Buried in a report published by a Roanoke, Virginia, newspaper is the news that Norfolk Southern has quietly ended its 21st Century Steam program.
However, this may not necessarily mean the end of steam excursions over NS tracks.
In particular, NS is open to hosting excursions behind Norfolk & Western No. 611 in Virginia and the Carolinas next year.
The Roanoke Times reported that NS will not operate any 21st Century Steam excursions for the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum or the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Railroad Historical Society in 2016.
The latter group owns Nickel Plate Road 765, which has made numerous appearances in Northeast Ohio on NS routes as well as on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway in the past four years.
Kelly Lynch, the communications manager of the Fort Wayne group, told Trains magazine that it is the 611’s “time to shine.”
“We’ve been extremely fortunate to help usher in a successful 21st Century Steam program and mainline steam in general on NS,” Lynch said. “We’ve been developing relationships for several years and now it’s time to expand on those. We’ll also be working closer with NS as our Headwaters Junction project moves forward. NS has committed to assisting the FWRHS in getting the 765 anywhere it needs to go.”
“We’ve fulfilled the program’s goals, and we are scaling back now,” said NS public relations director Susan Terpay in an email message to the newspaper.
“We have advised our third partner, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, that we will work with them, if they can meet financial and operational requirements, so that they can run 611 in Virginia and the Carolinas in 2016,” Terpay wrote.
Terpay insisted that the retirement of Charles “Wick” Moorman from the Norfolk Southern board of directors and as CEO was not the reason for ending the 21st steam program.
Moorman had supported establishment of the steam program and also supported NS creating heritage locomotives painted in the liveries of NS predecessor railroads.
Most of the heritage locomotives were created in 2012 in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the formation of NS through the merger of the N&W and Southern Railway.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that NS earlier this year canceled or did not renew its excursion train insurance policy.
There has been speculation that NS, which is fighting a takeover bid by Canadian Pacific, doesn’t want the expense of insurance for operating excursion trains to become an issue in what could develop into a proxy fight for control of the railroad.
Another unconfirmed report indicated that NS might be willing to host ferry moves for steam locomotives and might be open to hosting excursions that are formally sponsored by Amtrak and thus fall under Amtrak’s liability insurance policy.
It is believed by some that if CP gains control of NS, steam excursions over NS tracks are likely to end.
In the meantime, the Virginia Transportation Museum, which owns the N&W 611, is awaiting word from NS about any possible 2016 excursions.
“We’ve had ongoing discussions with Norfolk Southern and we hope to have something to announce after the first of the year,” said Bev Fitzpatrick, the museum’s executive director.
The 611 is currently getting a new set of four front wheels, a repair that will cost up to $200,000.
The museum spent more than $1 million to restore the locomotive to operating condition and approximately 10,000 people bought tickets for excursions pulled by the 611 last June and July.
An estimated 200,000 people watched the 65-year-old J Class locomotive trackside. The excursions generated about $1.5 million in tourism revenue in Roanoke and between $4.5 million to $7 million in Virginia.
Fitzpatrick credited the return of the 611 to steam for enabling the museum to have its best year in terms of attendance and revenue in 53 years.
The museum is planning to construct a climate-controlled maintenance facility and shelter to house the 611, Norfolk & Western Class A No. 1218 and Norfolk & Western Class Y6a No. 2156. The latter locomotive is in Roanoke on a five-year loan from the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis
“We have 1 million in the bank ready to go,” Fitzpatrick said, noting that the museum needs to raise an additional $1.5 million to add a third bay to the building. “We’re trying to make sure this is done in a first-class way.”
Construction is on hold until Amtrak works out plans for a station in Roanoke to serve a planned service expansion that could occur as early as spring 2017.
The Federal Railroad Administration wants to see Amtrak use a 4-foot raised platform to allow level boarding in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But Roanoke officials are pushing for a low-level platform with lifts for wheelchairs, saying that a high-level platform isn’t compatible with tracks that host freight trains.
A design team is reviewing the higher platform concept and plans to make two recommendations next year.
Fitzpatrick said that another consideration is that the 611 could not be used with a standard raised platform. “If you build a normal high-level platform, the 611 could not serve it because of width.”
Bethany Wolfe, manager of policy communications and administration with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transport, said that the review of platform designs includes an analysis of whether it can be constructed to accommodate the 611.
“No matter what they do, our hope is that the 611 will be able to use that platform,” Fitzpatrick said.
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