On my driving tour last year, I visited two wonderful railroad museums in the Blue Ridge area. The first was the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. This museum primarily celebrates the Norfolk and Western Railway, which built its locomotives in Roanoke. The N&W build the Hotel Roanoake, which has been nicely restored and surprisingly reasonable in price.

The star of the Virginia Museum of Transportation is the streamlined N&W 611. The locomotive wasn't there when I visited Roanoke, and I was sadly disappointed. I was told the locomotive was being repaired at another museum, in Spencer, North Carolina. Spencer was an easy day's journey, so I went - but took two days. I had to stop in Mt. Airy, NC (Mayberry USA) and see all the Andy Griffith stuff.

Turns out that Spencer is a bit hard to find, because it's a tiny town tucked in the armpit of a much large city, beautiful Salisbury NC. But finally I made it to the North Carolina Transportation Museum, and I was in railroad heaven. The museum took over the Spencer Shops, once Southern Railway's largest steam locomotive repair facility on the east coast. The museum has a 37-stall roundhouse and a working turntable, and it's expanding into more space. There's lots of space in this museum, so I was able to take photos of individual locomotives, instead of groups of equipment bunched closely together.

I wish I had known about this thread before I visited these great museums. Guess I'll just have to go back. I need to get to Bristol, too. I did cross the Clinch River at Oak Ridge, though.

-Joe-