Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411170009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL V. HOWELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Since 1982, I've worked as a volunteer for the Roanoke Chapter on almost every Class J No. 611-powered excursion to leave Roanoke. Chapter members have sweated and toiled thousands of volunteer hours. We own and maintain a fleet of passenger cars leased to NS for use in the excursions. These cars require much labor and even more money to maintain. We staff each excursion train, too.
We do it because we love the romance of the old steam locomotives and want to share this love with others. We do it because we want to show another generation what steam-powered rail transportation was all about, and perhaps to plant a seed in a young child's mind of what railroads could be again some day - an efficient means of moving people, not just freight, from city to city. Sure, the engines and cars will be different - capable of very high speeds - but the basic idea of steel wheel on steel rail remains unchanged.
With NS's decision to end the successful steam excursion program of 28 years comes the end of an era for rail fans and the public. In Roanoke, it will no longer be possible for the grandfather who toiled in the East End shops to take his grandkids track-side to show them a living, breathing example of the locomotives he once built. It will no longer be possible for the schoolteacher, who has been stressing transportation history, to take a class on a real steam train ride to experience the sights, sounds and smells of a coal-burning giant. It will no longer be possible to take an excursion on a beautiful fall weekend from Roanoke, to experience dinner in the diner or ride in a round-end observation car.
For our valley, it will no longer be possible to attract thousands of tourists each year for the Roanoke Railway Festival. Coming to stare at a static hunk of steel in a museum just doesn't have the same appeal as watching a live steam locomotive come thundering down the rails.
Sure, there are problems associated with running steam excursions over a busy railroad, and there are some overzealous rail fans who cause security problems on occasion. But I don't see any cries to end major sporting events due to an occasional fight in the stands. Sure, Norfolk Southern never really makes a profit on excursions, at least not in terms of measurable dollars. But the good will created, the spark of rail interest ignited in a child's mind who might someday be president of the railroad, the new shipper's business won over after he enjoyed a steam-powered ride - these were real but immeasurable benefits of the program.
Pleas from rail fans probably would not make NS reconsider its radical decision to completely end steam excursions. It's the bottom line that counts. But rail shippers and NS stockholders who desire to see this bit of American and Roanoke heritage kept alive should let this view be known. If enough feel this program is worth saving, perhaps it will change someone's mind. If it's truly not wanted or appreciated, then perhaps it should rest and rust in peace.
Paul V. Howell of Roanoke is an industrial engineer with a truck manufacturer in Dublin.
by CNB