We will continue our tour.
At the east end of the Railyard is a play area for children.
Washington, DC Transit Company PCC car 1470 built by St. Louis Car Company in 1944.
One last view of Norfolk & Western 611 and 1218 before I returned inside.
Bell and a driving wheel.
Telegraph key and station master inside the Big Lick station.
The African American History on the Norfolk & Western Railroad.
Norfolk Southern 9503 outside the museum. Bev offered to take me around Roanoke to see the rest of their collection and other railroad-related items.
One of the Lost Engines, Norfolk & Western 1151, which was rescued from a scrap yard in Roanoke just last year.
A look back into the museum. From here we went to the Roanoke Yard.
They also own this Budweiser Beer box car, steam crane 527665 with boom car 514902, Wabash Railroad E8A 1109, the 10,000th locomotive built by Electro-Motive Division.
Wabash Railroad E8A 1109, Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac E8A 1002 and Virginian Railway Hopper Car 107768.
Southern Railway Jim Crow Car 1662, Central of Georgia SD7 197, a Conrail crane and Conrail SDP45 6670, originally Erie Railroad. From here, Bev drove me to the Shaffers Crossing yard tower on the hill on the west side of the yard.
The hump motive power.
Norfolk Southern's Roanoke Yard, after which we drove to the shops.
Shop views. The Roanoke Shops (also called the East End Shops) are workshops and maintenance facilities built between 1884 and 1953 which produced 447 steam locomotives, all for the Norfolk and Western Railway, includinge their famous Big Three class steam locomotives; the 4-8-4 class J, the 2-6-6-4 class A, and the 2-8-8-2 class Y6. In late 1953, the Shops built their final steam locomotive, making it last standard gauge steam locomotive built for revenue service in the United States.
There was a line of motive power along the south side.
These engines cleared so we could see these other ones.
Norfolk Southern B23-7 4011, nee Southern 4011 built by General Electric in 1981.
Fire damaged Norfolk Southern C40-9W 9146, built by General Electric in 1998. Bev then took me onto the grounds.
Views around the Roanoke Shops.
The Norfolk Southern mainline outside the shops.
The boiler shop.
Norfolk Southern sign on the Roanoke Shops.
Norfolk Southern power on the wye track.
Brookville Equipment BL20CG demonstrator 259, nee Maine Central GP38 259, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1966.
A last look at the Roanoke shops. Bev and I went back to the museum and I thanked him for the excellent tour of the Virginia Museum of Transportation. I now would see what else is in this fascinating museum and walked first into a hall dedicated to the automobile.
Vintage cars, buggies and tractors.
A storefront in the main hallway of the museum as I went upstairs.
Looking down on the model railroad. Now let's look at the Circus Exhibit.
This quarter inch scale circus model was designed and built by George I. Neal of Huntington, West Virginia. This 128 square foot exhibit was generously donated to the museum by its builder in 1986. I always liked the circus and this exhibit was first-rate. I walked out to the front and said thanks to the ticket seller before leaving the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
The rocket that stands to the east of the freight house which houses the museum.
Two views along the Rail Walk of Roanoke which parallels the railroad for a third of a mile and the museum is the western terminus.
Two last views of the Norfolk Southern in Roanoke. I was so happy that I had been finally able to visit the Virginia Museum of Transportation and see Norfolk & Western 611.
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