No need to hurry. The steam locomotive is still undergoing restoration.
They were saying 12 - 18 months back in March 2014. That means August 2015 at the earliest, and I expect they will need some time for testing before finally putting it back into service. If they're able to maintain their schedule, it might be back in service in time for fall color in the Nantahala Gorge. Also consider the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. It's based in the old Southern Railroad Shops at Spencer, NC (where the Old 97 was headed when it jumped the tracks in Danville). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3afP13L3k They're restoring a Norfolk & Western Class J 611 Steam Locomotive for the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia. http://nctrans.org/Plan-Visit/FIRE-UP-611!.aspx I think it's supposed to be finished some time this spring (2015). If I find out when & what route it's going to take, I'll pass it along to the list. The Virginia Museum of Transportation is in Roanoke, close by to the O. Winston Link Museum. http://www.vmt.org/index.html http://www.linkmuseum.org/ Tweetsie Railroad in Boone is right up the Blue Ridge Parkway from Grandfather Mountain. It uses a surviving narrow gauge locomotive & track segment from the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad for an amusement park. They have a second operational steam locomotive in addition to the original #12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweetsie_Railroad There's a sister railroad at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN. They've got a couple of operational steam locomotives. Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum: http://www.tvrail.com/ Those are all the ones I can think of that are reasonably convenient to visit if you happened to be in the neighborhood of Grandfather Mountain. On 4/15/2015 2:06 PM, David J Brooks wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eKoSoee6NDk on my list of to do's dave
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