
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994                   TAG: 9406030099
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELLISTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALL ABOARD!

Bus loads of Elliston-Lafayette Elementary School children lined the shoulder of U.S. 460 in Elliston Thursday. The pupils inside could hardly sit still as they looked out the window, waving to spectators and waiting for the Class J 611 steam locomotive to stop in their town.

Curious passersby pulled off the road, too, getting out cameras to take a picture of the historic train built in Roanoke more than 40 years ago.

The steam train, sponsored by the Virginia Museum of Transportation, came rolling in right on time - 10:45 a.m. Out jumped clowns, followed by an endless stream of pupils who had ridden earlier that day from Roanoke to Elliston.

"Oh, this is going to be fun - look at all those clowns," said 6-year-old Lena Childs, a kindergartner at Elliston, as she walked toward passenger car No. 5. "This train is really pretty."

The J 611 steam passenger locomotive, built in the 1950s in Norfolk and Western Railway's Roanoke shops, was one of only 14 of its kind. The locomotive weighs 872,600 pounds and can pull 11 cars at 110 miles per hour. The engine was rebuilt and is used for educational purposes and historic events.

Two hundred and seventy-six of Elliston's pupils, teachers, and parents took the hour-long train ride from near Wilson's Restaurant in Elliston to the Cambria train depot near Christiansburg. For many pupils, this was their first time on a train.

"I've been in buses and cars, but never on a train or a plane," said Lacy Hale, 7. "I think the trains are fast. And big."

Thursday's ride was Bradley Jewell's fifth, or maybe his sixth (he can't remember) time on a train.

"The whistles are loud and it goes pretty fast," he said. "You get food, too, and there's clowns everywhere."

First-grade teacher Tammy Kirtner said the train ride was the highlight of a unit the entire school has been studying on transportation.

"We've studied transportation in general, and read "The Little Engine That Could," and all that sort of thing. The kids have had a great time."

Other area schools also took part in the day's adventure. Buses from Pulaski County were lined up behind those from Montgomery and Roanoke city and county. Other schools were waiting to get on the train in Cambria for a ride to Narrows. The train then planned to chug its way to Bluefield, W.Va., and back.

Although the kids were excited when the train came in, Elliston-Lafayette principal Denise Boyle said, "they were absolutely thrilled [with] the Montgomery tunnel. And they really were impressed at looking out in the countryside, and waving at the people watching the train go by."

For more information on children's steam train excursions, call the Transportation Museum at 342-5670.

by CNB