The Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) is a museum in Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, that is devoted to the topic of transportation.

History

The Virginia Museum of Transportation began in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum in Wasena Park in Roanoke, Virginia. The museum was initially housed in an old Norfolk & Western Railway freight depot on the banks of the Roanoke River. The earliest components of the museum's collection included a United States Army Jupiter rocket and the J class steam locomotive No. 611, donated by Norfolk & Western to the city of Roanoke, where many of its engines were built. The museum added other pieces of rail equipment, including a DC Transit PCC streetcar; and a number of horse-drawn vehicles, including a hearse, a covered wagon, and a Studebaker wagon. In November 1985, a flood damaged the museum and much of its collection. In April 1986, the museum was re-opened at the former Norfolk & Western Railway Freight Station in downtown Roanoke as the Virginia Museum of Transportation, recognized by the General Assembly of Virginia as the Commonwealth's official transportation museum. Under the museum's original charter, Norfolk & Western steam locomotives No. 611 and No. 1218 were property of the city of Roanoke. On April 2, 2012, during VMT's 50 Birthday, the city transferred ownership of the locomotives to the museum. The Norfolk & Western Railway Freight Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The station consists of two clearly identifiable sections, both of which were completed in 1918. They are the two-story, 50-bay freight station which was built parallel to the railroad tracks and now is oriented south, and the one-story-with-basement brick annex that formerly housed the offices of the Shenandoah and Radford divisions of the Norfolk & Western. The building closed for railroad freight business in 1964.

Galleries and exhibits

Automobile gallery

Many of the museum's antique automobiles are on display here. The museum also features occasional special exhibits such as the Hollywood Star Cars exhibit of cars from television and movies.

Railroad exhibits

Ongoing exhibits cover sundry aspects of railroad life in America, especially Virginia: The museum maintains an O scale train layout modeled after Roanoke, Salem, and Lynchburg, Virginia.

Aviation gallery

Collection

From January 20 to May 3, 2011, the museum was home to Chesapeake and Ohio 614 as part of the museum's Thoroughbreds of Steam exhibit. Other pieces include automobiles such as a 1913 Metz, a 1920 Buick touring car, a Highway Post Office Bus, and an armored car used to showcase the United States Bill of Rights in 1991.

Rolling stock

The collection includes more than 50 pieces of rolling stock. Some may be closed to the public for restoration, and some in need of heavy restoration are stored offsite in yards managed by Norfolk Southern.

Steam

Electric

Diesel-electric

Freight cars

Passenger cars

Cabooses

Other unique rolling stock

Automobile collection

Automobiles

Trucks

Other road vehicles

Aviation collection

After a storm in 2006, the aviation gallery was rebuilt into a collection of interviews and first hand collections, including: