The Shadow
SPIRIT OF ROANOKE — Norfolk and Western’s Class J 611 steam passenger locomotive, known as the Spirit of Roanoke, will be heading to Spencer, N.C., for restoration. An “All Aboard” send-off party is scheduled for Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Photo Courtesy Virginia Museum of Transportation)
SPIRIT OF ROANOKE — Norfolk and Western’s Class J 611 steam passenger locomotive, known as the Spirit of Roanoke, will be heading to Spencer, N.C., for restoration. An “All Aboard” send-off party is scheduled for Saturday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Photo Courtesy Virginia Museum of Transportation)
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ROANOKE — The Virginia Museum of Tran-sportation has announced that the Norfolk & Western Class J 611 Steam Pass-enger Locomotive — known affectionately as the Spirit of Roanoke — is ready to head to Spencer, N.C. for restoration.
An “All Aboard” send-off party is scheduled for Saturday, May 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The day will include music, food and fun for everyone.
After leaving the Virginia Museum of Transportation on May 24, the Class J 611 will arrive at the North Carolina Transportation Museum on or about May 29. She will be the guest of honor at the museum’s streamliners event, to be held May 29 through June 1. Restoration work will begin shortly after the event.
The restoration will be open to the public, but with limited viewing. Planned work includes a complete overhaul to meet current Federal Railroad Administration and strict safety guidelines.
“We’re pleased to send the 611 on to our fellow train enthusiasts at the North Carolina Transportation Museum where this exciting restoration will get underway,” said Beverly T. Fitzpatrick, Jr., executive director of the Virginia Museum of Transportation. “We’re grateful for the tremendous amount of support that allows us to reach this step of the program.”
The Fire Up 611 Commit-tee of steam locomotive technology experts, business leaders and railroad consultants conducted a feasibility study in 2013.
The study revealed that the Virginia Museum of Transportation would need $3.5 million to restore, operate and preserve the Class J 611. An additional $1.5 million will be raised as an endowment for the iconic locomotive.
Although the original plan called for raising approximately $3.5 million prior to the start of restoration, the Fire Up 611! Committee and the museum’s Board of Directors decided to move ahead with restoration now that $2.3 million has been raised.
Fitzpatrick cites a tight timeline to participate in Norfolk Southern’s 21st Century Steam Program in 2015, Amtrak’s return to Roanoke, the momentum of the fundraising efforts and strong results as reasons in support of the decision.
“The restoration will take approximately nine months and needs to begin this spring so we can participate in Norfolk Southern’s 21st Century Steam Program in 2015,” said Fitzpatrick. “As she travels the Norfolk Southern rail system, our 611 will draw the attention and interest of new donors and fans of the Class J 611 from the region and beyond.”
The Fire Up 611! Com-mittee recommended that a preservation and education center be built at the museum to keep the locomotive in top operating form.
“The goal from the very beginning was not only to get her running, but to keep her running for generations to come,” said J. Preston Claytor, chairman of the Fire Up 611! Committee. “The facility secures the investments rail fans have made in the Class J 611.”
Amtrak’s plans to extend passenger rail service into Roanoke will play a role in the location of the preservation and education center.
“Amtrak may need land owned by Norfolk Southern and leased by the museum at present,” he says. “We are looking at ideas for the preservation and education facility’s location in conjunction with Amtrak Service, the Class J 611’s restoration, and the overall planning of this facility.”
In recent months, the Fire Up 611! Campaign saw major momentum, and the museum is confident the remaining funds will be raised.
“We’re going at full steam,” said Fitzpatrick. “Based on our success to date and projection for the campaign’s final stages, we decided we could send her to Spencer for restoration sooner rather than later.”
In nine short months, donations to the campaign have been received from nearly 3,000 donors from every state and the District of Columbia in the United States and 18 foreign countries.
Fans of the Class J 611 are invited to visit fireup611.org to learn more and to donate to the Fire Up 611 Capital Campaign. They can also visit the Fire Up 611 Facebook page, YouTube and Twitter feed (#fireup611).
The Fire Up 611! Study
The study determined that a minimum of $3.5 million is needed to return the locomotive to the rails. The costs include a complete mechanical restoration of the locomotive, a preservation and education facility and support to develop the excursion program.
The Preservation and Education Facility will preserve and maintain the iconic steam passenger locomotive. Educational exhibits and viewing areas will also be included.
The locomotive will be restored through a partnership with the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, N.C. The 37-bay Bob Julian Roundhouse on the grounds of the museum is one of the last remaining roundhouses in the United States that can handle a locomotive the size of the Class J 611.
To be successful and remain on the rails, personnel and tools are necessary to complete the restoration and operate the excursions. Included in these costs are marketing, human resour-ces and business operations.
About the N&W Class J 611 Steam Locomotive
The Norfolk & Western Class J 611 Steam Loco-motive is the one of the finest American passenger steam locomotives ever built. She is a marriage of beauty and power. Simple lines, a bullet nose, a midnight black façade, a Tuscan stripe and a baritone whistle makes her one of the most distinguished steam locomotives left in the world.
She’s an engineering powerhouse of steam, technology and near mechanical perfection.
The Norfolk & Western Class J Locomotives were designed, constructed and maintained in Roanoke. These streamlined locomotives captivated the hearts of rail fans worldwide since they first rolled out of the N&W Roanoke Shops, beginning in 1941.
“The Class J Locomotives were the most technically advanced steam locomotive design of any type that was ever in service anywhere in the world,” said William Withuhn, curator emeritus, History of Technology and Transportation, Smithson-ian Institution and editor and co-author of Rails Across America: a History of Railroads in North America (Smithmark, 1993). “The J was – and is now – under its graceful skin the apex and epitome of its era of design, helping to make Americans the most mobile people on the planet.”
The Class J Locomotives were built using American ingenuity, design and engineering. Even today, she is the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology known to man.
“The J class was the final fruit of more than 120 years of engineering development,” said Withuhn. “A Class J could hit more than 5,000 net horsepower, and reach 110 miles per hour. There was nothing like it.”
The Class J 611 Steam Locomotive was built in 1950, a time when men wore hats and ladies wore gloves and smartly dressed porters served lunch on real china in the dining car. The 611 Locomotive pulled the Powhatan Arrow, the famed passenger train, from Norfolk to Cincinnati.
The Class J 611 retired from passenger rail service in 1959. In 1962, she was moved to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.
In 1981, Norfolk Southern pulled her out of retirement and restored her to her original glory. Once again, she blew her whistle to sleepy towns and thundered across the landscape.
In 1984, the Class J 611 was named a National Historical Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
She retired from excursions in 1994 and moved back into the Virginia Museum of Transportation, where she sits today, greeting tens of thousands of her fans who visit from across the globe every year.
Since her retirement, rail fans have clamored, hoped and dreamed that she return to the rails, to blow her whistle and steam over the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains once again.
About the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Inc.
Home to two of the most powerful steam locomotives in existence today — the N&W Class A 1218 and the N&W Class J 611 — the Virginia Museum of Transportation has celebrated 50 years of the road, rail and air. The museum regularly attracts visitors of all ages from across the U.S. and around the world.
Through exhibits, artifacts, and an outstanding collection of rail equipment, cars, trucks, airplanes, and more, the mMuseum tells the story of Virginia’s rich transportation history.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation, Inc. is the Official Transportation Museum of the commonwealth of Virginia, but receives no state funding. The museum is located in the historic Norfolk & Western Freight Station at 303 Norfolk Avenue SW, Roanoke, Va. 24016. Open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more informaton, visit www.vmt.org.
About the North Carolina
Transportation Museum
The N.C. Transportation Museum, located in historic Spencer Shops, the former Southern Railway repair facility just five minutes off I-85 at Exit 79 in Spencer, N.C., and about an hour from Charlotte, Greensboro or Winston-Salem. The museum is part of the Division of Historic Sites and the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
