Side-by-side at Groff's. The weather looks a bit threatening as N&W Locomotives M-Class #475 (lettered as 382) and J-Class #611 pose for portraits on the long siding at Groff's Picnic Grove, on the Strasburg Rail Road, in the small borough of Cherry Hill, PA.
Although the 2019 event, featuring the last two operational Norfolk & Western steam locomotives, was billed as "The Re-union of Steam", so far as anyone I know could determine, this was the first time that these two steamers had ever been together....or at least photographed together. Interestingly, while they came from distinctly different periods in the steam era, with the 475 being delivered in 1906, and the 611 in 1950, the N&W took good care of their equipment, and a number of the old M-Class Locomotives, or "Mollies" as they were called, were still left in service on branch lines, during 611's brief career, so it is indeed possible that the two "met" at one point or another.
For this particular event, the 475 was lettered as her long-lost sister #382, which finished its career on the famous Abingdon Branch. As such, the 382 was much more "famous" than 475. Along with sister #429, the 382 appeared in quite a number of historic photos taken by O. Winston Link, during the last days of that line's operation. The only historic inaccuracy here is that the Strasburg Rail Road had recently moved the headlight on 475 from its old overhead bracket to the center of the smokebox. In the Link photos, 382 is the engine with the high-mounted headlamp, and 429 has the one in the center. Perhaps that's an idea for a future charter. :o)
