New Luxury Train Service to the Greenbrier Resort Announced

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Tue Apr 01, 2014 12:49 pm

WALTON'S MTN., VA- Hoss Towland, famous steam enthusiast, excursion operator and owner of Chesapeake & Ohio 614, the last commercially built steam locomotive in North America has announced an exciting new venture, the Greenbrier Presidential Express ("GBX"). Details are forthcoming at press time, but Mr. Towland was happy to give RYPN readers some information:

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The GBX is a funded project ( the check has cleared) and no longer a "concept". It will be a 17 car long, ultra first class day train that will make 1 roundtrip/week, 10 months/year from Washington DC to the Greenbrier resort at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. The train will be made up of 7 parlour cars each seating 30 guests, 2 dining room cars, an all kitchen car, an open platform tavern lounge car and other specialty cars. The train will be out of service each year from Jan. 15th.-March 15th. for heavy maintenance/refurbishment. Roundtrip fare will be $ 750.00. No child's fare.

It will operate on the same routing as Amtrak's Cardinal, departing Washington, DC on Tuesdays at 10:00 am arriving at WSS at 5 pm. It will layover at WSS until its Sunday 10:00 am departure back to Washington, arriving there at 5 pm. Capacity will be 210 guests.

Its by-line will be " World's Finest Train", and we will spare no effort to earn that.

Service is scheduled to commence on July 2. The trains cars will be outfitted in Pottstown, Pa. Motive power will be a mix of modern diesels and classic mainline steam. On the steam portions of the journey there will be NO diesels in the consist. No " kissing your sister" here mister!!!

There has been rampant speculation regarding motive power for the GBX. Rumors have circulated that the project could herald the return of C&O 614. When asked, Mr. Towland commented:

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Motive Power- We have purchased 3, C-39-8 locos on the second hand market ( all runners equipped with cab signals) and will be giving them a top to bottom going over and then a first class repainting into GBX livery as designed by noted rr artist Bob Lorenz.
The biz. plan calls for the GBX to be all diesel powered for its first season and for steam to be added ( subject to approvals from Amtrak, CSX and Buckingham Branch RR, approvals that I am guardedly optimistic we will achieve) in the second season.

When steam is added the GBX will be diesel powered WUS-Gordonsville and steam powered Gordonsville-WSS in both directions. There will be NO repeat NO diesels in the consist when steam powered.

C&O 614 will be one of 3 steam engines in the steam stable. We will need 3 engines so that we have one on hot standby and one in cycle maintenance in addition to the one in active service.

We are actively vetting many candidate engines to be 614's 2 stable mates with a goal of finishing that task by November.

When asked about potential critics regarding the feasibility of such a project, Mr. Towland stated:

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As was a sure thing, even this good news has sparked the small sour band of NNN's to work overtime trying their best to find some kernel of bad in a boatload of good! It's an interesting comment on the human condition. Only 2 of them have so far chimed in, with 2 more yet to be heard from. Fret not, they'll show up soon enough!!

When excitedly pressed for further details, Mr. Towland stated:

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Further details will be released over the coming months.

We will report details as they develop.

Joshua K. Blay · **Posted:** Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:54 pm

Seriously now, what has become of the rolling stock in Pottstown?

Joshua

jmlaboda · Updated 8/9/17 with 8,402 new links

Very funny... you got me on this one.

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

you know if this were really real, possible alternate engines with C&O makes, there are I think at least 1 or 2 2-6-6-2 C&O engines out there in a park or somewhere resting.
Hoosier Valley is restoring a 2-8-4, how far do ya wanna go, there are 2 2-6-6-6's out there.

Otherwise there may be currently operating engines like nkp 765, SP 4449, or borrow off Milwaukee 265, hey its not steam but IRM has been running out its Silver pilot engine on excursions, and ran the train on one from Union Station.

The only other thought is get the UP Big Boy now in restoration, now that'll be interesting.

steamfan765 · **Joined:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:30 am **Posts:** 180

the 2 2-6-6-2 1308 and 1309 are not a good choice for a luxury train they're too slow and the 2-6-6-6 1601 and 1604 are too big for eastern railroads they were heavier than the big boys and CSX wouldn't have one of them to operate on their lines. 614 is the perfect choice for this train and Ross owns her. The 2789 is a good choice and also NKP 765. you need a mainline steam locomotive that can handle heavy trains on grades at speed unassisted. we can all dream but lets face it an H8 or a mallet to operate on eastern railroads the 1218 did ran but its was a short one. I love steam at all sizes I would love to see steam on the CSX again but until change of command in CSX headquarters steam will not run on CSX again.

New Luxury Train Service to the Greenbrier Resort Announced

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