Losing two major advocates and not having someone there to take up the reigns and champion the program certainly also played a role as you’ve said. This was regularly reported as one of the reasons why the program died when it did.
We might be set up for a repeat of this. Wick is likely to retire in a couple years and I don’t think any coming up behind him have any great love for steam or trains in general.
Service levels on NS aren’t as good as NS would like them yet they just spent a lot of time and energy supporting the Streamliners at Spencer. It would have been easy to say “we don’t have time for this right now” but NS didn’t. I wonder if this would be the case if Wick wasn’t the CEO.
I think NS would benefit from this in terms of PR if they implemented it wisely on the system. Run selectively and for good causes ect.
As I understand it there’s a whole new generation of management at NS who have quite a bit of the railfan in them. The old hostile-to-steam crowd has passed into retirement or gone on to other things. So I don’t believe there’s too much to worry about concerning NS steam.
That being said, corporate sponsored steam programs, heck, corporate sponsored ANYTHINGS are evanescent, they can change when the management does. The best thing to do is express your appreciation frequently and “enjoy it while it lasts.”
This one’s well placed to weather the storm at least no matter what happens down the line. They’ve carefully selected when to run to maximize the benefit for the corporation so far and show no signs of changing that and Norfolk Southern’s burden isn’t nearly what it once was. They’re enjoying a lot of the benefit of a corporate steam program at a fraction of the involvement they once had.
Hopefully they know they have a good thing going here.
may i remind that this was about the 1218. yes i understand the steam programe is VERY important. but i wrote this about the 1218 and the very good possibly of her returning to sream after the 611.
Take it easy Joe, everthing we’ve talked about here has a correlation as to whether 1218 steams again. As you’ve seen, it’s not going to be as simple as some might think.
Wish it were otherwise, but we’ve got to be realistic here.
Well Joe the simple answer is it’s possible but unlikely. The 1218 needs a LOT of work and as such big $$$. I don’t see the $$$ being there right now, or in the future to support a restoration and subsequent operation.
Certainly not in the immediate future, but remember it’s THERE, it’s more-or-less complete, so down the line anything’s possible. Whoever thought a Big Boy would steam again?
Well, OK, the late Jim Boyd did. and I’ll repeat his words again:
“Will a Big Boy steam again? Of course! Why? Like Mount Everest, ‘because it’s there!’”
Very true, it has survived and anything can be obtained or remanufactured with enough $$ and time. I would love to see the “A” in steam again. I remember seeing Frank Collins take her out of Roanoke one day (not too long before he retired)and he went after it pretty well…and she pounded out of Roanoke with ease…the sound was amazing to put it mildly. I am for sure in the camp of restoring the 1218 but it’s gonna be a while.
Well a very interesting thing just happened today. On the fire up the 611 on face book was a picture of a crate box saying arch bricks. It also said Norfolk southern steam program 1994. You know whast this means. That the parts of 1218 might have survived. They might be in the where house that had the crate of arch bricks. This might be a the Start to a bigger mystery.
Steve Lee made a trip to Roanoke in the early 2000’s and inspected the 1218, what was found is that the new side sheets in the fire box were ALL tack welded into place, awaiting the full weld to take place. I also understand that she would need new front and rear tube sheets, tubes, and boiler braces. Mud ring repairs were also mentioned. I will also make known, when first restored in 1985-87, the 1218 had many parts missing from her days as a stationary boiler. I personally hope that in the coming few years a “Fire Up 1218” campaign will begin. For now, lets be happy with 611, and hope that 1218 will join one day soon. Good Luck 1218!
Here are a couple of videos that show some action for those who have never seen 12 run… Or eve 61 or 4501…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMSzUrQ_MJg Triple header in Nov. 1991 ( Note these lciomotives are shown on the grade climbing Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga,Tn… Three Coal Burning" locomotives TWO water tenders and a 28 car passenger train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1MCunoSjY NRHS Convention Train in Aug of 1991.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/uVlERTFVSpo?rel=0* 1218 in 1987…Look at the length of train!
Love the Whistle action. [:-^]
May the Eternal bless all of you!
Sam,
The first two links led to nowhere and the third was of some kind of missile defense system.
And a very good and effective one too.
As to climbing Missionary Ridge, I know of no track that goes up on the ridge–I never saw any when I was driving around in Chattanooga back in the fifties, and if there were a track, it would have some really steep grades to overcome. There is a tunnel through the ridge which I have been through on Southern’s Royal Palm; however, the Southern built a new line around the north end of the ridge before 1957. The TVRM now uses the track through the tunnel.
It WOULD be great to see 1218 in steam again. Perhaps after the service facility is built the museum would launch a 1218 restoration project like they did with the J. I hope they will.
And here is the second one (the NRHS train)
I have no earthly idea what the URL for the third video was supposed to be - why, for example, it’s using an ‘embed’ instead of ‘/watch’ tag like the first two. (Sam, you might try posting the link again, and check it from ‘Preview’ to be sure it works.) But there are plenty of other 1218 videos that come up in YouTube when you choose either of the links above!
SAM!!! Don’t you realize what you have done!
YOUR THIRD LINK KNOCKS DOWN YOUR WHOLE CASE FOR NOT SUBSIDIZING LONG-DISTANCE PASSENGER RAIL!!!
Love you!