N&W 611 Off This Weekend

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Sat Oct 28, 2023 12:15 am

Quote:

Special announcement:
Friday October 27, 2023
To Our Valued Guests and Rail Family:
Due to an unforeseen mechanical issue, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Inc. and Virginia Scenic Railway regrettably announce the necessary substitution of motive power for this weekend’s remaining Shenandoah Valley Limited excursions.
Diesel locomotives will be utilized to operate Saturday and Sunday’s excursions which will continue to depart from Victoria Station on their planned operating schedule. 611 will remain accessible to guests on static display throughout the weekend.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation, along with Virginia Scenic Railway, remains committed to offering you the best possible experience during your excursion. Please contact us with any questions or concerns at 611limited@gmail.com.

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Sat Oct 28, 2023 12:51 pm

It ain't easy keeping those giant D-Cell batteries charged!

LiveWire · **Joined:** Wed Sep 11, 2013 5:11 pm **Posts:** 47

Ed Kapuscinski wrote:

It ain't easy keeping those giant D-Cell batteries charged!

I thought it was because somebody apparently took up that center third rail!

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Sun Oct 29, 2023 12:46 pm

From four hours ago:

"“Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people” - Steve Jobs

It’s with great honor and pleasure that we can announce that 611 has been repaired and will be back pulling the “Shenandoah Valley Limited” excursions on the Virginia Scenic Railway! We cannot thank our locomotive crew (repairing the 611 in less than 24 hours), volunteers, and staff enough for all of their hard work around the clock in getting the locomotive back in service.

We would also like to extend enormous amounts of thanks to all of our passengers, donors, supporters and fans of the 611/Virginia Museum of Transportation for their cooperation and patience while the 611 was being repaired."

BWills · **Joined:** Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:55 pm **Posts:** 70

what happened to it ?

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Sun Oct 29, 2023 2:05 pm

BWills wrote:

what happened to it ?

Something broke, it got fixed. The 611 team is not saying what broke (yet, if at all). The IRFC (Internet Railfan Foamer Community) has theories and unconfirmed reports, but nothing official.

Crescent-Zephyr · **Joined:** Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm **Posts:** 1716

So did she miss any trips or not?

John D · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:28 pm **Posts:** 479

Quote:

So did she miss any trips or not?

611 was sidelined Saturday (10/28/2023), but was back in service today (10/29/2023).

wesp · **Posted:** Sun Oct 29, 2023 7:28 pm

bigjim4life wrote:

BWills wrote:

what happened to it ?

Something broke, it got fixed. The 611 team is not saying what broke (yet, if at all). The IRFC (Internet Railfan Foamer Community) has theories and unconfirmed reports, but nothing official.

LIKE

Crescent-Zephyr · **Joined:** Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm **Posts:** 1716

bigjim4life wrote:

BWills wrote:

what happened to it ?

Something broke, it got fixed. The 611 team is not saying what broke (yet, if at all). The IRFC (Internet Railfan Foamer Community) has theories and unconfirmed reports, but nothing official.

Feel better after giving that smart-a statement?

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Mon Oct 30, 2023 10:07 am

Crescent-Zephyr wrote:

bigjim4life wrote:

BWills wrote:

what happened to it ?

Something broke, it got fixed. The 611 team is not saying what broke (yet, if at all). The IRFC (Internet Railfan Foamer Community) has theories and unconfirmed reports, but nothing official.

Feel better after giving that smart-a statement?

Yes and I don't think it was entirely a "smart-a" statement. People online are saying "this broke", "no, that broke", and "are you sure it wasn't that?" instead of waiting for any official word or statement, if one ever comes. Unless an actual crew member on the ground comes out and says something, or if the VMT/official N&W 611 folks post any kind of statement online, we won't really know what happened. It's their locomotive, they are allowed to say and/or not say what actually happened, and how it got fixed so quickly.

Crescent-Zephyr · **Joined:** Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:15 pm **Posts:** 1716

Sure. and if the official organization doesn't say anything they should expect people to ask questions and people to guess based on what they have heard from others.

I'm not that concerned about what broke but I am curious on what was offered to ticket holders on Saturday. How customer service issues like that are handled can have a huge impact. Us railfans are used to steam locomotives breaking down (goodness aren't we?) but the general public don't understand things like that as easily (speaking from experience... glad the ticket booths had bars!!! haha).

Christopher Stone · **Joined:** Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:23 am **Posts:** 73

bigjim4life wrote:

Yes and I don't think it was entirely a "smart-a" statement. People online are saying "this broke", "no, that broke", and "are you sure it wasn't that?"

Which is all mighty tame compared to the online speculation surrounding Matthew Perry's death. The difference being, some of those theories are presented to us to further various agendas. I have seen Perry's death blamed on everything from the Russian mafia to the Covid vaccine and everything else in-between.

BWills · **Joined:** Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:55 pm **Posts:** 70

It's a natural curiousity as to what happened. frankly don't see the reason for all the secrecy. why not just say " X broke, and were able to fix it by making a new part etc".

jcmarksbury · **Joined:** Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:58 am **Posts:** 35

BWills wrote:

It's a natural curiousity as to what happened. frankly don't see the reason for all the secrecy. why not just say " X broke, and were able to fix it by making a new part etc".

Just IMHO:

From a PR perspective, given the nature of some rail fans, I would want to avoid the comments saying “well if you had done this….” or anything that might make the org. look bad to the general public.

Even more important to avoid anything that might lead to “they’re lucky it didn’t explode” comments.

It doesn’t matter if those comments aren’t based on any facts. If someone in the general public sees them, it could sour them on taking trips.

The best option would be to post the problem, then turn off comments, but I’m not sure that’s possible on Facebook.

N&W 611 Off This Weekend

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