Roanoke Chapter NRHS

Roanoke Chapter NRHS The Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society preserves and educates the public about the rail history of southwest Virginia.

The Roanoke Chapter NRHS is a not-for-profit, historical and educational organization incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501 (c)(3) organization

We have been involved in the preservation and dissemination of western Virginia’s rail heritage, most specifically the Norfolk and Western and Virginian Railways. Our organization is quite act

ive in the preservation and restoration of historical rail equipment, documentation and structures relating to the railroads in our area for the past 55 years. Western Virginia has an interesting rail heritage, you can experience some of it here, and there are a variety of ways to also participate. The Mechanical Department of the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society maintains and restores the chapter's collection of historic rolling stock. This includes our two operating locomotives as well as passenger and freight equipment. We meet at the chapter's yard in southeast Roanoke on Saturdays (and some other days) to work. We also assist with other railway preservation projects in the Roanoke area. If you'd like to visit or help out, send us a message for directions. No particular skills are required.

We also began preparing for the Chapter picnic later in June. The grass along the greenway and in several other parts o...
05/30/2026

We also began preparing for the Chapter picnic later in June. The grass along the greenway and in several other parts of the yard got long after the rain last week, so we started working on getting it cut.

Work also continued cleaning up along the northwest edge of the new yard. We are preparing the area to be smoothed and ...
05/30/2026

Work also continued cleaning up along the northwest edge of the new yard. We are preparing the area to be smoothed and getting ready to apply the geotech fabric. We are hoping to have that work finished and ready to plant the grass in September.

We repaired the tire of the David Brown tractor and pressure washed several of the large pieces of equipment that were l...
05/30/2026

We repaired the tire of the David Brown tractor and pressure washed several of the large pieces of equipment that were left to the Chapter by one of our volunteers.

Several of us celebrated this rainy Memorial Day by grilling out at the yard and finishing repairs to the hydraulic syst...
05/25/2026

Several of us celebrated this rainy Memorial Day by grilling out at the yard and finishing repairs to the hydraulic system on the large forklift.

05/24/2026

Unloading the dump truck at the yard went much quicker than loading it.

05/24/2026

Loading the dump truck went more smoothly than we had been afraid it would. After we got the truck out of the ruts in the ground, it rolled pretty easily. The skid steer was able to push it up onto the trailer without much trouble.

We loaded and moved the last large pieces of equipment that were left to us by a member today. This included a haybine,...
05/24/2026

We loaded and moved the last large pieces of equipment that were left to us by a member today. This included a haybine, a square baler, and a 1958 Ford dump truck. We have one more trip to retrieve a few more smaller items, and we will be done with this move, which has been a significant project. We still have a lot of work left inventorying and organizing everything.

The rain for the past few days made it too muddy to work on the cleanup project, so we took the opportunity to do some m...
05/23/2026

The rain for the past few days made it too muddy to work on the cleanup project, so we took the opportunity to do some more maintenance on various pieces of our equipment. The big forklift got a new exhaust, replaced hydraulic hose, repairs to the clutch and brake linkages, and the hydraulic tank drained and cleaned. The Gator got several replacement parts, including seat bushings, dash panel, and had the brush guard and running boards straightened. The IH tractor got a new clutch safety switch. It takes quite a bit of equipment to keep the property up and make progress on the cleanup, and we're trying to stay caught up on maintenance.

We also made another trip to retrieve equipment that was left to the Chapter by one of our volunteers. We brought back ...
05/17/2026

We also made another trip to retrieve equipment that was left to the Chapter by one of our volunteers. We brought back several implements for the tractor today, leaving only a haybine, a square baler, and a dump truck to bring back.

Work continued along the northwest edge of the new property this weekend. The majority of the junk has now been removed...
05/17/2026

Work continued along the northwest edge of the new property this weekend. The majority of the junk has now been removed and is being sifted, and we have started creating a bench at the bottom of the hill where rock will be placed to anchor the bottom of the geo-tech fabric that will cover the hillside. We also worked on additional maintenance tasks, like replacing the front tires on the gator.

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Roanoke, VA

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