General Electric Transportation Systems is the current leader in the manufacture of diesel-electric locomotives for freight use in the United States. It seems that they've gone and put together a website for afficionados of their products, available at:

GE Rail Fans

The site apparently is built around selling things with the GE Transportation logo or other representations of their locomotives. I wish they had a little more, but hey, it's a start. If anything like this exists for the Electro-Motive Division (of General Motors and the other major locomotive manufacturer in this country), I don't know about it.

If anyone wants to get me a GETS mug, I'd appreciate it. I don't have any pecuniary interest in GE, but I do happen to have a large number of their late-model locomotives installed for use in Train Simulator.

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On January 17, 1897, the Roanoke Machine Works were purchased by the Norfolk & Western Railway.

This would, of course, be part of the process that would lead to the mighty "Roanoke Shops" which would turn out the A, J, and Y classes of locomotives in the 1940s for the N&W, all part of what they called 'Precision Transportation'.

One of each of the penultimate classes of N&W steam locomotive survives today; the Virginia Museum of Transportation has the last surviving A and J types, and the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, has the last Y. There are three tracks in Roanoke under the Claytor Pavilion, and the Y6 belongs with her sisters.

Information courtesy of the 2004 Norfolk & Western Historical Society Calendar.

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Picking up where yesterday's entry left off, I was browsing around the Norfolk Southern's website, and found this speech made by David R. Goode at the kickoff for the O. Winston Link Museum funding campaign.

Mr. Goode is the chairman, president, and CEO of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, which is the parent company for the Norfolk Southern Railway. Mr. Goode's job is to earn money for the shareholders, and since he's held his job since 1994, he must be doing something right.

His speech struck me as rather brief, but then none of the executive speeches I've read that have been given by Norfolk Southern officers have struck me as being long. No one will include in a collection of great oratory, but something nagged at the back of my mind as I read it. I haven't yet put my finger on what exactly was bothering me about it, and it may be nothing.

Anyways. Those of you who like reading speeches made by people, go check it out and see what you think. I have no connection to any party to the events, but I'm glad that the Norfolk Southern Foundation, along with employees of the N&W/NS, have seen fit to donate a pretty hefty chunk of money to the campaign. Hats off to all involved.

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First, an introduction: I like railroads, and I like the business of running a railroad. That being said, the late Norfolk & Western Railway and the current Norfolk Southern Railway lead all others in my esteem.¹ This of course means that I've been to the Virginia Museum of Transportation several times. Haven't you? I've stood beside the silent flanks of N&W 611 and N&W 1218, and it's an awe-inspiring experience. The sheer scale of these things is astounding, and it's a little humbling to think that we used to be able to make these things, but that, like much else of our basic industrial capacity, has been vanquished. (We're paying you for a toast to a museum, not for an ill-tempered rant against globalization and the de-industrialization of America. If I wasn't busy calling someone in Punjab to order some iron girders, I'd come up there and beat you. --Ed.)

And so it goes that I'm also a fan of the work of the late O. Winston Link. He was a photographer and advertising man who spent time on the Norfolk & Western in the late 1950s, as the railway phased out the use of steam locomotives. Link shot hundreds if not thousands of pictures of the N&W in action, most of them in black and white. His work is, to an uneducated observer, an example of technical prowess masterfully combined with a compelling subject. Link's work on the N&W is documented in two books that I'm aware of, Steam, Steel and Stars and The Last Steam Railroad in America, both of which are highly recommended.

At any rate, a museum to the man and his work has finally been put together in the former headquarters of the Norfolk & Western, in a manner that I'm sure Link would approve of. The old N&W passenger depot in Roanoke, Virginia, has been converted to use as the O. Winston Link Museum, and it opens today, 10 January 2004. I'll let the Museum speak for itself:

The Station is the last structure to be renovated within Roanoke's Historic Rail District. Other significant renovation projects include the Virginia Museum of Transportation (former railway freight depot) and the Roanoke Higher Education Center (former N&W General Office Building North). N&W General Office Building South has been renovated for use as upscale downtown apartments.

The Station is a Virginia Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Recently, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources deemed the Roanoke Station eligible for national level significance on the Register. The Station is significant due to the "vital role played by the Norfolk & Western Railway in the development of the rail systems of the United States, and the vital role played by the N&W in the enormous expansion of American Industrial capacity."

Norfolk Southern Corporation (formerly Norfolk & Western Railway) used the Station for offices after passenger rail service was terminated from the Valley in 1971.

Yes, and that last paragraph grates considerably. I'm still hoping that our representatives in Richmond and the powers that be at Three Commercial Place in Norfolk are able to come to an agreement on the provision of passenger rail service to the Roanoke Valley and points west. And yes, I'd use it. I'd much rather sit on my butt on a train than have to drive on the interstate highways. I digress.

I am very glad to report the opening of this museum, and I'm just sorry that I couldn't have been there, due to previously existing academic commitments. If you've never been to Roanoke, the present's looking better all the time.

The only bad thing about this news is that now I'll have to schedule even more time when I go to Roanoke. Bother! Let's just hope they've got a well-stocked gift shop.

¹ Next on that list is the late Penn Central Railroad. Yeah, I've got a thing for black and white locomotive liveries.

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