611 Consist

You are right, they do look great!

Those Budds are for ME ! 

Simply beautiful!

Bob, we figure to use your two cars and all the rest of this consist in all the 765's trains this summer.

Right you are, Rich!

 

Franklin Inn will also be returning to overnight service this fall on a special trip to the TRAINS MAGAZINE celebration.  TRAINS made a major contribution to the Collinsville Inn restoration.

 

You can read about the trip here.

 

 

Rich, does this mean that you won't be using the usual consist of Mid America deluxe coaches for the Cannonball runs?

 

Great stuff!  Thanks for posting.

I'll be looking for these cars in July!

Does anyone know if the 611 will be assisted with a modern diesel? The 765 last year had 2 diesels assisting.

 

Paul Edgar

Just to clarify, 765 was not being "assisted" in almost all cases.  As an example, she pulled 32+ car passenger trains through the New River Gorge (grades AND curvature) with no diesels, and was able to maintain track speed. 

 

Before Horseshoe curve westbound, Rich dialed up the diesel so as to not delay any freight moves.  Yes, on that section of track, 765 could not maintain a high enough speed. 

 

The actual reason the diesels are there are only to stretch the coal on long moves.  Otherwise, the train would have to stop and take on coal, which is very time consuming, labor intensive, and can be disruptive to freight movements.  If 611 had any long moves, I'd bet they'd have a diesel behind her.

We will be using the EXACT SAME TRAIN that 611 is using, with the addition of the Dover Harbor. When 611 finishes with the train in early July, the whole train gets moved to Fort Wayne for use behind 765 through early September. Then it will go south to TVRM for the last trips of this season.

 

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For the hundredth time, we did NOT have diesels "...assisting..." the 765. We had two diesels on the horseshoe curve trips due to two things:

1. We had to stretch the coal mileage.
   280 miles on one load of coal is REALLY stretching the limit. Even with the diesels, we got back to Harrisburg on one trip with less than 500 pounds of coal on board! That is the equivalent of you taking your auto gas gauge down to 1/40 of a tank. I'll bet you have never done that!
   
   The 765 did all the work climbing the grade, but on the long, flat stretches along the river between Harrisburg and Altoona, we notched up the diesels and eased off on the 765's throttle in order to save coal.
2. NS wanted to "show off" those two gorgeous Heritage Units.

I caught the Franklin Inn and the Collinsville Inn today on the Northeast Regional headed to lynchburg. They were nice to see and our very own B&O Bill was onboard as the mechanical rider.

Great video, Matt. Wished I had known you'd be there. Nice caboose on display there , too.
UPDATE: Cars in yard at Lynchburg. May be back-up only for Manassas. 3 cars at Lynchburg Station to go north tomorrow, including NP vista-dome. Heard estimated 611 departure Roanoke 8 AM. Lynchburg around 10? NOT OFFICIAL.

Smooth trip, great Amtrak crew. Will see them again in AM as I head back to Baltimore on #176.