Since 2023, 22-year-old Nick Harding has been an active part of the engine crew for the Norfolk & Western J-class 4-8-4 No. 611. The work involves much more than just having smoke rise from the cowled stack. It demands round-the-clock maintenance and repair between operations, ensuring the locomotive is ready for its next trips out of its hometown of Roanoke, Va.
How did you get involved in rail preservation?
Nick Harding: Growing up, I was always fascinated with steam engines and trains, overall. As I got older, I had a chance in high school to get involved with a man and his son, who had steam traction engines. Both of them are on the [611] crew, and through them, I was able to get involved here at Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke and with No. 611. I was with the locomotive right before it came back from the Strasburg Rail Road in 2023.
As a young preservationist, what have you found to be the most challenging aspects in the industry?
Nick Harding: There are challenges everywhere. From all sides, whether it’s funding, crew and people’s interest, we’re finding that it’s harder to get younger people, like myself, involved and stay interested. To understand that with a steam locomotive, and even railroading in general, it’s go, go, go all the time. But at the same time, there are periods where you have to be patient, wait, and work through the process to get things done. Not all the work is the glory of being on the locomotive when it’s running. There are days when the work is long and hard, that’s the easiest way to say. Getting people interested in that is a challenge.
The flip side of that is with something like No. 611, the locomotive is large. So finding a sustainable operation is challenging. Even though there may be tracks, it doesn’t mean we can go there. And even if we can fit somewhere and technically run the locomotive there, it doesn’t mean that it’s a sustainable operation. As a nonprofit, we have to be able to live to a certain extent off of the money we make from our excursions. If that excursion isn’t going to be a profitable endeavor, even if we’re just going to break even, then in the long run, we really don’t break even because you’re putting wear and tear on the locomotive without making money to put back into it.
What’s been the most rewarding for you so far?
Nick Harding: For me personally, I don’t do this for me. Number one is the people I get to work with. Everyone on our crew is fantastic. They come in, work hard, and are great to get along with. Even when there’s a problem, we all get together, come up with a solution, get to it, sort it out, and then keep going…