Just saw this on Strasburg's website. Hold on to your conductor hats, here we go again!
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Following up with this from VMT website. 611's going to be at Strasburg in the blink of an eye!
Exciting to have some big steam in the northeast again!
Wonderful news. Thanks for posting.
Pat
Looks like she won't be sticking around for York week. Maybe that will change.
Is there anywhere else she can run besides Strasburg these days?
See you there !!!!
Very cool.
Thanks for posting gents !
Updated info from Strasburg website
@superwarp1 posted:Looks like she won't be sticking around for York week. Maybe that will change.
Is there anywhere else she can run besides Strasburg these days?
Probably yes, but getting her there is more of the issue.
Saw her last time......can't wait to see her again!!!!!
This is great news! 
@superwarp1 posted:Looks like she won't be sticking around for York week. Maybe that will change.
I wonder why they won't keep it there until York week - surely the Strasburg RR knows about the semi-annual pilgrimage of train nuts. Hard to imagine that it has a better offer for a place to go in late October.
Bought some in engineering cab time, can’t wait. Got to see her in 2019 and had time as a fireman. It’s such a beautiful engine!
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https://www.strasburgrailroad....of-an-american-icon/
I am definitely going to go see her this time!
Jerry
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I'm really psyched for this! For her last trip to Strasburg by the time I heard about it all the in-engine experiences were sold out. This time I was able to book the engineers seat on 9/3. I'm like a little kid on Christmas morning.
-Greg
I hope this time I can catch a picture enroute. I think I missed it by about 15 minutes last time.
@baltimoretrainworks posted:https://www.strasburgrailroad....of-an-american-icon/
I am definitely going to go see her this time!
Jerry
I'm still considering what I am going to do. Yeah, I did see her in 2019 during York Week. I see October 2nd is a Saturday, that would be a great birthday present. I'd have to get my butt out of bed for a 2 hour drive. I'll see about looking further into this this weekend.
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:I'm still considering what I am going to do. Yeah, I did see her in 2019 during York Week. I see October 2nd is a Saturday, that would be a great birthday present. I'd have to get my butt out of bed for a 2 hour drive. I'll see about looking further into this this weekend.
Small world....10/2 is also my birthday. I was going to shoot for that day as well until I saw in-cab experiences weren't offered that day.
-Greg
@Greg Houser posted:Small world....10/2 is also my birthday. I was going to shoot for that day as well until I saw in-cab experiences weren't offered that day.
-Greg
Hmm. No cab experiences? How am I supposed to bang my head again when exiting 611? Well, that means I would have to research more. Maybe take a Thursday & Friday to see about heading out on Friday or such. Make the most of the day while recouping from work on Thursday.
Brief look shows whistle blow and cab your on the weekends. Hostling is sold out I think for everywhere.
Are there open-air cars available ? October 3rd is my B-day and would love to take a ride .
I plan on being there at least once date TBD. Hope to see some of us there.
@JohnnieWalker posted:Are there open-air cars available ? October 3rd is my B-day and would love to take a ride .
Yep.
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Woo-hoo !! My girlfriend and I are booked for a whistle blow and open-air car ride on October 3rd . I will stop by during the 611 visit to take a photo or two being that I live 35 minutes away . I did get to see the 611 from a distance in 2019 when I was passing through one day , this time around I'm going to make sure I get up close .
On the question of where else can the 611 run, I wondered if anyone thought of the the Reading and Northern. The 611 has to pass through Harrisburg where the NS Harrisburg to Reading line ends. If NS can move it to Strasburg, why not to Reading where the RBMN interchanges with NS. The RBMN has miles and miles of steam capable trackage. Wouldn't it be great to see the 611 and the Reading 2102 in steam together? Just dreaming!
Earl
@Conductor Earl posted:On the question of where else can the 611 run, I wondered if anyone thought of the the Reading and Northern. The 611 has to pass through Harrisburg where the NS Harrisburg to Reading line ends. If NS can move it to Strasburg, why not to Reading where the RBMN interchanges with NS. The RBMN has miles and miles of steam capable trackage. Wouldn't it be great to see the 611 and the Reading 2102 in steam together? Just dreaming!
Earl
Great idea. However, what about clearances for an N&W J Class, on the RBMN? I remember when 611 came to Chicago, many, MANY years ago, for excursions on the then C&NW. While transferring from the former NKP terminal on the IHB, enroute to Proviso Yard on the C&NW, one of those huge alligator crosshead guide brackets struck a steel bridge support. The crew thought everything was OK, after a quick stop, however a few days later on the westbound excursion, the crosshead guides overheated (due to miss-alignment), and the 611 crew had a devil of a time. I also remember CEO Mr. Robert Claytor stating, "We'll never run on any other railroad again!".
Clearances are VERY important on a steam locomotive of THAT SIZE!
Hot Water,
Good point. Now that you mention it, I recall hearing something like this before. I seem to also recall that the 611 was tough on yard trackage and switches and other tight places. It amazes me that Strasburg can handle it, but other than a couple of switches there are few obstacles on their mostly straight railroad.
Oh well. It is good to hear that is visiting the area again. My family and I had our fun years ago riding behind it and enjoying "run-bys" years ago between Richmond and Balcony Falls.
I remember a similar question about clearance from 2019. I think Hot Water explained about the route up and some of the jostling about to get up here as well as speed limits.
@Conductor Earl posted:On the question of where else can the 611 run, I wondered if anyone thought of the the Reading and Northern. The 611 has to pass through Harrisburg where the NS Harrisburg to Reading line ends. If NS can move it to Strasburg, why not to Reading where the RBMN interchanges with NS. The RBMN has miles and miles of steam capable trackage. Wouldn't it be great to see the 611 and the Reading 2102 in steam together? Just dreaming!
Earl
Yes, they can. Doesn't necessarily mean that they want to or are willing. Therein lies the rub.
At this point, VMT has probably considered all viable options as to where to take the engine. Out of a) places that are willing to let it run, b) places it can physically run, c) places that you can actually make money at if you go there, and d) places that NS is willing to take it, the list gets pretty small.
@Conductor Earl posted:Oh well. It is good to hear that is visiting the area again. My family and I had our fun years ago riding behind it and enjoying "run-bys" years ago between Richmond and Balcony Falls.
If you rode a steam locomotive and watched runbys between Richmond and Balcony Falls, it wasn't the 611. It was C&O "Greenbrier" #614. The Richmond to Balcony Falls route is on the ex-C&O, not the N&W.
If you want to see the 614 in Richmond, Balcony Falls and many more places on the C&O, get THIS VIDEO from OGR. We also paced her up Alleghany Mountain and through a couple of the tunnels on that grade in this video.
@Rich Melvin posted:If you rode a steam locomotive and watched runbys between Richmond and Balcony Falls, it wasn't the 611. It was C&O "Greenbrier" #614. The Richmond to Balcony Falls route is on the ex-C&O, not the N&W.
If you want to see the 614 in Richmond, Balcony Falls and many more places on the C&O, get THIS VIDEO from OGR. We also paced her up Alleghany Mountain and through a couple of the tunnels on that grade in this video.
Rich,
611 did a Richmond to Balcony Falls trip as part of the Richmond 1983 NRHS Convention. One time only trip.
Kevin
Sorry Rich, Kevin is right. I got you on this one. I have a whole slide tray of pictures to prove it. And my wife and kids will testify that it was the longest, hottest fan trip that they ever experienced. We encountered kinked rail, ran through a forest fire and experienced failed A/C right out of the gate in Richmond (Thankfully there were ample empty seats in the open window cars). But the trip was spectacular. The photo run-bys were well staged and managed and we had some of the best (and hottest) southern barbecue in a stop in a small railroad town. I recall that passengers cleaned out all of the ice cream treats at the local railroad YMCA. IT WAS HOT. The trip ran from sun up to sundown, much longer than planned. At the end of the day we drug ourselves back to the convention hotel tired, sweaty, very, very sooty and happy. In all it was a day to remember. It was one of those trips that stand out in those days when longer mainline excursions were more common.
By the way, the closest I ever got to the 614 was back in the days when Ross Roland and Co. ran the trips from Hoboken NJ to Port Jervis NY. We chased it a bit on the climb out of the Delaware river valley.
Earl
I stand corrected...
Just saw a posting that 611's trip north is delayed. Apparently the stoker has a mechanical problem.
Stoker snapped in half, parts likely won’t be available until mid june meaning all upcoming excursions are delayed and/or cancelled. Unless they can get it fixed soon, the loco will miss excursions up until mid/late june.
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MAJOR YIKES
That really stinks, and at such unfortunate timing...
Hoping that it will be a speedy turn around!
If not, I wonder if they will extend 611's stay later into the year - it would be cool to see 611 assigned to pull Strasburg's Christmas trains!!! I know, it's wishful thinking...
The stoker SCREW snapped, not the stoker itself. That is the screw that turns in a trough under the tender to move the coal from the tender to the firebox.
No matter what you call it, that’s a major repair/replace job.
@NS6770Fan posted:
Stoker snapped in half, parts likely won’t be available until mid june meaning all upcoming excursions are delayed and/or cancelled. Unless they can get it fixed soon, the loco will miss excursions up until mid/late june.
Wow, I hadn't seen or heard what the actual problem was. Pretty obvious from the picture. I wonder if there is a replacement from another comparable sized locomotive laying around a museum somewhere. I have only worked on hand fired locomotives, nothing this big. I suppose after securing the lokie someplace they can work it,the next step would have been to empty the tender. I hope they called for a super sucker truck instead of trying to empty it by shoveling.
They have these at The Home Depot. LOL!
Very unfortunate. Does anyone know if this did any other damage as the screw looks pretty bad.
