., to its hometown of Roanoke where a gala celebration awaits the reborn 4-8-4.
Later, you will have 11 opportunities to ride or photograph the Tuscan red streamlined beauty in action on Virginia rails in June and July with departures from Manassas, Lynchburg, and Roanoke, officials with the Virginia Museum of Transportation say.
The 220-mile, one-way May 30 trip will see the powerful Class J stride along the former Southern Railway main line and enter home rails at Lynchburg. There, the engine will retrace its regular service route when it pulled N&W’s named passenger trains across the fabled Blue Ridge grade. The locomotive is expected to arrive between 2 and 4 p.m., stopping at the O. Winston Link Museum in the former N&W passenger station in downtown Roanoke. The engine is expected to run with no diesel helpers.
The train will be for invited guests and VIPs and no tickets will be sold. The celebration at the depot will be free and open to the public and additional events will be announced for that weekend, Virginia Museum of Transportation officials say. May 30 is significant because it is 65 years and one day after the engine entered service, and one year after its appearance at the Streamliners at Spencer festival, kicking off the restoration at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer.
The first opportunity for the public to ride behind No. 611 will come the following weekend with excursions between Manassas and Riverton Junction, a 102-mile roundtrip on former Southern Railway tracks. A morning trip will take place June 6 and both morning and afternoon trips will take place June 7. This takes place during the 21st annual Manassas Heritage Railway Festival.
The following weekend, June 13 and 14, the engine will pull 260-mile round trip excursions between Lynchburg and Petersburg.
Independence Day weekend will see No. 611 running July 3, 4, and 5 from its hometown. Each day it will pull morning trips from Roanoke to Lynchburg, a 98-mile roundtrip, and each afternoon it will pull a 42-mile roundtrip to Walton and back. The afternoon trips send the locomotive across famed Christiansburg grade.
Complete info, coming soon at: http://fireup611.org/
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