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The BEST 4-8-4 ever built! The N&W 611 Class J is a CLASS ACT all around! Roanoke built them right!
Tinplate Art posted:The BEST 4-8-4 ever built! The N&W 611 Class J is a CLASS ACT all around! Roanoke built them right!
Hands down the best...to me.
I was never really a fan until I saw it live in Strasburg yesterday. It is a very cool and impressive engine.
Have Fun.
Ron
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Roanoke shops built the best! Hard to argue. The j kicked butt and their y6b would outpull a big boy. Very very impressive railroad!!!!
Having been built in 1950, the 611 had all the most modern appliances plus roller bearings all around including the siderods. They were easy to lubricate and maintain in spite of the cowling, and could be serviced quickly for a relatively fast turn around!
Tinplate Art posted:Having been built in 1950, the 611 had all the most modern appliances plus roller bearings all around including the siderods. They were easy to lubricate and maintain in spite of the cowling, and could be serviced quickly for a relatively fast turn around!
All true, however they did NOT like bad/rough/curved yard tracks when bumped off passenger service and placed into freight service.
Kind of like a "fish out of water"! LOL!
I'd be more excited if it was a regular K4.
Joe Hohmann posted:I'd be more excited if it was a regular K4.
There aren't any. However, there are two K4s locomotives saved, one in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (across the street from the Strasburg Rail Road), and the other one in pieces at the Altoona Railroaders Museum.
K4 are nice just not that impressive compared to a j
At least it isn’t sitting cold this time during an excursion ban by Amtrak. NS would probably allow excursions if Amtrak would host and insure them, so the real reason that there are no longer any mainline excursions with 611 is Richard Anderson. Anderson feels excursions and charters are a distraction to Amtrak’s mission of serving the traveling public. I saw an Amtrak go by at Leaman Place during my 611 ride. I was in an open air car but not the end car because it filled up.
Hot Water posted:Tinplate Art posted:Having been built in 1950, the 611 had all the most modern appliances plus roller bearings all around including the siderods. They were easy to lubricate and maintain in spite of the cowling, and could be serviced quickly for a relatively fast turn around!
All true, however they did NOT like bad/rough/curved yard tracks when bumped off passenger service and placed into freight service.
No 4-8-4 northern class locomotive liked yard tracks. The rigid wheelbase was just too long for such duty. The J class excelled at what they were designed to do perhaps better than any other 4-8-4. At the peak of railfan railroading here in Birmingham we had several Northern class locomotives stop at Norris Yard, just east of Bham. for service. For a time Norris Yard had the busiest steam shop in the US. T&P 610 (2-10-4) was leased by NS for a year or so. All these long rigid wheelbase locos had to creep around yards with wheel flanges squealing like pigs. Even N&W 1218 (2-6-6-4) could negotiate switches with less fuss. j
