Norfolk & Western 611: The Shenandoah Steam Spectacle (4K)

After a long hiatus of hauling trips on the mainline, the Queen of Steam has returned to her home state of Virginia to pull autumn excursions through the scenic Shenandoah Valley. Norfolk & Western 611, a J Class 4-8-4 “Northern” built by the N&W’s Roanoke Shops in 1950, had been moved to Goshen, Virginia along the Buckingham Branch Railroad, a Class III short line railroad operating on state-owned rails with connections to Clifton Forge and Richmond. It is this partnership between the Virginia Museum of Transportation and the Buckingham Branch Railroad that paved the way for a series of 30 excursions through the Shenandoah Valley, dubbed the “Shenandoah Valley Limited”.

Operating over the original former Chesapeake & Ohio mainline, these half day excursions departed from Goshen’s newly created Victoria Station and head east through the vibrant autumn mountains of Shenandoah through Craigsville, climbing grades upwards of 2% over the crest at North Mountain, before dropping down into Swoope before beginning the climb once more into Staunton, where the train will pause for a few minutes before diesel locomotives pull the excursion back to Goshen. This video showcases the most vibrant weekends of excursions through the autumn foliage, proving that she can feel right at home on the former C&O mainline, right in her home state once again. These are the first autumn excursions on a mainline that the 611 has pulled since 1994, almost 29 years ago.

Now, please enjoy this exciting spectacle of steam brought to you by Blue Comet Productions!

This video was filmed in Autumn of 2023.

[PRL]

Grace, power, elegance, and ingenuity all in one. Man I love this thing.

AMAZING cinematography. I will forever be kicking myself that I never made the trip down to see this myself.

[richhood]

This is an awesome way of running a mainline steam excursion. It is nice to see 611 stretch her legs a little - even though it is on what was once the passenger mainline owned by the Norfolk and Western's chief rival, the Chesapeake and Ohio. C&O 614 would look great strutting her stuff there -but I have marked my calendar for the period between June 11th to the 14th of 2027, which would be a fitting time for 611 and 614 to doublehead or push-pull excursions, and the Buckingham Branch Railroad would be a neat place to pull off such a thing

[southerncrescentproductions]

I was a passenger on the Shenandoah Valley Limited!! It was my first ever mainline steam excursion. After experiencing that, I just have to say that passenger trains in America will never be the same

[CullenTabaczynski]

Blown away by this one! What a spectacle indeed. The shot at 2:40 is iconic👌

[davidmcdougall]

Best scenes I’ve seen with 611 in many years! Hell of a job!

[emjay]

Who can't help but love a classic American steam locomotive traveling through the beautiful autumn foilage of the Amercian countryside. Thank you for this well-done video.

[stvtool]

Every Fall, the Autumn Leaf Special would carry suburbanites from Peachtree Station in Midtown Atlanta 90 miles northeast to Toccoa, GA ( the last stop in GA on Amtraks Crescent from New Orleans to New York Penn) for the Fall Festival. My great grandfather worked for the Southern RR from the 20’s- 50’s. So it was a treat every year for me and Papa to ride this excursion from Atlanta to Toccoa and back. One of the most memorable years was the fall of 1983 or 1984, the 611 was our engine. She was a mighty engine and you could definitely feel the force and hear the heavy train making the gradient up the Piedmont foothills. I can still smell the coal mixed with a crisp fall day. Oh, and my grandfather lived in Toccoa so looking back I appreciate the redundancy of his trip. But it was for me to experience a little of his childhood and me to include these memories in mine.

[imagreatbigman]

As a Canadian railfan, I love this old girl. Hopefully one day I get to see her in person and go for a ride.

[saadilamari]

Something magical about the steam engine, maybe its simplicity

[sharkyfish]

Man, she looks so so good on the open rails

[TNRailProductions_]

Spectacular. The segment between Goshen and Staunton were probably my favorite segments to film because of the speed that they were able to attain. Great work!

[SimplyTakuma]

Its impress me everytime that the N&W Class J Nr.611 came out of a time, where X-Planes with Rocket Engines reaching Mach 3, Interstate Highways for cars and trucks are build, Jet Planes are doing commercials tasks ect.

[switchbladeslaydn]

I am blown away, what a great footage! I can just agree with the other viewers before, the work you put into it is amazing.
Here in Germany we also got a few old steam engines, but the look from this legend... art on rails.

Thank you a thousand times for filming and sharing, that made my evening after a long workday. Greetings from Germany.

[TomByron-hs]

The old steam whistle sounds haunting and beautiful

[Whistlestop_Productions]

Amazing video Chad! Your perspective of 611 is so unique. Thank you for all the hard work you put into these videos. 👏

[bensipiorski]

Awesome video. It’s great to see the 611 stretch her legs and run a bit faster than probably on the Strasburg Railroad.

[ScottHBrown]

Best videos out of all I've seen in the past month or so of 611. Excellent production and videography.

[YAMATO-xn]

Seeing these locomotives makes so proud of my country 🦅🇺🇸

[StormySkyRailProductions]

Wow what an awesome video once again and enjoyed watching. Have a nice rest of your Thursday evening.(Steve)

[guy_called_Odin]

Was on board the trip when the 611 passed the Cardinal at the top of the hill (with Charger 329 on the point at 13:34). This was a great chase.