Paul Woodring, Jim Bacon, and I were chasing some of newly-restored Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No. 611’s very first fan trips in early September 1982.
Some locations are easy to identify while others are almost impossible. N&W 611 is on one of her first fan trips somewhere in Virginia.
This image might have been the Independence Limited, which operated on Sept. 4 between Roanoke and Norfolk, or, if it was made on Sept. 6, running between Roanoke and Alexandria.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Jim Bacon, Paul Woodring and I found Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No. 611 in Bedford, Virginia, on Sept. 6, 1982. It was pulling an Independence Limited excursion from Roanoke to Alexandria, Virginia. The J class locomotive had made its inaugural runs after being restored to operating condition the month before.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Back in late December 1972, a derelict steam locomotive was sitting at the Armco Steel plant in Middletown, Ohio, where it had once worked as a stationary boiler. All signs pointed toward the steamer heading for a scrap yard.
That rough looking steamer was Norfolk & Western Y3a No. 2050, a 2-8-8-2 Alco built in 1923.
It was built to a USRA standard design for heavy drag freight service in the Virginia and West Virginia mountains.
It worked for the N&W between 1923 and 1959 before winding up at Armco, which owned it until 1976 when it was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum.
IRM cosmetically restored the 2050, which the IRM website notes is just one of two 2-8-8-2 mallets still in existence.
Although no longer operational, the 2050 still can be enjoyed at the museum.
The 2050 escaped the scrapper’s torch which goes to show that you never know how a locomotive you are capturing on film or megapixels today might turn out down the road.
To view a photograph of the 2050 as it appears today at IRM, visit https://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/rsearch.cgi?steam=Norfolk+&+Western=2050
To see an image of the front of the locomotive visit https://www.steamlocomotive.com/places/irm/
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611 may be a better known steam locomotive, but it had a running mate during the halcyon days of the Norfolk Southern steam program.
N&W 2-6-6-4 No. 1218 pulled several excursions and even teamed up with the 611 for some photo opportunities during National Railway Historical Society Conventions.
The excursion career of No. 1218 was relatively short. After moving under its own power in 1985 following restoration and then entering excursion service, the Class A steamer was removed from service at the end of the 1991 season and sent to a shop in Alabama for an overhaul.
The plan was to have the 1218 back on the road for the 1996 excursion season, but NS canceled its steam program at the end of the 1994 season.
No. 1218 was sent to Roanoke, Virginia, where it remains on static display at the Virginia Transportation Museum.
In the photo above, No. 1218 is westbound west of Bellevue on Aug. 15, 1987.
A former Norfolk & Western Y6a steam locomotive that has spent the past five years in Virginia will return to St. Louis.
Engine No. 2156 is being prepared for shipment to the National Transportation of Museum in Missouri after being loaded to the Virginia Museum of Transportation since 2015.
Officials say there is no timeline for the locomotive’s return and the St. Louis museum is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The St. Louis museum loaned the 2156 to the Virginia museum in May 2015 in exchange for the Virginia museum’s EMD FTB demonstrator diesel.
The N&W steamer was pulled dead in tow by Norfolk Southern to Roanoke, Virginia, arriving about the time that N&W Class J No. 611 returned to operation.
No. 2156 was built in Roanoke in 1942 and is one of only two N&W 2-8-8-2s that survive.
The Virginia museum sought to purchase the 2156 but its offer, which included some exchange of equipment, wasn’t accepted by the St. Louis museum.
Virginia museum board member Will Harris told Trains magazine that he hopes a exchange and/or purchase can be worked out in the future.
When the 2156 is returned to St. Louis, the FTB diesel will be moved back to Virginia.
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