WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville | Century-old steam engines will soon have new homes
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They've come up with a way to save three steam engines that have been parked at the back of a scrap yard in Roanoke.
Bartering. They'll be salvaged from the salvage yard without any money changing hands.
"So this is really the only way they would end up not being scrapped, by having a bartering deal with these multiple parties, so everybody gets something that benefits them," said Transportation Museum Director Bev Fitzpatrick.
The deal includes the scrap yard and Carilion, the landowners that need to get the rail relics off their property.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation gets the one steam locomotive that was made in Roanoke, plus its pick from the set of diesel engines.
Another steam engine goes to a brand new rail museum breaking ground this month in Portsmouth.
The man who'll move all of the equipment gets paid for his trouble with a steam engine himself, along with a flat car.
Will Harris of Goshen plans to cut them in half, horizontally, to get them where they're going.
"Lift the boiler right off, and then we pick the wheels right up. The whole sub frame, the frame, cylinder, all the wheels will come together. We don't know what that weighs. Once we pick it up, we'll know," said Harris.
The prize of the lot is engine #1151, built at Norfolk & Western Railway's Roanoke Shops in 1911.
The engines must be moved by the end of September, though it may be a long time before they'll be properly restored and put on display.
