What's the status of Class A #1218?
Q: I'm curious, when
NS closed down the steam operations in Birmingham, I understand
1218 was there "in pieces". Was it ever put back together
for static display? I thought I read somewhere it was eventually
going back to Roanoke. I was only on one of the A's excursions
(between Bristol and Radford). The memory of that whistle still
gives me goosebumps.
A:
The N&W Class-A #1218 now resides beside its equally famous sister J611 at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. It was in the middle of a mandatory overhaul when the NS steam program was terminated, so its boiler tubes and parts of its firebox are missing.