I was not 100% serious when I brought this trip up as an anniversary trip as I wasn't expecting her to say yes... She did, and said only if we buy first class tickets... Life is rough sometimes... She said she wanted to go on the Virginian trip from Spencer to Lynchburg since she had never been to Virginia.
This greeted us when we arrived at Spencer.
I am ordinarily not one for "selfies", but my wife was being a good sport about being at the museum so early, so I obliged...
This is the view from our seat prior to leaving the museum. Our seats were on the lower level of a former NP dome car named Stampede Pass.
The view from the Dome on the way north.
Stopped at Danville, VA to pick up VA licensed EMTs. Our helpers was NS Southern Heritage unit 8099, and FP-7 6133 owned by the NCTM. The original plan was to have the 6133 and NCTM's Southern E-8 as the helpers, but dynamic brake issues that cropped up on the E during testing put it on the side lines. This picture was taken from the dome.
The crowds along the whole route were absolutely crazy. I loved seeing the looks on the faces of the young kids, and the foamers sprinting to their cars in their attempts to chase. We spent a couple of hours touring Lynchburg as the crew was servicing and turning the train. Here is some of the crowd that came out to see the train. This is after the train was wyed.
My buddy Adam hamming it up during the servicing.
Another view of our helpers prior to us boarding for the return trip.
The car we rode in.
Thats about it, as to pictures that I took. I had an absolute blast. The wife was a good sport on the trip back despite the two hour late return to Spencer. All three meals that I ate on board were very good. If I were to say that I had any complaints, it was solely that I could not hear the engine at all. No whistle, chugs, etc. On the same note, I really couldn't hear much of the grade crossings as we went through them either. I would definitely do this again if the opportunity arises...