Anyone who has ridden or seen this fall’s steam train excursions may have noticed that most of the passenger cars are different from the ones used in the 2023 excursions.
Well, that’s because those cars actually came from Owasso, Mich., to participate in these excursions.
On the first weekend of the excursions last month, The News-Gazette met with the coordinators of this year’s excursions to find out how a Michigan nonprofit became involved in a scenic railroad venture over 600 miles away.
All the factors which led to this year’s train excursions out of Victoria Station in Goshen started over a year ago when an email was sent from a member of the the Steam Railroading Institute in Michigan.
Aaron Farmer, operations manager for the Steam Railroading Institute (SRI), remembered: “I reached out to Buckingham Branch to see if they’d be interested in hosting us, having done a successful season on 2023.”
He was referring to the run of the Norfolk & Western 611 steam engine, which pulled passenger excursions for Shenandoah Valley Limited on the Virginia Scenic Railway in October and November 2023.
Farmer was hoping that SRI could transport their Pere Marquette 1225, along with the period- accurate passenger cars they have, to Virginia and run on the Buckingham Branch Railroad.
“Early on, the sales pitch was that we have a steam locomotive […] ready to go,” Farmer said. Unfortunately, complications arose in November 2024. Their steam engine needed too many repairs to be able to make the trip from Michigan. Farmer admitted that, “We had to finally take it out of service. And the scope of work, it just didn’t fit our timeline.”
The Pere Marquette 1225 was the inspiration for the engine featured in the book “The Polar Express” and the blueprints and sounds were used in the making of the movie adaptation.
“We were excited,” said Steve Powell, the president of the Buckingham Branch Railroad, when he first started correspondence with Farmer last summer.
“It seemed like a perfect marriage: they got a great steam engine, they had great cars. We got a great railroad, don’t have a steam engine, and don’t have a lot of cars,” he said.
But without the Pere Marquette, they needed to find another engine to pull the SRI cars.
Powell, however, ended up having an ace up his sleeve.
He recalled that shortly after the SRI proposed a partnership last year, “the Virginia Museum of Transportation contacted me and said they’re interested in doing another trip [with the 611]. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s great! We’d love to have you back. Problem is, you don’t have a train set.”
Powell didn’t have a “train set” – the passenger cars – at the time of that conversation, but the train set would be available from the SRI. There ended up being a steam engine in Virginia without a train to pull and train cars in Michigan without an engine.
“Steve [Powell] helped connect some dots,” Farmer said of what happened next. “Having worked with the 611 group, he facilitated the meeting, the initial correspondence with them for our part, to see if they’d be interested in doing another 30 more trips.”
“This would be perfect.” Powell said. The SRI leased the 611 steam engine from the Virginia Museum of Transportation, and the Buckingham Branch Railroad negotiated with Will Harris for the site to return the excursions to Goshen.
“Will Harris has a great setup here,” Dean Pyres, executive director of SRI, said about Victoria Station in Goshen. “It’s a wonderful boarding site, it’s a great siding, and it’s a perfect spot to operate a trip.”
With all major aspects from every party finally coming together this summer, the preparation for excursions were on a tight schedule. The train cars were transported from Owasso, Mich., the steam engine was brought up from Roanoke, and Victoria Station underwent improvements.
The fall steam engine excursions this year are unique because of the involvement of so many individual entities, said Powell.
“One of the neat things is you got four different organizations that literally aren’t connected in any physical way: You got VMT out of Roanoke, we got the Buckingham Branch, Will Harris here in Goshen, and the SRI up in Michigan. Each one of us had a critical aspect to do. […] We all trusted each other. We all had to rely on each other. Any single failure would be a total failure.”
There were some turns and hurdles that everyone had to navigate to bring this vision to life, including transportations issues, train maintenance, and time tables to stick to, but Pyres said that it came with the territory and took it in stride: “There are a lot of details to work on anytime you’re running a steam engine. There are [multiple] groups working on this and everybody’s been really good. It’s been fun learning about this portion of Virginia. We’re happy to be here,” he said. -When asked how the excursions have been going, Powell said this week, “The trips have been amazing. We have had over 16,000 people ride over five weekends. The weather and the leaves have been fantastic. It has been wonderful to have so many people come and enjoy this beautiful part of Virginia.”
The final excursions take place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with runs starting at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
