Chesapeake & Ohio No. 614 to steam again!

He has been "talking" about that for years and years now. As I recall the "start date" keeps getting pushed back. I'll believe it when I see it and I strongly believe it will be a LONG time (i.e. - never!) before I'll see and believe.......

 

I guess since the hotel excursion train in Wv or Va didn't work, it is on to trying to sell the next gig.... 

Yeah this has been going on for years now...sadly I will believe it when it actually happens.  There is no way CSX will touch this and I doubt that will change anytime soon...sadly.

This information is so old, it has grown moldy!

 

Really?  First I've heard of it and why would it be in Trains magazine website if it was dated or not credible?

Funny that Trains will cover something like Ross Rowland's "Blue Ribbon Express", and yet never mention anything about what isn't going on in Cheyenne, Wy. The Blue Ribbon Express has about as much chance of happening as a snow ball chances in he&&.

Ross Rowland often posts at this forum every now and then: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=1 There's been nothing on this for a very long time now. He apparently sidelined this concept for that express passenger run to the Greenbriar, with 614, and that never came to pass, either. It got painted in this green scheme as a 'billboard' for a train that never ran (and has had most of its equipment sold off already). She still sits cold in this spot:

 

But Ross has proven the nay-sayers wrong many times before. Just because it isn't happening right now, doesn't mean it never will...

I've got the popcorn ready to go.

 

Save me a box.

Lots of 'nevers' being tossed around here. I always laugh at the idea of something 'never' happening.

Who'd have thought, say, in the late 90s, that:

• A group of Brit fans would build a brand new mainline steam locomotive from an 'extinct' class (I bet those folks heard 'never' countless times!)
• UP would trade a diesel and a hack for the Big Boy at Pomona
• N&W 611 would be restored to operation on a new NS steam program
• C&O 1309 would be pulled out of the B&O museum for restoration for operation

Never say never, people. History has taught us that time and time again! While somethings might not be likely, all you throwing 'nevers' around need to stop and think of all the "It'll never happen" things we've seen come to pass in the last decade or so...

Well that was said about a big boy getting moved from California to Cheyenne and hopefully restored. So never say never

Can't put it on the Internet if it isn't true.... It would be neat to see the 611 doubleheaded with the 614.

It had a long way to go when I took these photos circa 1988 in Hagerstown, but hey, it had smoke coming out the stack:

 

 

 

This was also near the roundhouse:

 

 

I was in Hagerstown with my wife (she was on business) and I was riding around on this day looking for something to occupy my time.  I hang a left and see this yard and all this smoke and think "There's got to be a steam engine back there".

 

I stopped at the office and guy I talked to said "I bet your here to take some photos of the steam engine"?  He let me go back there, just told me to be careful.  I talked to the 2 guys working on the engine but don't recall who they were.

Bob,
The picture of the locomotive understeam is actually Reading 4-8-4 2100 in the final stages of its restoration. 614 shared roundhouse space in Hagerstown with the NYC 0-6-0, 2100, and also Reading 2101 while it was repainted into AFT colors for display following the roundhouse fire in Kentucky. 614 eventually moved to Baltimore for display prior to its brief rebirth pulling trips on New Jersey Transit, while the 2100 pulled a couple of test runs out of Hagerstown before moving to Ohio, Canada, and ultimately the West Coast. The 0-6-0 has since been traded to the Whitewater Valley Railroad in Indiana.
Great pictures none-the-less! A true shame that roundhouse was lost so recently...

I wish Mr. Rowland all the best with this project. He is responsible for my introduction to mainline steam operations as a youngster with his High Iron Company excursions using the CP G-5s and NKP 759 in the 60s and 70s so I've always been appreciative of his efforts. After having experienced the 614 on the Chessie Safety Express and the Port Jervis trips out of Hoboken over NJ Transit, I really hope he can make this work.

 

Bob 

I heard him talking in detail about this last fall. It relied completely on corporate backing, and all proceeds from people touring the train were supposed to go to wounded warrior. He also named several engines that were going to take part in the project:

614

819

765 (as a spare for the east)

844

700

4449 (as a spare for the west)

 

611 may have been mentioned as well, but I am not sure.

 

While I wish him luck, I highly doubt it will happen.

Never say never, but there have been so many hurry up and wait moments with the 614 over the past several years.

 

That's not to say I wouldn't love to see her steamed up again. I was on one of those trips out of Hoboken back in the fall of 1997 (I was 15 at the time) pulled by the 614. What a beauty. Prior to that day, I had no idea how big late steam era locomotives could be. I was only exposed to the engines at Strasburg and Essex prior to that.

 

 

Oh look, monkeys just flew out of my Big Old Butt!  So it must be true!

 

Larry

When we stopped to see the 614 last fall, I was very surprised to see the track under the engine had bowed and flexed under the weight of the main drivers.

Too funny Larry.....excuse me now while I clean the coffee off of my computer...

FYI, all the comments about 611 (meaning the N&W J) in this thread are funny, in that C&O 614, at one point, was numbered 611 in the mid 50s and still carried that number through the end of her service life, into storage at Russell, KY along with a huge number of other locomotives, most of which were scrapped later. 614 was displayed at the B&O museum as 611 for a while, until it was traded for the fire-damaged hulk of Ross Rowland's RDG 2101 which had been seriously messed up in a roundhouse fire.

So anyway, 614 was 611 for more than a little while

I am surprised that nobody else has mentioned that Ross wants to convert the 614 to run on Natural Gas.

Actually, Ross just said on another site that converting to gas is only in the very early stages of discussion, and she will probably remain a coal burner, which he is in favor of.

 

I wish him the best of luck with this attempt!  I fully support the cause and the dream he has.  Doesn't hurt to dream and to try!

 

My second favorite steam trips of all time were the 614 Hoboken to Port Jervis trips.  79mph in an open-window car behind one of Lima's finest was spectacular.  My favorite was 765 through the New River Gorge!