ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - An update on the 611 Steam Engine. It's going back into the shop in January 2016 for new wheels.
The Virginia Transportation Museum says they hope to have more excursions next year but have not heard from Norfolk Southern yet. For the 611 to run properly it needs new axles and bearings. The repairs come at a cost of $200,000.
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Museum Executive Director Bev Fitzpatrick says the damage is from years of steel on steel not just the trips over the summer. The new wheels will mean it can run for many years.
The Norfolk and Western Class J 611 steam passenger locomotive made a historic return to the rails over the summer.
Following two decades spent in retired silence, the 65-year-old engine's restoration and triumphant return resulted in an estimated $4.5 to $7 million of total economic impact in the Virginia communities she visited, with excursion passengers in Roanoke alone accounting for an estimated $549,300 of outside money spent in Roanoke in 2015.