Roanoke Shops

In 2020, N&W's successor, Norfolk Southern, abandoned the Shops and Genesis Rail Services leased the property in July 2023.

Before the locomotive shops were being built, Roanoke had been a quiet farming community of Big Lick and a small stop on the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O).

[1] In 1882, the town grew rapidly as the new center of the combined railroads and changed its name to Roanoke, becoming a city in just a short time.

During World War II in the 1940s, the Roanoke Shops repaired more than 100 locomotives from the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL), Chicago and North Western (C&NW), Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P), and Seaboard Air Line (SAL) railroads to assist with the war effort.

[4][5] Additionally, they manufactured components for Bailey bridges, marine cylinders, and other critical parts for war use.

1218 is now on display near its birthplace in a specially constructed pavilion at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in downtown Roanoke.