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
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