Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410310069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For the last time, a steam-powered passenger train pulled out of Norfolk Southern's old terminal at 3:28 p.m. for a trip to Bristol.
The excursion train was pulled by the powerful and well-known Class J No. 611 steam engine that was built in the Roanoke shops 45 years ago.
Passengers waved from inside the cars. And those who came with cameras to record the event waved back, as the engine picked up speed and was gone.
Some who gathered along the tracks and on the Fifth Street bridge to watch the train leave found tears welling up.
They were the men who helped build the 611. They said they felt as if they were witnessing the death of a child or other family member.
"I had to come to say goodbye. This is the last time I will see her alive, pulling a train," said Frank McFadden, who worked for the railroad for 33 years.
The engine will return to Roanoke, probably to the Virginia Museum of Transportation, after NS discontinues its steam-train excursion program next month.
But McFadden said that trip will be different; the engine will be just a museum piece by then.
"I came here to see it for the last time. I helped make it and I am sorry that this will be the last time it comes to Roanoke," said Howard Chapman, a retired railroad worker.
"I guess money is the bottom line, and the railroad has to consider that," said Chapman, who worked for the railroad for 40 years. "We built the engine, and it's almost like losing someone who is close to you. Another era is coming to a close."
Abe Horsley, another retired worker who helped build the steam engines, said he came to see the last trip after learning about it Friday.
"I loved working for the railroad, and I had to come to see this," he said.
NS said it will discontinue its excursion trains because they don't fit with a modern railroad. The company said the excursion trains can no longer be justified in terms of the physical, financial and human resources they demand.
Other excursions will be made in Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina before the service is terminated. But Saturday's trip was the last one to Roanoke. The train traveled from Bristol to Roanoke, took a two-hour stopover, then returned to Bristol.
Saturday's train carried about 1,000 passengers, mostly from Southwest Virginia, Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina.
The termination of the excursion trains angered some passengers and others who came to see the last steam train in Roanoke.
"I don't like it worth a damn," said George Kelch, whose father worked for the railroad for 50 years.
Some railroads continue to provide excursion trains and he hopes NS will reconsider its decision, said Kelch, a railway enthusiast. Nearly 150 steam trains still operate in the country, he said.
Carl Jensen, manager of steam operations for NS, said the railroad has been providing about 45 to 50 excursions a year. He said they have been offered throughout NS's service area, from Chicago and Detroit to Atlanta.
The excursion trains haul about 40,000 passengers a year. The passengers come from all over the world, he said.
"It's hard to see the [trains] stop, but we have had them for 28 years," Jensen said. He said he supports NS's decision, and it would not be appropriate for him to comment on his personal feelings.
The steam engine is the drawing card for the excursion trains and, without them, the trains will lose their appeal, said Buster Hughes, a passenger from Erwin, Tenn., who was on Saturday's trip. "People want to ride the steam train," he said.
Paul Howell, a member of the Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, said the NS decision is a blow to the city's economic development program, because downtown is built around the railroad.
"This is not totally unexpected, but maybe they can continue something," Howell said. "We hate to see this."
Chapman said railroad workers are proud of all the steam engines they built.
"I've got more pictures of them than you can shake a stick at," he said. "After they were painted and all shiny, they were like pretty women at night, all fixed up."
by CNB