N&W 611 steam engine passes through Chambersburg, Greencastle, Hagerstown

Being pulled by another train, the Norfolk & Western 611 steam locomotive sped past onlookers Thursday on its way to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. 

The steam engine, built in 1950, had been at the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pa., for the last couple years, but on its way to Virginia, it passed through a number of cities and towns — including Chambersburg and Greencastle in Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown in Maryland.

Lucas Richardson, a student at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, finished his exams early so he traveled out to Hagerstown to see the steam engine. 

Richardson has lived in the Hampstead, Md., area in Carroll County his entire life, and because where he lives borders train tracks, he has gotten interested in trains in the past couple years. 

“You don’t often see steam trains running, well not under their own power,” Richardson said. “You don’t often see them running coupled to anything else on the mainline. It’s very rare.”

Richardson had seen the steam engine a few times before it crossed through Hagerstown and thinks the Class J locomotive was restored some time in the mid-2010s. He set up a camera close to the tracks near Burhans Boulevard and waited to see it pass by.

“It’s one of the most beautiful ones in the U.S. because it has that shroud around it,” Richardson said. 

Passing through Greencastle 

Tim Gress lives in Waynesboro and saw the steam engine pass by in Greencastle at the High Line Train Station. 

Gress said his wife is the one who has an interest in old trains, but since she had to work and it was her birthday, he decided to head over to High Line and take a video. 

“It’s one of the last passenger steam engines,” Gress said. “It was being pulled by another train, though. I wish they had had it by itself. I think that would have been more theatrical, I guess, but it was still really neat to see.”

Gress said there were about 20 to 30 people in Greencastle who had come to see the steam engine, which passed by around 12:45 p.m. The closest you could get to the tracks was within about 6 feet, he said. 

Gress and his wife have taken their kids to different local train stations. Gress said the two were actually married on a train — that is how into trains his wife is.

Rolling through Chambersburg 

Steve Smith works in Chambersburg and told his boss he was going to take some time to see the steam engine pass through. He spent the nights leading up to the event trying to figure out the engine’s schedule.

Smith and a few others, some of whom had come from Frederick, Md., trying to find a place that was not already crowded, waited for about an hour at a spot south of Chambersburg and eventually saw the steam engine pass through about 15 minutes before Gress in Greencastle.

Smith said it was "awesome" to see in person.

Smith has been a fan of steam since he started going to Cass, W.Va., to see locomotives with his parents. They go generally every year, during Labor Day. 

“Every time I come back, for the next few weeks, I think I want to become a train engineer at 40 years old,” Smith said. 

Smith said the engine was massive to see in person and said it was a "neat thing" to check off the bucket list. 

The steam engine, which, according to the Strasburg Rail Road website, was one of the last passenger steam locomotives constructed in the United States, is headed home to Roanoke. 

The town in southwestern Virginia is where the locomotive got its start more than 70 years ago, and as such, this ride through Pennsylvania and Maryland will put a cap on a full-circle journey for No. 611.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 11:32 a.m. June 2, 2023, to correct the name of the organization where the N&W 611 has been for the past few years. The correct name is the Strasburg Rail Road. Herald-Mail Media apologizes for the error.