N&W J, 611 roars past at 60 and 70 mph on the Nickel Plate Road in PA & NY. August 12, 1984 

O Scale Chris Frank was indeed the best!!

He, Bill Purdie and Jack Taylor were the best engineers ever!

AMEN! N&W didn't build steam engines, they wrote the book on it! Long live the queen.

That's what the J was built for, hauling ass with a 20+ car train when necessary and when required, digging in for a climb.

I wish the great dismal swamp accident didn’t happen because we could still have steam locomotives going this fast

@@That_Thicc_Cat The Great Dismal Swamp derailment happened in 1986, not 1984.

There's a few clips of 611 doing 60mph back in 2015 for the first test run. Still better than nothing

Thank you novarail, and thanks for watching.

She sure did sound fantastic. Would love to see her hit the rails again.

My Aunt & Uncle were on 611 in 94 from Buffalo to Conneaut. They have footage on the train and their cruising at 45 mph. Not 60 but still very cool none the less

Haha not surprised N&W's engines were designed so well they still could beat diesels today in terms of pulling power and speed. Maintenance was the only downfall although N&W even had that pretty well streamlined.

The longest excursion 611's ever pulled, as far as I know, was a Detroit to Fort Wayne excursion in 1992 that was sponsored by the Bluewater Chapter of the NRHS. You can see a video of it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YiJKxr-_H70.html

NorfolkSouthernTrain3406 *cough* 765, 630, 4501 *cough*

+Jordan W now remember that steam locomotives were designed for particular jobs. 611 was designed for passenger service 765 was designed for mile a minute freight and that's something that 765 likes to do. The 765 and her sister designs ushered in the super power era and 611 came later. 630 and 4501 were well before the the super power era. The ATSF 3751 class were rated for 100 MPH with 10 mph tolerance ( 110 mph ). And don't forget the Daylight, if you never have seen the Daylight make an effort to see it in person videos and pictures don't do it justice. I had got to ride behind the J on these trips and it was awesome!! I hope we get to see that again some day.

cough Seven sixty-five, six-thirty, forty-five "o" one cough

But were lucky to have them all these days!

I agree. I've never seen them, though.

JCBro2014 611's whistle sounded best in 82,90,mid 93,and 1994!!

The mallard was pulling 6 cars downhill when it made 126.5 mph, then it broke down and had to be towed to the next station....most North American 4-6-4's and 4-8-4's would slap mallard with a boat puddle. Love the J, steam on my friend

Brian Falzon You know 611 has been going to Strasburg, PA and had been running at the Strasburg Railway Museum.

Imagine if she operated at the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern railroad?

@@anasiacameronelijahedcpndc4324 that’ll be awesome!

On think that on that day (Aug 12th) Robert Claytor was the Engineer

For sure. That baby sure did run. Thanks for watching...

+Dylan Watson if you get the chance watch Queen of the fleet by Hopewell. It has 611 running from Bellevue to Fort Wayne at 86 mph at the end and I know this because i'm good friends with the gentleman who is filming the pace. I own both videos and Queen is the better of the two.

+James McCann I just finally received that video the other day and yes I prefer over it also over "Bridges to Buffalo 1984." Both videos are tons of fun to watch especially when 611 was running at speeds that she was meant to do in the first place between Continental, Ohio and Fort Wayne with Bob Claytor at the throttle. I love it when Rich Melvin says, " Remember Mr. Claytor- Who's gonna tell the boss to slow down." The folks on board especially the crew always got a real ride on the 611 when Claytor and Frank Collins as well was at the throttle.

They're both great videos I don't think any other commercial videos show 611 running that fast. Maybe someday she can go to Chicago someday and they will turn her loose like 765!

+James McCann I sure hope so too although I am always grateful she is back running again in my generation which is most important but she still needs her new maintenance shop to be built at the museum in Roanoke so she can stay in tip top condition regardless no matter if NS is only allowing a few trips a year nowadays. They are being kind and generous to let her and the crew use Schaffer's Crossing(just up the road from downtown) also in Roanoke and Spencer when she does need maintenance and a rest.

+James McCann It also depends on mostly how well or bad traffic is on NS as a whole and of course the insurance and liability factors that play a huge role in these excursions and locomotives also.

I couldn't agree more. FINE machine she is....

David Hyer well lets see we have big boy 4014 in restoration 1309 chessipeak and Ohio that's going to be running during the Fourth of July week we just got nofolk and western 611 running again 3 years ago still running so maybe we could see 1218 get another run but the huge problem wit that his that I hear that it has a boiler crack in it so it would make it almost impossible to restore but then if it was restored and being pulled by Diesel engine at least we would be able to keep some of the rods on the locomotive

don't know about the crack but as I'm to understand 1218 is an empty shell with a brand new firebox, anything can be fixed with money. IF the money could be raised, it would be something to see her working hard at the head of a heavy freight train if NS would allow it. We can be thankful NS is allowing steam to operate and1218 is safe in a good home at the very least.

OH YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Crusader1815 The Flying Scotsman needs a whistle like that.

611 only needed a diesel if there is a grade that required dynamic brakes. The few times she went to Saluda and to the Loops, other than that, she rarely carried one. The smaller engines like 630 and 4501 take diesels also to help stretch out how far the engine can go without refueling or replenishing water. And the speed limits have been 40 ever since the Great Dismal Swamp Crash in the mid 80s. They were lucky there weren't going 75-80 when that accident happened, otherwise there would have fatal results.

I believe it was GT Rail Fan.

Oh yah! That baby can fly! Thanks for watching...

Diesel locomotives are not required by regulators. The two main reasons you will see diesel locomotives are: 1), To help alleviate insurance costs and fears of a break down on the mainline, and 2), to provide head-end-power to passenger cars. That is the reason you see Amtrak locomotives behind engines like 261, 4449, and 3751. Occasionally, diesel locomotives are actually required to help the steam locomotives. Examples of this include 611 with the SOU heritage unit when going to Asheville, due to the long passenger train and gradient. When the 765 ran the Horseshoe Curve public trips, the two diesels were used to help increase the 765's range.

BSnare17 Thank you for the details.

@@bsnare1797 And when she first went up Horseshoe curve in 2011 with 8100, it was there to also extend her range and it was used to help her get up to the 25MPH limit for the majority of the trip. It was cut off when coming up to the curve and going through it so that 765 would put on one heck of a show on the curve and that she did!

They stopped for a bunch of run-bys, plus a couple of meets. Or he would have been gone. LOL. Thanks for watching...

The PRR did it, it's recorded somewhere. There was concern over valve gear speed I believe

@@bov634 oh gotcha. The worry would make sense, its gotta be moving at some insane speed

611 seemed to be in a lot of mishaps. 1950 it hit a car in Ohio. 1952 it hit a tractor trailer loaded with ice cream, also in Ohio. 1953 it hit a bakery truck in WV. Four days later, it hit another tractor trailer denting its nose and crushing the foot steps. 1956 it derailed at 50mph on a 30mph curve, rolled down an embankment killing the engineer, and injuring 51. The locomotive was repaired and remained in service a few more years. 1986 it was involved in a derailment at 56 mph with an employee special, when several cars derailed injuring 171, 19 seriously. After that, excursion trains were limited to 40 mph. Quite a history, but yet still here.

+Joseph Ignudo Hi Joseph, I can testify that the film wasn't sped up. We also chased one day and rode one day. Almost impossible to keep up with the J as it was running well over 80 mph. I have great stereo recordings that when the J got up there you no longer heard a chug but the roar like a jet engine. The trip was cool as i remember Conrail had a parallel line. We came up on a Conrail local and the Fireman waved them on and then the J just blew them away. You could not even stick your head out in the recording car as the cinders were extremely painful. One person came up from the Observation car and said the speedometer reached 96 mph. Ah great memories.