I just thought I'd take a moment to say something about what I believe to be an increasingly important railroad preservation situation. What I'm talking about are the so-called "Lost Engines of Roanoke"— which, depending on your interest in steam locomotives or railroads in general, you may or may not be familiar with. In short, the “Lost Engines” referred to four Norfolk and Western Railway steam locomotives that were abandoned in a Virginia scrap yard in the 1950s and left essentially undisturbed ever since. For years they had been regarded at least as a curiosity, and at most as a divine gift from a lost era. But the truth is that their future is in jeopardy now more than it ever has been.
This last summer an event nothing short of incredible occurred—one of the locomotives, a diminutive old Consolidation type, was rescued from the scrap yard and transported to Ohio by a prospective restaurateur at the costs of tens of thousands of dollars. The engine will surely never see the capital city of its home railroad again. However, while that engine can look forward to a new life greeting tourists as a roadside attraction, the three remaining engines are in one heck of a tough situation. In 2004, the scrap company that owned the locomotives donated them to the nearby Virginia Transportation Museum (VMT)—but the financially-strapped VMT has been unable to procure the funding to move the locomotives. (Again, we are talking many thousands of dollars needed to transport them to safety.) In the meantime, the scrap yard itself has been bought by a city redevelopment authority—which has given the VMT until December 31, 2008, to move the locomotives from the scrap yard. What might happen beyond that date is somewhat unclear. The fact of the matter is that people charged with “redevelopment” will look at these engines and likely see little more than ugly, rusted metal.
The value of these engines is actually limitless. The three steam locomotives remaining in the scrap yard, dating from the early 20th Century, are of the Mastodon or 4-8-0 type— a rare design of which only three other examples exist in North America. The three Roanoke engines represent half of this type that reached the preservation era— and they are the largest and most modern examples, too. Their shabby exterior and interior is irrelevant— all they need is cosmetic work to have them appear as they would have in their prime. The locomotives themselves cannot be replicated.
I feel totally helpless watching these engines. I don’t know what me or anyone else can really do to save them— but I feel that at least spreading the word will help somehow. We should all know that nothing in the railroad preservation world is safe from scrap in this day and age... whether this lesson be learned from the story of Richard Jenson of the 1960s-80s or of that of the Knox and Kane of this past Autumn. Let’s finally say “Never Again.” I don’t want to see these “lost” engines lost for good, and I doubt many other people who know their value do, either.
