This picture of the Pennsylvania J-Class Locomotive #611 I made within 30 minutes. Some background info of this locomotive is that it was built in 1950 by the Norfolk & Western RR itself, and was made in the last batch of these locomotives(batch 1 1941, batch 2 1946, batch 3 1950) which was 1 of only 16 ever built. In 1956, only 6 years into its commission, it crashed: the engineer for whatever reason brought it around a corner too fast. It, and 6 cars derailed and #611 was sliding toward a river. Luckily, it never reached the river. If it had, it would have been scrapped for sure. After receiving its repairs, it was put into a condition better that all the other J-Classes. Thus, in 1959, all the others were scrapped(in the 1950s in the USA, many railroads were converting to Diesel-powered engines. Guess what happened to the steam locomotives? They were scrapped!), but since #611 was in superb condition, it got sold to a museum. After 20 years of sitting in the open air rusting away, it was restored. From 1981 to 1994 it ran the main-line(which is very rare. Usually, steam engines have their own tracks these days.) but in 1994, the steam program run by Norfolk & Western was shut down. For yet another 20 years, this beautiful locomotive was wasting away to the hands of mother nature. But in 2015, it finished restoration AGAIN and returned to the main line delivering passengers between Virginia and South Carolina, USA to this very day.
Created Saturday, February 25, 2017
