N&W 611 Steam Locomotive at the Strasburg Rail Road

Norfolk and Western number 611 is one of the most famous excursion steam locomotives in the United States. It was built in-house by the Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1950 at their Roanoke, Virginia shops. 611 and the other 13 J Class 484 locomotives were primarily assigned to the railroad's premier passenger trains. Later on, they were also occasionally seen in freight service. In 1959, after just nine short years working for the N&W, number 611 was retired. It was donated to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in 1962, becoming the only locomotive in its class to be preserved. With the merger of Norfolk and Western and the Southern Railway in 1982, 611 was restored to operation to participate in the new railroad's steam excursion program. When the railroad chose to discontinue excursions in 1994, the locomotive returned once again to the Museum of Transportation. After a near 20 year hiatus, the 611 was once again restored and returned to operation from 2014 to 2015. Since then, the locomotive has made trips for the Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam Program as well as public excursions for the Virginia Museum of Transportation. Most recently, 611 has made two trips to the Strasburg Railroad in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 2019 and 2021. On both of these occasions, 611 traveled from Roanoke, Virginia to Strasburg for an entire summer of trips through Pennsylvania Dutch Country and other special events at the railroad. During the 2019 visit, one of the special events was a Norfolk and Western themed photo and video shoot featuring the 611 alongside the Strasburg Railroad's own N&W locomotive, 480 Mastodon Type number 475. 475 was given various different N&W styled appearances for the photo shoot, including two days numbered up as locomotive 382. We will now go back to October of 2019 for a look at the Norfolk and Western steam reunion at the Hey everyone, thanks for joining me for this look at Norfolk and Western 611 at the Strasburg Railroad in 2019. If you enjoyed this video and would like to see more 611 in the future, hit the like button and leave me a comment down below. For regular upload and post notifications, subscribe to the channel and select the receive all notifications option from the pull down menu. I'll be back next Friday at 9 AM Pacific time for another railroad themed adventure right here on the YouTube channel. That's it for now. Until next time, I'm Mike Armstrong. I'll see you down the line! Thanks for watching!