BY STEVE BARRY/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
IT WAS ONE LAST CHANCE to get them to- gether, at least for awhile. The two most famous residents of the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Norfolk & Western Class J 4-8-4 No. 611 and N&W Class A 2-6-6-4 No. 1218, have resided side-by-side under the Robert B. Claytor and Graham W. Claytor Pavillion of the museum since 2003 when the latter was put on display. In all that time, the two had not been seen together out from under the roof. With No. 611 potentially leaving Roanoke for a rebuild and return to service by the end of 2013, VMT and Lerro Produc- tions (along with a big assist from the Roanoke Chapter NRHS mechanical department and volunteers from far
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and wide), put together a series of pho- to shoots from July 12-14 that would feature the two locomotives out from under the canopy.
In all there were four separate photo sessions, two during daylight and two at night. The first shoot was on Friday night, July 12, featuring tightly com- posed scenes for a limited number of photographers. After finishing up at 11:00 p.m., the second session started a mere seven hours later at 6:00 a.m. with daytime scenes, also designed for a small group. Wider scenes for a larger group were set up for Saturday night and again Sunday morning. In addition to the equipment from VMT, other historic pieces were also
featured in the sessions. The Roanoke Valley Region AACA (Antique Automo- bile Club of America) provided three vintage autos, and their members gra- ciously posed for a variety of shots. The Commonwealth Coach and Trolley Mu- seum, also of Roanoke, provided a 1953 Mack C49 motorcoach that originally served the city of Hampton, Va. And volunteers from other heritage rail or- ganizations, including the Three Rivers Rambler in Knoxville, Tenn., and the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, also took part. Of course, the stars of the show were the three steam locomotives. G-1 Class No. 6, an oft-overlooked 2-8-0 in the col- lection, was built by Baldwin in Janu-
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