N&W 611 Move from Roanoke to Manassas.

robertkl

What you doin in me swamp
Here are a few pics from the 611 move from Orange, Va to Bealton,Va on the NS Washington District
Amtrak 51 rolls through Orange
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4205685

611 Blowing Smoke in Orange
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4205554

NS 211 with NS-UP-NYC at Rapidian
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4205634
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4205555

611 Steaming up Grade over the Rapidian River Bridge
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4205555

611 entering the Cut in Culpepper
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4205558

Will upload more once I get back from Graduation rehearsal
 
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Nice pics, robertkl. Thanks.

Looking at some of the videos others had posted of 611's ferry move to Manassas it looks like 611 is hauling a Link-Belt crane plus three gondola cars on the end of the train. Is the crane for loading coal into 611's tender and are the gons carrying coal? Or something else?

Enquiring minds want to know... ;)

Well regardless of what they're for, its really nice to see a steam locomotive moving a 24-car train on her own, no diesel assistance needed!
 
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Is the crane for loading coal into 611's tender and are the gons carrying coal?

Yes that's what the gondolas and crane is for. If you go to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, those gondolas are usually parked on the siding, along with some passenger cars, just past the bridge crossing over CSX's mainline. They're only there whenever Norfolk Southern has no mainline excursions going on. It kinda makes sense that they're at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum because they have plenty of coal for 630 and 4501, and that all the locomotives used on the mainline excursions use coal.

EDIT: if you watch the videos of Nickel Plate 765 going around Horseshoe Curve, you'll see them coupled onto the rear of the train.
 
Thunder on Blue Ridge!

Cool. Thanks, Jordon.

So NS only has one "set" of mobile steam service equipment, I suppose?

BTW, here's a video of 611 working up the grade near Blue Ridge, VA, while making her ferry run to Manassas. Now that's the classic kind of "stack talk" that a large American steam locomotive makes!

 
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Yeah Speaking of those 3 gons, when 211 did a roll by, they said "your train look great, besides the trash cans on the end"
 
Wow, this is happening right in my backyard, and I completely missed it!

Thanks for the great pictures. It looks like I'm going to have to find time to check this out!
 
...BTW, here's a video of 611 working up the grade near Blue Ridge, VA, while making her ferry run to Manassas. Now that's the classic kind of "stack talk" that a large American steam locomotive makes!

...This is amazing video! It looks like you tweaked all the T:ANE Post Processing options really well to get this great drive by. ;)
 
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Perhaps somewhere in the Blue Ridge, since there is no such town as such that I know of in Virginia...However, I do know that this double track runs from Culpeper through Manassas, and if I were to guess, I would say that this area looks like it might be south of Remington, though I could be wrong.

This is amazing video! It looks like you tweaked all the T:ANE Post Processing options really well to get this great drive by. ;)

Here is Blue Ridge's location on Google Maps and here's the Wikipedia article on Blue Ridge, VA. Blue Ridge is a fairly popular location for railfans because its easily accessible from Rt. 460. It's east of Roanoke, on the NS's Blue Ridge grade, so it was on 611's route from Roanoke to Manassas. It's actually near the crest of the grade as shown on the grade profile on this PDF from Trains magazine. The Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, one of the N&W's main predecessor lines, reached Blue Ridge in the early 1850s.

NGL00003b.jpg
 
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