Is she still in Roanoke Virginia and also, Will she ever run on Excursions Again?
N&W 1218 is an A, not a Y6b. The general consensus is that neither 1218 nor N&W 611 will steam again.
Your right about the 1218 not been a B, it’s an A - http://www.steamlocomotive.com/articulated/nwy.shtml
For the Excursion part, I wish they would do that again, just like back in 1987.
1218 looks so quiet and powerful at rest with steam escaping from topside and 611 quietly behind her…
Just to be clear, the 1218 is a Class A locomotive, and has nothing in common with any Y Class locomotive. The 1218 is a 2-6-6-4 simple articulated locomotive, and the Y Class were 2-8-8-2 compound locomotives.
For the first portion of the question: Yes, 1218 is still at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. She sits beside J611 and does have a roof overhead. Many of the other items in the collection are more exposed to the weather. The only remaining locomotive from the Virginian Ry, an 0-8-0, is in their collection.
This remains a quality destination for anyone interested in railroads. In addition to the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT), it is about a four block walk from there to the O. Winston Link museum, which has wonderful displays of that master photographer’s work as well as information on how he crafted those images. The main line of NS flows past both of these sites, and some good photo angles still remain (but I could never get the City to put “camera ports” in the chain link fence alongside the Railwalk between these two attractions). Mountain railroad scenes are also available in most any direction out of Roanoke.
[I lived in Roanoke 30+ years and was a member of VMT for that entire time.]
Bill