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Spokesman Says 611 Excursions Remain In Plans
Will Harris, who was a driving force behind the 611 excursions that ran out of Goshen last fall, has stepped down as president of the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
He and five other members of the board, some of whom were instrumental in getting the preparations for the excursions done, presented letters of resignation at the board’s annual meeting on June 20.
“I just looked at it and thought about the time invested and the amount of work invested in it, and the fact that my health is waning some, and I want to spend more time with my grandkids and family, so I just decided to bow out,” he told The News-Gazette last week.
Even though he’s not involved with the Virginia Museum of Transportation anymore, Harris said that he is open to working with the museum to run future excursions out of Victoria Station in Goshen.
“I left that wide open and made it very plain to the members of the board that are still there that I have every intention of working with them if they choose to run the 611,” he said. “We’d love to have it back here in Goshen. It’s certainly our intention to have that happen again if possible.
“It was a wonderful experience and I hope we experience it again,” he added. “It was a great thing for the area, not just for Rockbridge but for the whole region. It took a really good group of volunteers that we had and people put so much work into it. I think we’ll see it happen again. I know it won’t be this year, but hopefully next year we’ll get it worked out.”
Harris said that there were a number of factors that led to the excursions being unable to happen this year, from routine maintenance being done on the 611 engine to not having access to several of the cars that were used last year, including the generator car that supplied electricity to the passenger cars.
Tom Cox, a member of the museum board and spokesman for the museum, told The News-Gazette this week that the museum’s board of directors “has always been committed to the operation of the 611, [and] we have every intention of keeping it running.
“Both parties have expressed interest in working toward excursions running out of Goshen,” he said. “If everyone agrees, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Cox also expressed appreciation for the years of service that Harris and the other board members contributed to the museum.
“We wish them well in their future endeavors,” he said.
