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It has been said that the steam locomotive is the most like man of all his inventions. If, like me, you subscribe to this notion, you nearly felt the need to bow upon hearing the whistle. It’s a good thing I didn’t, else I’d have missed the show.
It was with that deep, throaty whistle, more familiar to Christiansburg, Bluefield, and Kenova, that steam royalty, N&W 611, announced to all around the beginning of its jaunt up the North Mountain grade.
While built for C&O’s main competitor, the J traversed grades much like this during her service to her builder, pulling name trains such as the Powhatan Arrow and Pocahontas behind her. She made quick work of getting up to track speed, barely five miles from Goshen and her majesty was already galloping in the morning sun.
The first opportunity to see the leviathan at speed blowing for a crossing provided a hallmark of steam. With an almost unnoticeable flutter of steam hanging in the air, the master made his whistle sing, like an orchestral conductor imploring extra emphasis out of his musicians, so too did the man at the throttle, to the delight of the gathered crowd.
A lesson in diligence awaited us as we missed the first run back to Goshen. However, the afternoon run provided interesting opportunities, including the J climbing the grade, though I so wish I’d been fortunate enough to see her stalling and then digging in to get her train moving again as was reported.
Approaching Staunton, after finally vanquishing the mountain, the Queen made her appearance with smoke pouring from her stack, enough to make known her position to all around, as if the whistle wasn’t enough.
Seeing N&W motive power pulling in to a C&O station is enough to make one double take, almost as much as seeing a J on the Virginian prior to 1959. However, just as in the mountains of Southern West Virginia in the steam era, the rare event occurred, although this one had been planned for months as opposed to N&W knocking on their neighbors’ door requesting reroute assistance.
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Upon the hitching of internal combustion driven power to the aft end of the train, off we were back to Goshen, with more history riding the rails. Leading our train back to home base were two GP40s. Buckingham Branch 7, a 1966 EMD product originally constructed to ply the rails of the Rio Grande, and Buckingham Branch 13, a 1967 model with time spent on the rosters of the Milwaukee Road, Soo, and Kansas City Southern prior to finding a home in the Old Dominion.
For those of us so inclined to study the history of the iron horse, the month or so that 611 gets to stretch her legs in her home state provides a rolling history lesson all around. It is a truly fascinating experience to chase this magnificent machine, to have an audience with the Queen of Steam.