Virginia Museum of Transportation

History

The Virginia Museum of Transportation began its life in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum located in Wasena Park in Roanoke, Virginia. The museum at that time was housed in an old Norfolk & Western Railway freight depot on the banks of the Roanoke River. The earliest components of the museum's collection included a United States Army Jupiter rocket and the famous N&W J Class Locomotive #611, donated by Norfolk & Western Railway to the city of Roanoke where many of its engines were constructed. The museum expanded its collection to include other pieces of rail equipment such as a former DC Transit PCC streetcar, and a number of horse-drawn vehicles including a hearse, a covered wagon, and a Studebaker wagon.

In November 1985, a flood nearly destroyed the museum, and much of its collection. It forced the shutdown of the facility and the refurbishment of #611. In April 1986, the museum re-opened in the Norfolk and Western Railway Freight Station in downtown Roanoke as the Virginia Museum of Transportation. The museum has earned that title, being recognized by the General Assembly of Virginia as the Commonwealth's official transportation museum.

The locomotives Norfolk & Western 611 and Norfolk & Western 1218 were originally property of the city of Roanoke due to the museum's original charter. On the April 2, 2012, VMT's 50 Birthday, the city officially gifted the locomotive titles to the museum.

The Norfolk and Western Railway Freight Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The station consists of two clearly identifiable sections, both of which were completed in 1918. They are the two-story, fifty-bay-long, freight station proper which was built parallel to the railroad tracks and now is oriented south, and the one-story-with-basement brick annex that formerly housed the offices of the Shenandoah and Radford divisions of the Norfolk and Western. The building closed for railroad freight business in 1964.

Automobile gallery

The first exhibit to be featured in the Automobile Gallery is the From Mud to Mobility: A History of the Virginia Department of Transportation. The gallery's floor has been painted to reproduce the theme of this exhibit, beginning with a dirt road and graduating to a full-fledged interstate highway. The Virginia Department of Transportation will sponsor this exhibit, featuring motorized dioramas, Burma-Shave signs, billboards, and a video history of the department. Many of the museum's antique automobiles are on display here as well. The museum also features occasional special exhibits such as the Hollywood Star Cars exhibit which showcased famous cars from the history of television and movies.

Railroad exhibits

Five on-going exhibits cover sundry aspects of railroad life in America, especially Virginia. In addition to these on-going exhibits, the museum maintains an O-Gauge train layout modeled after Roanoke, Salem, and Lynchburg, Virginia.

Working the High Iron - A pictorial history of the N & W Railway

This exhibit features many photos of the men and women who worked for Norfolk & Western throughout the years.

The Claytor Brothers - Virginians Building America's Railroad

Detailing the lives of Graham and Robert Claytor, this exhibit explores their past and their relationship that led to the merger of the Norfolk & Western and Southern Railways.

African American Heritage on the Norfolk and Western Railroad - 1930-1970

This exhibit is the result of an oral history project sponsored in part by Roanoke area businesses and individuals to document the often-ignored roles played by African-Americans on the rails. The exhibit includes pictures, artifacts, and recorded interviews with African-Americans who worked for the railroad.

Big Lick

This exhibit reproduces a 1930s rural train depot, featuring freight scales, a telegrapher's office, time tables, and a velocipede hand car used for servicing track.

Aviation gallery (future)

This area will showcase aircraft past and present. Artifacts include a hot air balloon, a gyrocopter, as well as two experimental planes, and a hang glider. Various models and photographs flesh out this exhibit. In the works are plans to add an interactive cockpit model with flight simulators, and a U.S. Army Cobra helicopter.

Collection

From January 20, 2011 to May 3, the museum was home to Chesapeake and Ohio 614 as part of the museum's Thoroughbreds of Steam exhibit. Other pieces include automobiles such as a 1913 Metz, a 1920 Buick touring car, a Highway Post Office Bus, and an armored car used to showcase the United States Bill of Rights in 1991.

Rolling stock

Though the most prominent pieces of the museum's collection are the two Norfolk & Western engines, there are more than fifty pieces of rolling stock in the collection. Some exhibits may be closed to the public as restoration is in progress on some pieces. While most of the railyard is ADA-accessible to view the rolling stock, entry into the pieces are not as they were built long before the standards of 1990. Some of the museum's collection needs heavy restoration and is stored offsite on a track allowed by Norfolk Southern.

Steam

Norfolk and Western J Class #611, operational since May 9, 2015.

Norfolk and Western A-Class #1218

Norfolk and Western Y6A-Class #2156, on 5-year loan, until 2020, from the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.

Virginian Railway SA class #4 steam locomotive, the last remaining steam engine from the Virginian Railway.

Norfolk and Western Class M2c #1151

Norfolk and Western Class G-1 #6, built in 1897.

Celanese Porter Fireless Locomotive #1

Electric

Virginian Railway EL-C #135

Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 #4919

D.C. Transit Company PCC Streetcar

Panama Canal Mule #686

Diesel-electric

Wheeling & Lake Erie Switcher EMD NW2 #D3

Mead Paper Industrial

Southern GM EMD FTB Unit

Virginia Central Porter Rod Driven #3

Chesapeake and Ohio EMD GP-7 #5828, currently on loan to the C&O Railway Heritage Center.

Chesapeake Western Baldwin #662

Norfolk and Western ALCO RS-3 #300

Chesapeake Western ALCO T-6 #10

Norfolk and Western EMD GP-9 #521

Norfolk and Western ALCO C-630 #1135

Norfolk and Western EMD SD-45 #1776, cosmetically restored, returned to Roanoke and will return to the museum July 7, 2012

Blue Ridge Stone Whitcomb Switcher

Nickel Plate Road EMD GP-9 #532

Seaboard System EMD SW-7 #2289

Southern (Ex Central of Georgia) EMD SD-7 #197

Conrail SDP-45 #6670, stored offsite.

Wabash E8A #1009, cosmetically restored.

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac E8A #1002, stored offsite.

Freight cars

Amoco Oil ARA 111 Tank Car AMOX #9465

Depressed Center Flat Car APWX #1002

RF&P Boxcar #2305

Trailer Train Flatcar with Sea Land Containers #470534

Derrick Tender Flatcar # 590374 and Derrick #514925

Virginian Railway Hopper Car #107768, stored offsite.

Steam Crane #527665 with Boom Car #514902, stored offsite.

Conrail Crane and Boom Car, stored offsite.

Passenger cars

Illinois Terminal "President One" Business Car

Norfolk and Western Baggage Car #1418

Norfolk Southern MOW Dining Car #999000

Southern Pullman Sleeping Car "Lake Pearl" # 2422

Southern Coach "W. Graham Claytor, Jr." Car #1070

Norfolk and Western Jim Crow Car #1662, stored offsite

Cabooses

Norfolk and Western Class CF #518302 (Can be rented for Birthday parties)

Virginian Class C-10 #321

Nickel Plate Class C-7 Bay Window #470

Other unique rolling stock

Norfolk & Western Dynamometer Car #514780

Norfolk & Western M-1 Post Office Car #93

Norfolk & Western Safety Instruction Car #418. A Theatre car that shows a 1983 documentary produced by Norfolk Southern titled "Going Home" about the restoration of the N&W 611.

Norfolk & Western Tool Car #9647

Norfolk Southern Research Car #31

Automobiles

Curved Dash Olds (1904)

Piedmont Touring Car (1923)

Ford Model T Depot Hack (1925)

Willys-Overland Whippet (1928)

Cadillac Fleetwood Coupe (1936)

Siebert Ford Combo Ambulance/Hearse (1936)

Packard Super Eight (1948)

Studebaker Land Cruiser (1950)

Studebaker President Speedster (1955)

Desoto Fireflight Sportsman (1957)

Studebaker Lark (1962)

Chevrolet Impala (1963)

Chevrolet Corvair Monza (1965)

Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme SX (1970)

Volkswagen Beetle (1972) -COMING SOON

Mercedes-Benz 450 SL (1976)

Ford Mustang GLX Convertible (1983)

DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (1993). A Jeff Gordon car from the 2003 Warner Brothers movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Trucks

Ford Pickup Truck (1929)

Overnite B-Model Mack Tractor (1960) and Fruehauf Trailer, on loan from UPS Corporation.

Concord Fire Department Oren Fire Truck

Dodge Cab Over Truck

Jeep Oren Industrial Fire Truck

1962 GMC Arlington Barcroft & Washington No. 1319 New Look Bus, on Loan from Commonwealth Coach and Trolley Museum.

Other road vehicles

Extended Roof Rockaway Carriage

Studebaker Half-Platform Wagon (1870)

Howe Fire Engine (1882)

James Cunningham, Son and Company Hearse (1895)

Freight Wagon “Prairie Schooner” (1900-1915)

F-20 McCormick-Deering Farmall Tractor (1936)

Federal Aviation Administration Tucker Sno-Cat

Aviation collection

The museum is currently seeking exhibits for their aviation gallery while it is under construction.