Restored locomotive arrives for Portsmouth museum

PORTSMOUTH

The locomotive gleamed like it did when it first saw life a hundred years ago, already turning heads in its new home near the nTelos Pavilion.

The Norfolk & Western 1134 might never steam down the tracks again. But it is still a new day for the locomotive that had been rusting away in a Roanoke scrap yard for almost 60 years.

The long-awaited locomotive arrived in three weighty chunks over the past week.

From now on, it's the star of the emerging Railroad Museum of Virginia. It joins a Wabash Railroad Co. dining car, two 1928-era Norfolk & Western mail cars and a Norfolk Southern caboose.

From the beginning, people would ask if there was going to be a locomotive, said Willard J. Moody Sr., who has led the 12-year effort to build a railroad museum. Moody knew a steam engine was a must and the Railroad Museum of Virginia board searched the country.

They found what they wanted fading away with other castoffs known as the "Lost Engines of Roanoke."

Railroad history buffs had been trying to save the "Lost Engines" for decades and eventually they were promised to the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

Moody and his board members struck a deal with the Roanoke museum to pay to move all the engines, in return for one locomotive and a tender.

He announced the find last year, about the same time the organization broke ground on the museum.

There is no building. Instead of waiting for the funding, the organization decided to forge ahead with exhibits displayed inside and around the stationary collection of antique railroad cars near Port Centre Parkway.

A sign for the Railroad Museum of Virginia already sits atop the canopied train depot platform that will allow visitors a close-up view of the locomotive and rail cars.

Will Harris of Goshen, who did the restoration work, drove the cab of the locomotive up on the back of a truck.

By Tuesday, the 250,000-pound engine sat on the tracks whole again and restored to its old splendor.

"I tell you that is one beautiful thing," Moody said.

"I think it will be the crown jewel of this entire setup."

Moody hopes final touches of the museum will be in place by fall.

Even sooner, park benches, lights and landscaping will invite walkers and families to sit and wonder about the past lives of the railroad cars and locomotive.

On Tuesday, Joe Donnelly, vice president of the museum board, walked around the new brick walkways and pointed to the light at the front of the engine that will brighten the night again.

A new round of fundraising will begin soon to finish off the exhibit work, he said.

Donnelly said he expects the presence of that locomotive alone will help build excitement and momentum.

The engine ran the tracks for 40 years, before it was set aside for larger, faster engines.

It might stay in one spot now. But it looks great, and it's still leading the way.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com