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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.