Class J 611 Steam Locomotive — The Most Famous Engine in the South

Roanoke didn't become the city it is by accident. In 1882, the Norfolk and Western Railway chose a small farming town called Big Lick as the site of its corporate headquarters and railroad shops. Within two years, that town had become the City of Roanoke. The railroad made everything here — and in May 1950, in those same East End Shops, it made the Class J No. 611.

It came out of the shops as one of the last mainline passenger steam locomotives built in the United States, at a cost of $251,544. On flat terrain it could haul a fifteen-car train — 1,025 tons — at 110 miles per hour. Seventy-inch driving wheels, 80,000 pounds of tractive effort, 300 psi of boiler pressure, Timken roller bearings on every axle. It ran the Powhatan Arrow, the Pocahontas, and the Cavalier between Norfolk and Cincinnati — 676 miles of route — and ferried Southern Railway trains through the Blue Ridge between Monroe and Bristol.

In January 1956, it derailed near Cedar, West Virginia — the engineer killed, dozens injured. Most railroads scrapped steam locomotives after wrecks like that. N&W president Robert H. Smith ordered it extensively repaired and back in service the following month. That accident was the country's last major steam-powered revenue passenger train wreck.

Revenue service ended in 1959. The locomotive was donated to the Roanoke City Council and, in 1963, put on static display. In 1982 it ran again — on August 22, it arrived in Roanoke for the city's centennial, and Robert Claytor called it "Roanoke born, Roanoke bred, and Roanoke proud." It pulled mainline excursions until 1994, then came home again. In 2017, the Virginia General Assembly named it the official state steam locomotive.

The 611 lives at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. It still runs excursion trips. When it fires up, the ground shakes. Check the VMT's schedule — tickets sell out months in advance.