After months of speculation by railfans across the Eastern Seaboard, Norfolk Southern released its planned steam excursion schedule for 2015 and beyond.

After restoration to service at Spencer, N.C.,, Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 611 will be assigned to a Spencer Yard, N.C.-Kinney Yard (Lynchburg, Va.) manifest freight with a passenger car on the rear, then forward a freight from Kinney to Roanoke, again as a “mixed;” ticket prices for the one-way rides will start at $611 per segment. After a celebratory homecoming, 611 would be assigned to one Roanoke-to-Bedford, Va. round trip and one Roanoke-to-Walton, Va. round tripbefore being set aside to await assignment to a ceremonial assignment to the inaugural Roanoke-to-Washington Amtrak train, an extension of the existing Northeast Regional train from Lynchburg , slated for start-up in 2017.

Nickel Plate 765 will handle two weekend runs out of Fort Wayne during the July 4th and Labor Day weekend traffic slowdowns, using cars borrowed from the Milwaukee 261 operation. Southern 4501 would be assigned to two trips out of Chattanooga during the same weekends, using TVRM rolling stock.

Railfans have thus far reacted with disappointment on online forums to the meager schedules, but NS officials cited upswings in both freight and Amtrak traffic and a chronic shortage of crews for the lack of capacity to run excursion trains.

Details of the schedule, including links to websites of sponsoring organizations for ticket orders, can be found at http://APRIL FIRST

And so it begins...a very nice start to the festivities!

RYPN's terms-of-services should state that anyone who posts an April Fools joke on March 31 has to give up beer for a year.

Two words: "Time zones."

Three more words: "Daylight Savings Time."

"RYPN's terms-of-services should state that anyone who posts an April Fools joke on March 31 has to give up beer for a year."

_________________

No. Beer is an essential food group. That is a terrible thing to say. Any such suggestion should require the suggestor to have to drink Brawndo for a year. Brawndo has minerals.


Every loaf of bread is the tragic story of grain that apired to be beer.

Correction: The Brawndo should be forcefed, with a Brawndo bong.

No, just restrict him to Bud or Coors light. They are nothing like beer......

dave

I hear that next year will see an exhibition of steam giants over horseshoe curve unlike anything every seen in preservation. N&W 611, NKP 765 and RDG 2100 will run side by side up and around the curve, each one pulling near maximum tonnage. This exhibition will pay homage to the many predecessor lines which have come to work together to form America's finest railroad.


Rather than drones, flying pigs will be equipped with go pro cameras to capture the event.

Cheers, Jason

Nah, the 2100 will never run again! There's way too much wrong with it.


Note that the posts from above are part of an April Fool's joke.

Jason, not sure what you're smokin', but from what everyone says, 2100 is a goner. And we all know that the myriad of arm chair experts know what they are talking about, hands down. Any talk of 2100 moving back across North America and being returned to steam is grounds for being called in for a random drug test...warped side sheets, broken staybolts, bent main rod, damaged syphons, etc. Need I go on any further?

Rob Gardner

Not everyone. You'll be amazed. hehe

"Rather than drones, flying pigs will be equipped with go pro cameras to capture the event."

Strapping the camera on makes that one easy. The Flying Pig portion of that equation has already been accomplished by the Doritos Kid !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQo0TfuueaY

Then it is all coming together!

2015 sounds like a good year to invest in stock for urinalysis tests.

Re: Norfolk Southern Announces 2015-16 Steam Excursion Schedule


> jasonsobczynski wrote:
> I hear that next year will see an exhibition of steam giants
> over Horseshoe Curve unlike anything every seen in preservation.
> N&W 611, NKP 765 and RDG 2100 will run side by side up and around
> the curve, each one pulling near maximum tonnage.

You only heard part of the story.

N&W 611 and NKP 765 will run side by side up and around the curve, each one pulling a representative consist drawn from a pool consisting of RDG 2100, PRR 1361, UP 844, UP 3985, UP 4014, and B&LE 643. It was my understanding that the LYIN-L (tm) smoke generators as specified for the rebuild of the Nickel Plate Geep will be programmed appropriately for each non-operational locomotive, together with appropriate foam, flame puffs, simulated 300 psi blowdown at head height, and other effects that would characterize each type of motive power if it were still in operable shape.

[quote="Chris Webster"]RYPN's terms-of-services should state that anyone who posts an April Fools joke on March 31 has to give up beer for a year.[/quote]

No - BUY beer for everyone for a year.