By Eric Berger
Limited passenger excursions may soon be rolling on U.S. Army rails at Joint Base Langley Eustis near Newport News, Virginia. The trains will be operated by the Military Railroad Society in collaboration with the Richmond Railroad Museum and its parent organization, the Old Dominion Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, the groups announced jointly June 29.
Two of the chapter’s coaches, former Southern 1006 and former Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac 706, are being moved to the base for use on the excursions. Both are making encore appearances, as they previously visited when Fort Eustis hosted NRHS conventions in 1966, 1969, and 1983.
The base is home to the 757th Expeditionary Railway Center, the last railroad unit of the U.S. Department of Defense. Fort Eustis was once legendary among railfans for its steam training program and other operations on the Fort Eustis Military Railroad. A much reduced railroad operation now employs just three diesels. It is also the location of the U.S. Army Transportation Museum, whose collection includes a restored RSD-1, USA 8011, that was originally built as one of the first Alco RS-1s and which served in Iran during WWII and on the Alaska Railroad after that.
At least initially, tickets will only be available to members of the two organizations, military families and veterans. No schedule has been announced at this writing, but details will be announced in the near future on the Richmond Railroad Museum Facebook page.
The MRS is restoring former USATC 5002, an S100 class 0-6-0 built by H.K. Porter, a project that began in 2015. The group began operating excursions on the base for active military members in 2021, including Operation Sergeant Santa trains during the Christmas season. The new arrangement with ODC/RRM developed after that group found themselves looking for a new operating partner in 2022.
The Old Dominion Chapter ran excursion trains on the Buckingham Branch Railroad for three decades, beginning in 1993, but last year the chapter announced that the railroad did not renew their operating agreement. Those trains operated between Dillwyn and Bremo Bluff, Va., the original 17-mile line over which the BB began operations in 1988. In 2022, the Class III railroad launched its own excursion operation, Virginia Scenic Railway, based in Staunton on its Richmond & Allegheny Division. Those tracks and additional operating rights totaling nearly 200 miles were leased from CSX beginning in 2004, but though Amtrak operates its Cardinal service over a portion of the division, passenger excursions were reportedly barred under the CSX lease. That changed when Buckingham Branch purchased 166 miles of those tracks in 2021. Their VSR operation now runs two trains per day, Thursday through Sunday.
