611 made it to Knoxville at least once, but only via the Harriman line. There was an an overnight trip from Cincinnati (Ludlow) in July 1993. She never operated on the Chattanooga to Knoxville to Bristol line.

The original dead-in-tow move from Roanoke to Birmingham in 1981 came down through Bristol to Knoxville and Chattanooga also.
Kevin

But why was it never (other than the DIT move) run on the Chattanooga-Bristol main (or the knoxville division correct?) even though she has been to Bristol

Well, that's what happens when the explanations come third-hand. I was a volunteer on several of the 611/1218 trips out of DC near the end of the excursion program, and only worked ones pulled by 1218 out to Front Royal. I was on some of the final ones to use Steam all the way from Alexandria, including a never-to-be-repeated circle trip: Alexandria-Manassas-Front Royal-Shenandoah Jct.-DC-Alexandria, with 1218 on from Manassas to Front Royal, and returning via the CSX Alexandria Branch through Anacostia and the Virginia Av. Tunnel.

Getting back to the financial discussion, I do not doubt that the 611 will run again. That said, even in our area of interest there are numerous organizations and activities that are equally deserving of our contributions. The problems that all railroad organizations face are the economy and convincing the potential donor as to why they should contribute to one railroad organization instead of another.

As a railroad preservationist, I would frankly be more concerned about preventing the loss of irreplaceable artifacts such as the East Broad Top railroad, which by all appearances seems to be in genuine danger. 611 is owned by an organization that is well organized and has well preserved the locomotive. Rebuilding the 611 can afford to wait a year or even two. The East Broad Top property could conceivably end up being broken up with the property and equipment sold off to the highest bidders and thrown to the wind. The collection would (as such) lose much of it's historical value and meaning as a result.

You have to remember that the 611 was much bigger than anything on the Southern--including the SS Class 2-10-2s. Jim Wrinn mentioned that the J bounced while going over the bridge at Loudon on that ferry move to Birmingham.

you are down to basically three possible reasons....
1) axle loadings -- bridges, and such. This is the reason the 611 was banned from operating over the Loops at Old Fort for many years.

2) curvature -- there are a bunch of tight curves, especially on the Bristol end. The north end is effectively an 1850s railroad, designed for much smaller locomotives.

3) clearances -- the problem with steam isn't height as much as width, especially around the cylinders. Remember the last-minute routing with the 4449 around Chicago during the Michigan deadhead move? There are tolerances with steam that don't affect diesels.

There is also one other thing to keep in mind. The majority of trips in the old program came as a result of the local NRHS chapter asking for trips in their city, and the yearly schedule was formed around those requests. The Old Smoky group in Knoxville was basically defunct as a trip sponsor after 1985 (4501 to Cumberland Gap in June '85 was one of the last trips). Watauga Valley NRHS didn't operate many trips either until the late 80s, and the southbound trips turned at Morristown, until the wye was removed. Neither the 611 nor 1218 ever operated on the River Line west of Asheville, so that cuts out another likely chapter operating trips to Knoxville. The 611 never even made it to Bristol until 1992, and that is a route that hosted the Js on a daily basis during the steam days. Therefore, there wasn't much of a reason, per se, to operate to Knoxville, and basically no reason to operate out of Knoxville.

Without track charts and engineering schematics of the Knoxville lines--and the restrictions placed upon the 611 and 1218, a specific answer of why probably can't be found unless someone involved chimes in.
Kevin

As a native Knoxvillian and former Old Smoky member I can say that all of you are fairly correct as to why 611 never made it to Knoxville for an excursion. The bridge over the Tennessee River at Loudon was one reason. That bridge has now been replaced. Schedules and Old Smoky's relationship with those that granted/scheduled excursions with Norfolk Southern were also contributing factors. Translation the relationship was not good. I do not recall the 611 actually coming all the way to Knoxville in July of 1993. Anyone got pictures of this?

I do not have any pics but I fired 611 that week-end from Danville,Ky to Knoxville and return. Sunday morning the RFE wanted us to go from the roundhouse at John Sevier through the tunnel to where the coaches had been stored overnight(departure yard?). She made it through the first curve into the tunnel but bound up in the 2nd curve coming out of the tunnel. Needless to say we had to back out and cut across the yard on the south end to get on the train. We passed about 10 business cars on the head-end of a westbound freight at Powell(?)after we picked up the passengers at Coster.

The 611 sure seems to be a persnickety beast, but nothing that cannot be dealt with. She holds no secrets from Norfolk Southern and hopefully, someone from the 2926 group is working with the BNSF Engineering Department to mitigate any trouble spots she might encounter once she is up and running.