Midweek Photos has returned once again to OGR, and it's time for Big Steam, Baby! The excursion season comes to a close in the South, as it opens in the North and Midwest. There was a lot of steam action in Virginia this weekend as Norfolk Southern's J 611 stomped around the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here are some photos of my weekend.
This sequence of shots is not far from downtown Roanoke, VA. Three days of the 611 running two trips to Waltons and back (about 60 miles each way) leads to plenty of photo opportunities. This is where the Virginian Railway crossed over the Norfolk & Western Railway. Both lines are still in use by the Norfolk Southern.
We are standing at the crossing, so the whistle is blowing.
California Zephyr's dome lounge Silver Lariat and the Silver Solarium graced this train full of special passenger cars.
At that same location, we waited for 3 freight trains to arrive before the steam engine came through. We had just missed a train on the VGN line above. Busy place.
The first NS Freight to pass us was this manifest on the far track. The photo below shows the advance truck that cleared the path for the steam train to head out. Sometimes these trucks were 10 minutes ahead of the 611, and other times more like 30 minutes. It helped to determine which track to expect the steam engine, though.
Then we were greeted by two stack trains in a row. This one is led by 8161.
And this one was led by 7647. More photos are coming in following posts and the following weeks. Time for you to dig into your slides or snapshots for trains operating in the real world. Talk to you soon.
