J 611

Photos

April 8, 9 and 10, 2016

What is a J 611 you may be wondering. It is a steam locomotive built in 1950 and recently restored at the NC Transportation Museum. It is owned by the VA Transportation Museum. We took a long day trip to Lynchburg, VA and back on a train of 22 vintage restored cars with this steam engine in the lead. The NC Transportation Museum has for a number of years done these kind of special train trips one weekend in spring and one weekend in fall. We have done a number of them and have enjoyed them and they've been well done.

This is the first time we had the excitement of a steam engine and all the thousands of photographers waiting for us along the way, so it had a special excitement. Otherwise it was the least enjoyable of these trips that we've done. We paid $361.66 for the 2 of us for our train tickets. Those were the cheapest seats. They really were cheap seats. We've always purchased the cheapest seats on all of these train trips and we saw several of the cars we had ridden aboard in the past. They were evidently higher priced for this trip and most of us in our car were repeat travelers and didn't realize that this was a change. So, today we were assigned to The Tennessee. It resembles a commuter train car with hard plastic seats facing both directions and no overheard storage. We've certainly ridden in cars like this before on short commuter train hops where the trains just ferry passengers back and forth on short runs all day long. Unfortunately, we got backward facing seats for 7am to 10pm! In good news, the couple facing us allowed us to switch places with them after the train was turned around in Lynchburg for the return trip. The way these trips work is that you buy a ticket class and when you pick up your tickets the day before or day of the trip, you learn your car assignment. Seating is first come, first choice. We usually try to board as early as possible. We were told that the museum's parking lot gates would open at 6am. We drove in at 6:04am. All the parking spots were filled already and we were told to pull to the side of the road and park. It seems most people were told 5am! I've double checked our documents though and it says 6am as the opening on Saturday. All coming an hour earlier would have gotten us though was the same forward facing seats roundtrip and an actual legal parking spot. The other hardship were the delays. We were delayed on each segment so we had less time to sightsee (or eat lunch) in Lynchburg and we got back to Spencer over 2 hours late. It made for a long and not too pleasant day. There are almost always delays in train travel in the USA, but I think that this train had more than we had experienced in the past because those trains had mostly used Amtrak engines pulling the vintage cars. That is my theory anyway. On Sunday, the J 611 train took a day trip to Asheville with 3 loops. That was highly anticipated and I waffled over booking both but in the end chose Lynchburg only. After Saturday's trip, I was happy with my choice! NCTM did the same Asheville itinerary last fall when we missed it by being overseas so I feel sure they will repeat it again and we'll catch it then.

We will look forward to doing another train trip with the NCTM but we'll study and ask questions about what equipment will be used for each fare class in the future before booking.

So the trip got a lot of press coverage. In Salisbury, NC. In Lynchburg, VA. On television. And more TV.

Another thing that was new this year, and in a good way, was that NCTM had partnered with Salisbury-Rowan County Convention and Visitors Bureau to reward those of us who booked participating hotel stays. We made a return visit to what is now a Days Inn. In the past we were assigned a 100 room which is in the front building and we can recommend. This time we got a 200 room which with the 300s are in the back building. Though the rooms look identical, the back building was much more flimsily built and NOISY!  We can only recommend a stay if you can make sure to have a room in the front building or a 100s numbered room and I don't even know for a fact if that is possible. A couple checking out before me told the front desk clerk that they always stay in room 110 and love it and as they are train nuts that they'll be back for it. That makes me think you can specify where you'd like to reserve, but maybe they just asked for it at check in and got lucky. As to the good news here, we paid $92.93 for 2 nights and the promotion partners gave us gifts worth even more than that! They had waiting at the Days Inn front desk for us a 611 souvenir t-shirt and ballcap, and a $50 gift certificate to the museum gift shop. What a deal! If only we had realized that we'd never stayed in that back building before and we could have avoided it! Lesson learned and hopefully we'll remember this before we go there again.

The Days Inn is right behind a 24/7 IHOP. Our vintage IHOP on Hillsborough Street has recently closed and will be torn down so I have been seeing a lot of IHOP in the news and had a craving. It went unfilled, sadly. Clay had a plan involving Bojangles' biscuits on Saturday morning since we planned to be boarding at 6am. On Sunday morning we checked out after the Days Inn's 6 to 9am complimentary breakfast was served  and the parking lot at the IHOP was filled up so Clay drove on by. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel a few exits away and had a disappointing meal. We don't really like Cracker Barrels.

Regarding meals. We had an excellent Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse meal in Salisbury on Friday night. Recommend! On Saturday in Lynchburg we had a good lunch at The Depot Grille. They were overwhelmed with train passengers but handled it the best they could. We were among the early arrivals and just sat at the bar and ordered from the sandwiches section of the menu. Clay enjoyed a South Street Satan's Pony Amber Ale and fried oysters. I had a French Dip sandwich. It was all good.

After we ate lunch we had a small amount of time left to walk up the hill on 9th Street in a frigid stiff wind to see the Monument Terrace and catch a free shuttle bus back to the train. The train didn't leave for an hour after the all aboard as they loaded water to the engine with a fire hose! It seems to me the people arranging the trip should have known how long it would take to refill the water tank and they should have let the passengers have that time in town. Just saying. Especially after they made announcements to us that the delay was caused by a local man and child who had "snuck aboard" and who they were having problems disembarking. It reflected more poorly on the organizers (and security personnel!) than it did on the guy with the kid touring the train. We could see the hose was hooked up and knew that was why were weren't going anywhere for that hour!

So, we would still recommend a special NCTM train excursion just know that some are better than others and you might pick a great one or you might not. I still prefer the overnight trips as the very long days are trying. If you ride the train 3 to 4 hours in each direction and have 3 hours on the ground in the middle, it is always going to be a long day, no matter how comfortable your train seat turns out to be!

Photos