After a long drive to be on hand for the departure, I found the weather challenging --- but so did O. Winston Link in the same setting many years before.

Westbound empty train leaving Roanoke in February 1972.

N&W FM 169 resting between assignments at Roanoke, VA || Feb 1974

N&W Y3 class 2-8-8-2 #2045 awaiting its next work in Roanoke, September 1954 Photo by Bob Drake, Tom Sink Collection.

N&W C628 1125 leads an interesting mix of power eastbound out of Roanoke in this May 1971 scene.

Arriving off the Shenandoah Valley line.

NS 195 heads north with empty racks from the car lot at Walkertown, NC. The excessive power (two C40-9s, C39-8, GP38AC, C36-7, and another C40-9) likely includes engines returning to Roanoke off a... (more)

N&W SD45 1759 running long hood forward at the west end of Roanoke, December 1972

Departing Roanoke, southbound at JK behind an "enhanced" C39-8 and two "classics" (8636 + 8562).

Westbound N&W train arriving in Roanoke behind SD45 #1733.

This engineer is looking for track conditions ahead as he departs the station at Roanoke for points east. Special thanks to the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Lerro Productions for another ... (more)

Side-by-side - N&W 611 and C&O 614 at rest under the VMT trainshed.

FRED follows a freight into the yard.

Full maintenance crew looks like the days of the Shafer's Crossing lubratorium when 1218 was running revenue freight