Fire Up 611's Cheri George. If you enjoyed seeing the beautiful Norfolk & Western J-Class #611 out on the high iron this summer, here's one of the people you can thank. Cheri George, a Georgia-based businesswoman is one of the principals of the Fire-up 611 Committee that oversaw the engineering studies and helped to raise the money that was necessary to pull the locomotive out of retirement and restore it to operating condition. Like fellow committee members Preston Claytor and Scott Lindsay, Cheri had a special interest in seeing the Big J brought back to life. All three were locomotive crew members on the 611 when it was last in steam back in the early 1990s, with Cheri having fired the engine from 1990 to 1994. When the 611 was rolled out for photographers at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in May of 2015, this well-spoken lady and her colleague Scott Lindsay tag-teamed a lunch-time presentation on the restoration process and their plans for the future. Clearly, the Fire Up 611 Committee had done an enormous amount of work behind the scenes to breathe new life into this iconic piece of history. As she posed for pictures with "her" baby, Cheri looked justifiably "fired up" about the future of 611.
Photo albums dedicated to the Men, and Women that keep the Railroad running around the clock 365 days a year. From Dispatcher to Track Gangs, these are the people that make the railroad moves!