Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412070133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The 611 pulled its last steam excursion trip last weekend between Irondale, Ala., and Chattanooga, Tenn. Norfolk Southern announced in October that it was discontinuing its 28-year-old steam excursion program after this year.
The locomotive should arrive in Roanoke in mid- to late afternoon, passing first through Lynchburg and Bedford, said NS spokesman Bob Auman. It spent the night at NS's Linwood Yard near Salisbury, N.C.
NS's Shafers Crossing or East End shops will house the 611 temporarily until a place is readied for it at the museum.
Kay Houck, the museum's director, said the museum should be ready to receive the 611 in about six months. An enclosure is being designed by Hayes Seay Mattern and Mattern, a Roanoke architectural firm.
The 611 was built in the Roanoke shops of the Norfolk & Western Railway and rolled into service on May 29, 1950. The NW merged with the Southern Railway in 1982 to form the Norfolk Southern.
One of 14 streamlined Class J locomotives built between 1941 and 1950, the 611 was designed, built and operated by NW employees and had the horsepower of two modern diesel locomotives.
The 611 was retired from service after pulling its last passenger train between Bluefield and Roanoke in October 1959. It was restored at NS's steam shop in Birmingham, Ala., in 1981 and returned to Roanoke in 1982 as a gift from the railway to the people of Roanoke for the city's centennial celebration.
by CNB