(The following story by Sheila Ellis appeared on the Roanoke Times website on July 25.)
ROANOKE, Va. — Railroad fans gave a bittersweet farewell to the steam locomotive Nickel Plate 763 as it began its journey from the Virginia Museum of Transportation to Coshocton, Ohio, on Tuesday morning.
“I’m glad to see it’s going to run again,” Lawanda Ely, former employee of the Roanoke Transportation Museum at Wasena Park. “But I’m sad to see it go. It has been part of the exhibit for a number of years.”
More than 100 rail fans came out to witness the move and final act in the sale of the locomotive to the Ohio Central Railroad System, a network of short-line railroads in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The railroad will restore the steam engine to running condition for passenger excursion programs and will explore options such as pulling freight, said John Corns, of the railroad’s property and lease department.
“We are bringing it back to Ohio,” said Corns, who has been waiting to bring the 763 to Ohio for 18 years. “There, we will give it tender love and care and get it running.”
In its heyday, the Ohio-made locomotive hauled perishable freight between New York and Illinois. It has no connection to Virginia save that it was acquired by Norfolk and Western Railway in its merger with Nickel Plate in the early 1960s. Later, N&W gave it to the city.
For years, it sat in Wasena Park before being transferred to the museum on Norfolk Avenue in 1986, where it was joined with other huge steam locomotives such as the 1218 and the 611 after the 1985 flood.
Tuesday’s musical train game required no little amount of logistics planning and muscle.
First, Ohio Central Railroad representatives made several trips to ascertain whether the 763 would roll at all.
Once they decided it could, Norfolk Southern Corp., N&W’s successor, brought a diesel locomotive to move other engines and rail cars parked around it on a track behind the museum.
The diesel locomotive pulled a train of at least seven rail cars and locomotives and the 763 about a quarter-mile backward.
They were then switched onto a nearby track and uncoupled from the 763. The 763 was pulled into Norfolk Southern shops in Southeast Roanoke, where it will be inspected prior to its departure. The process on Tuesday took about three hours.
NS will be at the museum today to help rearrange the museum rail display so the cars are in a more chronological order and cars with a better paint job are under cover, said Bev Fitzpatrick, the museum’s executive director.
In a couple of days, the 763 will be pulled by a private train paid for by the Ohio Railroad to its new home. Corns said the locomotive’s restoration could last up to three years.
The $125,000 sale of the 763 was best for the Virginia Museum of Transportation, given its financial condition, said Tom Cox, museum board president.
In 2001, state funding for nonstate museums was trimmed, and the museum’s staff and hours of operation were subsequently cut. Since then, the museum’s funding has not been restored to nearly the same level, and it has been “suffering greatly,” Cox said.
“This move allows us to give something new life that really deserves more than what we are able to give at this time,” Cox said. “These folks have a state of the art facility to restore the 763.”
In addition to hauling freight, the Ohio railroad owns 10 steam locomotives.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation was glad to help in preserving rail history, Cox said.
“It would be a travesty for us to allow it to sit here and let it deteriorate.”
It’s estimated that restoration of the 763 will cost more than $1 million, Corns said.
The steam engine, which is more than 60 years old, went through the flood of 1985, which subsequently caused many parts of the locomotive and tender to rust.
The money made from the sale will help pay for the Virginia museum’s operations. Without the sale, the museum would have ended its fiscal year in the red, Fitzpatrick said.
“This is a great opportunity for the museum since our job is really to chronicle the history of transportation for the commonwealth of Virginia, and this locomotive really doesn’t belong here.” Fitzpatrick said. “With the sale, we have a better opportunity to showcase Virginian locomotives, and the 763 is going to a place where it can be cared for.”