The "Blue Hour" is setting in as the sun has dipped below the mountains to the west of Roanoke. Getting ready to head east is a mixed freight train lead by N&W 1744. The famous Blue Ridg... (more)

View from the vestibule. Returning from an afternoon turn to Walton, VA, N&W 611 and train pass the west end of Roanoke yard. Waiting to go west are N&W C36-7 8518 and SD45 1811. Standing in the ... (more)

A sign of the times, dozens of locomotives are sitting in Roanoke yard sidelined. Between the implementation of precision scheduled railroading and the decrease in traffic from COVID 19, the amoun... (more)

A sign of the times, dozens of locomotives are sitting in Roanoke yard sidelined. Between the implementation of precision scheduled railroading and the decrease in traffic from COVID 19, the amoun... (more)

A sign of the times, dozens of locomotives are sitting in Roanoke yard sidelined. Between the implementation of precision scheduled railroading and the decrease in traffic from COVID 19, the amoun... (more)

NS 165 slowly pulls into the Roanoke, Va yard with an SD70M leader. In the background is downtown Roanoke, and to the right is just a portion of the hundreds of locomotives in the dead line.

Built in March of 1964, 23 year old N&W GP35, 216, is heading up a mix of 4-axle power on an eastbound freight train preparing to leave Roanoke.

Another classic locomotive has come to the end of the line! Still lettered Norfolk and Western and in Pevler Blue paint with a faded herald, SD45, 1775 sits in a dead line in Roanoke Yard along Sh... (more)

UP SD40-2, 3651 leads a variety of power in a light engine move westbound through Roanoke yard in the late evening sun.

The first C40-8 delivered to NS sits at the scrapper waiting for the torch as the EMDX T4 units sit with the stored power in Roanoke yard.

The Queen of Steam in the City Of Roanoke

Norfolk & Western J Class 611 is departing the city of Roanoke with its second excursion of the day as it passes what will become a "l... (more)

This is a K2a 4-8-2 Mountain, not a J class 4-8-4. I shot the unusually dirty 126 below the 5th St. bridge.

I shot the westbound Norfolk & Western Y-6 2-8-8-2 with auxiliary tender from the 5th St. bridge over the Roanoke yard.

611 Arrives in Roanoke

With the exception of a line of stored ex-UP SD90/43MACS in the foreground Roanoke yard is relatively empty for the evening arrival of J Class 611.

An NS local poses nicely beneath a vintage N&W CPL cantilever signal at the west end of Roanoke Yard just after sunset.