Front:
614
SLCA
61-
614
CHESSIE SYSTEM RAILBOADS
Back:
RJ68
Chessie System
At 8:30 in the morning, Saturday, September 13, 1980, Greenbrier 614
started a fall series of excursions over the Chessie System departing Baltimore,
MD for a round trip to Harpers Ferry via the Patapsco Valley. Twenty trips
were made, the last a round trip from Cincinnati, Ohio. The big 4-8-4, and it
was big too, 112 feet 3 inches coupler to coupler, was capable of handling
the train as this scene near Brunswick, MD on September 19, 1980 illustrates.
614 was built by Lima and delivered to the Chesapeake & Ohio in the summer
of 1948 as one of a group of five class J3-a locomotives numbered 610-614.
Designed for passenger service, the Greenbrier also saw duty in freight service,
especially after the arrival of the E8 diesel. After a relatively short active life
of only eight years, the 614, now the 611, was withdrawn from service.
Escaping the scrapper's torch, it was donated to the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad Museum in 1977 where it rested until pulled out for restoration
and excursion service by Ross Rowland's Steam Locomotive Corporation of
America in October of 1979. With the coming of CSX, the Chessie-Family
Lines merger, a series of winter excursions in Florida are planned for February
and March 1981.
Photo by Louis M. Wasserman
Rey R. Elman
25 June 1981
Published by Audio-Visual Designs, P.O. Box 24, Earlton, N.Y. 12058
166313
