For the first time in over 60 years, Norfolk & Western steam locomotives 475 & 611 were reunited on the Strasburg Railroad in the fall of 2019. During their second weekend together, the two participated in a series of photo specials organized by Lerro Productions while former Great Western 90 led the railroad's regular excursions. For the first day, 611 led a freight consist, wearing its original single-bulb headlight, while 475 led a short mixed train reminiscent of its days on the Blacksburg branch. On the second and third days, 475 was transformed into 382, another M-class 4-8-0 that was made famous by O. Winston Link's photographs of the "Virginia Creeper," the legendary Abingdon Branch. While the countryside of Southeastern Pennsylvania is a far cry from the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains, it does make a decent stand-in for the more low-lying terrain around Abingdon where the Js leading passenger trains such as the Tennessean and Pelican would have met the Ms on their way from Bristol to the start of the Creeper. I arrived in Strasburg halfway through the Saturday afternoon charter and filmed what I could from the sidelines as the sun began to set. On Sunday, I participated in the first of the 382 charters. Although cloudy skies prevented us from getting sunrise shots, the locomotive crews and more than made up for it by putting on a great show with each runby. Unfortunately, my microphone was acting too sensitive on Sunday morning and much of my footage features distorted and blown-out audio. I had to cut the worst offenders from this video entirely despite them being otherwise great shots. Luckily most of it was at least somewhat salvageable and is featured here, and I hope you all enjoy the video despite the audio not being up to my usual quality.
12 окт 2019
