Ports. railroad museum nears completion

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - You'll soon get to learn more about America's past through the history of railroads.

A new Railroad Museum of Virginia is almost complete in Portsmouth. It includes a steam locomotive that sat in a Roanoke scrap yard for nearly 60 years.

Richard Boushell remembers when rail traffic powered by steam was once a common sight in downtown Portsmouth. Tracks ran along the water and Crawford Parkway, to the old Coast Guard base and naval shipyard.

"One of Portsmouth's mottos, or an old one that I remember, was 'Rails-to-Sails,'" Boushell said. "But the rails don't quite reach the saltwater much anymore."

But now a steam locomotive has come again to Portsmouth, thanks to a decade-long effort by Virginia rail buffs. The new Railroad Museum of Virginia is about to open with a caboose, a dining car, two baggage cars, a tender and the 1910 Baldwin locomotive.

Joe Donnelly, vice president of the Railway Museum of Virginia, said, "We wanted an engine and a tender that had historical significance in Virginia."

The separate pieces of the engine began to arrive on site last week. Cranes were brought in to assemble the engine in a daylong effort on Monday.

The National Railway Historical Society and one of its members donated three of the cars. The locomotive and its tender were obtained from a Roanoke salvage yard where it had sat since 1950. The owner couldn't bear to cut up his growing collection of old rail engines.

"[He] just refused to put the torch to them, so to speak," Donnelly said.

When the museum opens, the public can stroll along the new train platform for a closeup look at our railroading past. Plans are to eventually open up the cars themselves for exhibits, and construct a depot building.

A 'soft' opening is planned for June.