ABOVE: The Blue Ridge Parkway overpass near Webster, Va., was packed with chasers and photographers as No. 611 steams underneath on July 5. The locomotive is just getting into the grade making the sounds that O. Winston Link described as “thunder on Blue Ridge” on his famous albums.


Pretty soon we heard the distinctive throaty whistle of No. 611 in the dis- tance, followed by the loud stack talk as it worked the grade. Cameras aimed, shutters fired, and the first shot was in the bag. We kind of stood there and looked at each other. What now? We had about three hours before the train was due back from Lynchburg. “Well, I suppose we could chase...” I said. That sounded good to everyone else, so away we went. Despite the huge crowds, traffic was surprisingly light on U.S. 460, aided no doubt by the speed the train was going. Its 40 m.p.h. speed wasn’t a whole lot slower than the highway, so everyone couldn’t get every shot; this kept the photo line fairly spread out. We caught the train again just west of Bedford. We knew we wanted to shoot the train at Forest, just west of Lynchburg, so we headed there next, and barely beat it. A sea of people made shooting there a chal- lenge.


Forest boasts a nice set of CPL signals,


so we decided to wait here for the train’s return. As soon as it passed going east, a group of photographers started organiz- ing a photo line for a shot that included the CPLs and station. This worked well,


42 SEPTEMBER 2015 • RAILFAN.COM


and everyone got a nice westbound shot. We’d get the train one more time off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The afternoon chase was more of a challenge. We set up at Riverside (near Elliston) and waited. Wet rails and the steep Christiansburg grade slowed the train down, and it put on quite a show as it went by. The slow speed, however, allowed the chasers to bunch up. The crowd at Shawsville was incredible, and downtown Christiansburg was snarled completely. After those shots, we set up for the westbound return at the aban- doned coaling tower at Vicker, then got the train one last time near Singer. The next morning the sun finally came


out, although clouds were threatening. We started the day at the CPLs at Montvale, which proved to be the shot of the weekend (page 41). From there we went on to Lowry (cover). On the return trip we made the walk into the signals at Blue Ridge, which we thought was pretty isolated. Imagine our surprise when we found a photo line already set up with about 30 photographers in it, with the train still over an hour away. The line got a pretty good scare when a slow-moving freight came up the hill, blocking the shot. We could hear 611 on the scanner


getting closer and closer, and the freight just wouldn’t seem to end. The last car cleared less than 30 seconds before 611 came blasting through. Since we really wanted the Blue Ridge shot, that was our only shot on the return trip. For the afternoon, we had one more must-do shot, so we headed straight to the coaling tower at Vicker. With clouds rolling in, we settled for the eastbound at Arthur. The third and final day of the trip was “cleanup” day. Talking with people and seeing shots online, we had a list of shots we wanted to do, so we knew we’d be busy. We started with the overhead shot off the Blue Ridge Parkway, then beat the train to the CPLs at Villamont, and then a grab shot near Bedford. We then shot at Lowry and the CPLs at Webster on the return. The afternoon was spent getting the westbound move at Wabun, Shawsville, and Christiansburg. Finally, with weather closing in, we decided to meet up with some friends at Vicker, get one last shot and head home. When these dates first showed up on


the steam schedule, I knew it would be special. The sights and sounds of steam railroading did not disappoint. Welcome home, 611.


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