BELOW: Class A No. 1218 looks like it’s speeding along as VMT volunteer Charles “Skip” Salmon hoops up orders to engineer Justin Lucas and fireman Jamie Sexton. Of course, No. 1218 was not moving for this shot. Using a bit of trickery, Skip actually ran with the train order hoop and the photo line panned him, not the locomotive. BOTTOM: VMT grounds manager and senior volunteer Nelson Graybill poses as a bus driver as the two steam locomotives sit outside the 1953 Mack C49 bus provided by Commonwealth Coach & Trolley.
ary 1897 and is a veteran of the N&W’s Abington Branch. It was retired in 1955 and is the oldest locomotive in the VMT collection. More well-known, of course, is A Class No. 1218, a 2-6-6-4 built by the N&W at Roanoke Shops in June 1943. Retired in 1959, it served briefly as a stationary boiler before being acquired by F. Nelson Blount for Steamtown U.S.A. in Vermont in 1963. It was ac- quired by VMT in 1969 and was part of the Norfolk Southern steam program from 1985 until 1994.
Most famous is J Class 4-8-4 No. 611, built by Roanoke in 1950 and retired in 1959. Its second career as a part of the NS steam program was actually longer than its regular service career, as it pulled excursions from 1981 until 1994. Now the 611 appears to be on the verge of its second comeback.
While the sessions were designed to
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