The Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke (http://www.vmt.org) sits in a hotbed of railroad history. The museum has extensive displays of locomotives and rolling stock, primarily from the Norfolk & Western Railway and its predecessor lines. Very close to the transportation museum is the O. Winston Link Museum (http://www.linkmuseum.org) with its outstanding collection of railroad photographs by noted photographer, O. Winston Link. The two museums sit on opposite sides of the mainline of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. The Link Museum is in close proximity to the Norfolk Southern's Roanoke Shops. Immediately across the street from the Link museum is the historic railroad hotel, the Hotel Roanoke. A rail fan would find it hard to find so much railroad activity and history in such a short distance. A visit to Roanoke and its museums is like Christmas in July for the rail buff.

This page shows photographs of a part of the collection of the Virginia Museum of Transportation and its surroundings. The photos appear on two pages. The first page shows Norfolk & Western equipment both in the museum itself and on the adjacent NS mainline tracks. The second page shows equipment from other railroads and other photos of interest.

Click on each image below to see its full sized version. Hit your back button to return and view the next photo. All images, except for the map, are copyrighted.

Image	Description
	Google location map of the Virginia Museum of Transportation
	Norfolk & Western Class J steam locomotive #611, the last surviving US coal-fired passenger locomotive, considered by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to be among the most advanced of 4-8-4 locomotives. Her last run was on December 7, 1994.
	Norfolk & Western Class A steam locomotive #1218.
	Norfolk & Western Railway Class G steam locomotive #6
	Norfolk & Western GP-9 #521, the "Redbird"
	Norfolk & Western SD-45 Bicentennial Loco. # 1776 (What else?)
	Norfolk & Western dynamometer car #1418
	N&W derrick #514925 and derrick tender flatcar #590374
	A track scooter in the museum. It looks like fun to ride!
	NS #9969 and #9151 on the mainline awaiting departure orders
	NS signal bridge on approach to three diverging lines, the Snenandoah line to Hagerstown, MD, the line to Lynchburg, VA and ultimately Norfolk, Va, and the line to Winston Salem, NC known as the "Punkin Vine".
	NS caboose #555551 on a local working the "Punkin Vine". It is used because of the switching and backing maneuvers involved.