Historical Railroad Buffs Find New Home for Trains in Roanoke's Norwich Area

A local rail heritage group will showcase its collection of historical railroad engines, cars and artifacts at a large Roanoke property that will eventually welcome public visitors. 

The newly acquired home of the Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society is in Norwich. The rail group recently moved out of the Roanoke Industrial Center in the southeast part of the city after more than 40 years, only to obtain a new site with five times the space thanks to a donation.

The donor was scrap processor OmniSource, a unit of steelmaker Steel Dynamics, which turned over a former scrap yard it did not use off Railroad Avenue Southwest. 

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for our group,” chapter president Tim Witt said. 

The group had just three acres at the former industrial center and vacated to accommodate the development of the planned Riverdale community. Now rail buffs are looking at a trapezoidal field spanning 16.6 acres and seeing big possibilities for grounds and shops — a permanent home befitting its mission. The Norwich Yard can become “a destination for rail enthusiasts,” Witt said, using a name that rail buffs have begun to apply to the site. 

“It’s just so much property to do so much with,” Witt said. “But it’s going to be slow going because it costs money and it takes people.”

The Roanoke chapter has launched a fundraiser that’s still without a specific financial goal, but is accepting online donations. The chapter published a list of businesses and organizations that have already helped with the project.

Designers will lay out a plan for crews to install a switch and tracks to receive and house its roughly 35 engines and cars, now in temporary storage. The group would also like to fix up several old buildings on the land and erect a restoration and maintenance facility enabling it to take on larger restoration projects.

Visitors were welcome at the group’s former yard where rail buffs repaired and smoothed old rail equipment, as they will be at Norwich once there is something to see, according to current plans. The new site is not open to visitors yet.

Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal operated the site from the 1950s through 2008, after which the property underwent environmental remediation, according to records of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. That work, conducted by an owner who predated OmniSource, cleaned up most of the site including all areas that the rail group plans to use, Witt said. The rail group, however, accepted responsibility for additional cleanup in one relatively small area that is separate from the planned rail park but within the bounds of its newly acquired land, he said.

Steel Dynamics spokeswoman Tricia Meyers said her company wasn’t using the land and conveyed it to the rail group for a “de minimis amount.” City records give the assessed value of the land at nearly $270,000. 

The president of the local neighborhood association saw little to no reason to think that the planned rail yard will disturb nearby residents, given its location within the industrial belt on either side of the Roanoke River. AkzoNobel Wood Finishes and Adhesives, Associated Asphalt and Norfolk Southern conduct operations there.

“I don’t think most of the residents of Norwich will be terribly affected by it,” said Jessica Thomasson of Neighborly Norwich. “It’s smack dab in a very industrial area.”

The site is around the corner from the former Walker Foundry land, which a developer has proposed turning into a complex of apartments and restaurant.

Norwich began as a residential community with the establishment of worker housing to support nearby industry, the neighborhood president said. 

That was 200 years ago this year and is cause for celebration today. Norwich is throwing a bicentennial celebration and concert on April 5 at Norwich Park. The event is free to the public, according to Thomasson, who predicted “the party of all parties.”

Thomasson said she would urge the rail buffs to safeguard a section of the Roanoke River Greenway that runs through their new property. No impacts are anticipated, said Witt. He was told that city zoning laws will permit the planned activities with no further land-use approvals needed.

The Roanoke chapter has kept and restored rail equipment and related artifacts of area railroading for nearly 60 years. Its gems include the restored the Virginian Railway Passenger Station at 1402 S. Jefferson Street. The Roanoke group’s 103 members constitute one of the national historical society’s largest chapters anywhere.