Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412080036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The last of the great steam engines has thrilled rail fans on special excursions for years. But it met the end of the line here Wednesday. Its final homecoming came with a whimper, not a bang.
A small cadre of hard-core steam buffs stood forlornly along the tracks near the old downtown passenger station as the 611 limped past on its final jaunt.
"I feel just like I've been to a funeral," Roanoker Jerry Holm said sadly. "This is just a piece of history fading."
Dave Connell of Pittsburgh hushed onlookers as he trained a video camera on the slowly moving bullet-shaped engine, capturing its deep whistle.
John Garrett, a retired General Electric worker from Roanoke, was misty-eyed as he somberly took snapshots. His father and uncles helped build the Class J engines as railroad workers in the 1940s.
"It's real sad. These engines supported our family for years. They were a part of our life," he said.
Chicagoan Harold Edmonson hawked commemorative "Sunset Run of the 611" T-shirts from a small card table.
"I don't want it to be its last ride. It's just not right," said Charley Hall, a 69-year-old retiree who worked for Norfolk and Western Railway for 42 years. He said the railroad's greed and fear that its busy tracks may be used for passenger service in the future are the culprits.
"They're afraid the steam train will set a precedent for this passenger rail study" by the state Department of Transportation, Hall said.
NS announced late in October that its 28-year-old steam excursion program was ending this year, the victim of the railroad's astounding recent business success.
The company posted net earnings of almost $500 million in the first three quarters of this year, its busiest ever. Railroad spokesman Bob Auman said the break-even steam excursions were getting in the way of the railroad's lucrative freight operations.
The announcement prompted a futile letter-writing campaign organized by the National Railway Historical Society. Many of its subdivisions, including the Roanoke chapter, depended on the steam excursions for their own fund-raising activities.
The engine, the last in a series of steam locomotives used for the rides, will be returned to the Virginia Museum of Transportation after six months of storage. During that time, the museum will build a special train shed to house it.
But static exhibits won't do for the die-hard steam fans who turned out Wednesday. Among them was Douglas Lang, who took a half-day leave from General Electric to be there with his 4-year-old son, Erich.
"It's just so different. A steam engine is, like, alive when you see it running. You see it in a museum, it's like it's dead," Lang said.
"I'm watching the end of an era. We've got people that have been been down here from all over the world to ride that train."
by CNB