Brought To You By The Letter 'J', Part 7, Act IV: The Powhatan Arrow & The Pelican

Описание: Once more unto the breach.

The finale for N&W 611's 2017 excursion season was a series of excursions out of her hometown of Roanoke, VA over Memorial Day weekend. Each day's schedule consisted of two half-day trips - on May 27th and 28th, the train ran east to Lynchburg in the morning and west to Radford in the afternoon, and on the 29th both trips ran to Radford. The route in both directions took the 611 over two of the Norfolk & Western's most famous grades; Blue Ridge to the east and Christiansburg to the west.

Despite an ominous weather forecast, the sun won the weekend and the rain cover for my camera was never called into action. Having chased the same excursions last year, I balanced revisiting a couple of locations with 'filling in the blanks' by visiting a few new ones. As with Part 7, Act III, the scenes from all 3 days have been woven together in geographic order to create a single 'trip' in each direction:

Bonsack: Several of my fellow railfans had spoken well of this location in 2016, so it was on my short list of must-visits this year. The Blue Ridge Parkway crosses Davis Road, Webster Road, and the former N&W mainline at a point between Bonsack and Webster, and the bridge presents a great angle to watch eastbounds working up the Blue Ridge grade on their way towards Lynchburg - especially steam-powered ones in cool weather with low-hanging clouds in the distance.

Villamont: The difference a year makes - the classic N&W position light signals at Villamont were gone, replaced by a shiny new set of modern Safetrans signals (aka 'Darth Vaders'). On the bright side (literally), the sky was cloudless in sharp contrast to the year before.

Blue Ridge: As it was at Villamont, so it was also at Blue Ridge. The old signals may have been gone, but 611 still sounded the same as she stormed up the grade on the return run from Lynchburg.

Montgomery Tunnel: I had generally good luck avoiding large crowds during the weekend, but Montgomery Tunnel was one location where I had to suffer the masses if I wanted to mark the spot off my list of places to visit. Once more there were no position light signals to be had, but we had ample entertainment while we waited in the form of several westbound freights.

Christiansburg: Unlike the madhouse at Montgomery Tunnel, the folks milling about in downtown Christiansburg were far more amiable. The town had even closed off the Cambria Street crossing to vehicle traffic so onlookers could safely congregate to watch the 611 go by. Like at the tunnel, the workaday freights held everyone's attention until the Queen Of Steam appeared.

Elliston: While killing time waiting on the 611 to turn around in Radford, I discovered that the passenger-side front seat, footwell, and console cupholder in my car made the perfect brace for my tripod, and thus an idea was born. If only the stretch of Route 460 paralleling the tracks east of Elliston was a little bit longer...

Roanoke: The train returned to Roanoke too early for there to be any color to the sunset, but the Martin Luther King Memorial Bridge in downtown Roanoke was still a nice spot to chat with fellow railfans and view the freight action until 611 returned at the end of its afternoon run.

As always, kudos and a big thank you to the men and women of Norfolk Southern, the Virginia Museum Of Transportation and its volunteers, and the car owners who contribute their time and resources to making these trips possible. Consider visiting the VMT's website at www.vmt.org to join the museum or make a donation to help keep the 611 running in the future. Long live the Queen!

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