Virginia Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Published: October 12, 2026

Virginia’s railroad museums are thickest in Roanoke, where the Norfolk & Western built its own locomotives. The Virginia Museum of Transportation occupies the 1918 freight station and is the home railroad of J-class No. 611 and Class A No. 1218. Across the Railwalk, the O. Winston Link Museum is the night photographs, in the passenger station that reopened in 1949. Clifton Forge has the Chesapeake & Ohio’s heritage center in a freight depot of 1895. Richmond, Fairfax Station, Suffolk, Parksley, and Christiansburg keep the smaller stations.

N&W 4-8-4 601 with the Birmingham Special at Bridge 201 in Radford VA in 1957

The O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke showcases the timeless work of Mr. Link, which photographed late era Norfolk & Western steam in the 1950s. In this scene, N&W 4-8-4 #601 steams across Bridge 201 above the New River at Radford, Virginia with Train #17, the first section of Southern's southbound "Birmingham Special," on the night of December 17, 1957. O Winston Link photo.

When No. 611 is on a public train, the dates and the boarding town are on the Virginia scenic-train guide. American-Rails does not sell tickets. Confirm the doors, and which locomotive is on the property, before you drive.

On this page: At a glance · Virginia railroads · Roanoke · Link Museum · Clifton Forge · Richmond · Depots · Fort Eustis · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Virginia Museum of Transportation	Roanoke	Began 1963. Downtown N&W freight station of 1918, at 303 Norfolk Avenue SW, since April 1986. J-class No. 611, Roanoke, 1950. Class A No. 1218, Roanoke, 1943	profile · vmt.org · rides
O. Winston Link Museum	Roanoke	Opened January 10, 2004, in the N&W passenger station. Restyled building opened April 1, 1949. Photographs of N&W steam, 1955–1960	roanokehistory.org
C&O Railway Heritage Center	Clifton Forge	Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, founded 1969. Restored freight depot of 1895. C&O GP7 of 1952 and SD40 No. 7534 of 1971	cohs.org
Richmond Railroad Museum	Richmond	Old Dominion Chapter, NRHS, chartered 1957. Southern’s Hull Street Station of 1915, at 102 Hull Street. Porter 0-4-0T of 1924	richmondrailroadmuseum.com
Fairfax Station Railroad Museum	Fairfax Station	Friends organized 1973. Replica of the 1891 station opened in 1988. Clara Barton’s 1862 relief station on the Orange & Alexandria	fairfax-station-railroad-museum.org
Seaboard Station Railroad Museum	Suffolk	Queen Anne station of 1885, at 326 North Main Street. Reopened June 20, 2026. Model of Suffolk in 1907	suffolktrainstation.com
Eastern Shore Railway Museum	Parksley	1906 Pennsylvania Railroad passenger station, 18468 Dunne Avenue. Parlor-lounge Diplomat, 1927	virginia.org
Historic Cambria Depot	Christiansburg	Virginia & Tennessee Italianate depot, freight station from 1906. National Register, December 12, 1985. 630 Depot Street NE	Virginia DHR

Virginia railroads

Roanoke was the mechanical heart of the Norfolk & Western, which built 611 and 1218 in its own shops, and of the Virginian. Clifton Forge was the Chesapeake & Ohio shop and division point, where locomotives were prepared for the Alleghany grade and for the run down the James. Richmond was the meeting ground of the Southern, the Seaboard, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Norfolk & Western, and the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. The state map is on the Virginia railroads page.

The Virginia Scenic Railway is the bookable train in the western part of the state, and the Buckingham Branch is a freight railroad whose public trips appear when they are announced. Both calendars stay on the scenic guide. Mountain rides just across the line, at Cass and on the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley and the Potomac Eagle, are on the West Virginia scenic-train guide.

Roanoke

The Virginia Museum of Transportation began in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum, in an old Norfolk & Western freight depot at Wasena Park. A flood in November 1985 closed that site. In April 1986 the museum reopened downtown, in the Norfolk & Western freight station, and took the name it uses now. Both parts of that station were completed in 1918. The address is 303 Norfolk Avenue SW. In 1983 the General Assembly recognized it as the commonwealth’s official transportation museum. The profile already on this site is the Virginia Museum of Transportation page.

Norfolk & Western No. 611 is a class J 4-8-4, built at the Roanoke shops in 1950, and the surviving engine of that class. It pulled the Powhatan Arrow in regular service, retired in 1959, and returned to excursion work more than once. The General Assembly named it the commonwealth’s official steam locomotive in 2017. The city of Roanoke transferred 611, and Class A No. 1218, to the museum on April 2, 2012. No. 1218 is a 2-6-6-4 built at Roanoke in 1943, and it is at the museum. The class history of the J is the Norfolk & Western J page. The excursion story is the 611 page.

For the summer of 2026 the museum sent 611 out in a red, white, and blue scheme. It pulled Virginia Scenic Railway trips on weekends in June and through the July 4 weekend. After those trips the locomotive was at Fishersville, on railroad property, while the museum arranged the move back to Roanoke. On August 19, 2026, the museum’s steam operations manager told the News-Gazette that the annual inspection fell in mid-September, so the fall calendar left 611 off the road. Confirm where No. 611 is before you travel for that engine. The days it does run are on the scenic guide.

Link Museum

The O. Winston Link Museum opened on January 10, 2004, in the former Norfolk & Western passenger station. The Historical Society of Western Virginia operates it. A station had stood on the site from June 29, 1905. The building visitors walk through is the restyled station that opened on April 1, 1949, to plans by Allmon Fordyce of Raymond Loewy and Associates. Link, a New York commercial photographer, made his Norfolk & Western photographs between 1955 and 1960, lighting steam trains at night with banks of flashbulbs and recording the sound. The museum is those prints, the recordings, and the station. The Railwalk connects the building with the transportation museum.

Clifton Forge

The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society was founded in 1969. Its C&O Railway Heritage Center sits on the ground of the old Clifton Forge shops and Smith Creek Yard, in the restored freight depot of 1895. The town prepared locomotives for the westbound grade over the Alleghanies and for the eastbound run across the Blue Ridge and down the James. Indoor panels and an O-scale layout tell that story. Outside, the restored equipment includes a Chesapeake & Ohio GP7 built in 1952 and SD40 No. 7534, built in March 1971 and put back in its as-delivered paint. Passenger cars include combination car No. 458, built in 1926 for the Clifton Forge–Hot Springs mixed train, and the 10-roomette, 6-double-bedroom sleeper City of Petoskey, built in 1950. The Little C&O is a small riding railroad on the grounds. The company history is the Chesapeake & Ohio page.

For years the center displayed Chesapeake & Ohio No. 614, a class J-3a 4-8-4. The railroad called these engines Greenbriers. Lima built 614 in June 1948. The locomotive left Clifton Forge on June 7, 2025, for a restoration at Strasburg, Pennsylvania, and the work was still underway in 2026. That account is the 614 restoration page.

Richmond

The Old Dominion Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society was chartered in 1957. Its Richmond Railroad Museum is Southern’s Hull Street Station, at 102 Hull Street, on the Manchester side of the James. The Southern built the station in 1915, ended passenger service there in 1957, and gave the building to the chapter in 1982. A Railway Express car served as the exhibit space until the restored station reopened as the museum in November 2011. The chapter’s yard at Hallsboro holds more of the equipment.

On the track beside the station is a Porter 0-4-0 tank engine built in 1924 for David M. Lee & Co., cosmetically restored, and Railway Express car No. 185, built in 1937 and used on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac until 1969. The Southern page is the company that built the station. When the chapter posts a public trip on the Buckingham Branch, the date is on the scenic guide.

Depots

The Friends of the Fairfax Station organized in 1973 to keep a reconstructed depot as a museum. The building, a replica of the 1891 station, was dedicated in 1987 and opened to visitors in 1988, at 11200 Fairfax Station Road. The Orange & Alexandria reached this place in 1852. In 1862 the station was the medical evacuation point after Second Manassas, and Clara Barton was among the volunteers. The exhibits cover that railroad, that relief work, and the later life of a country depot.

Suffolk’s Seaboard Station Railroad Museum is the Queen Anne depot of 1885, at 326 North Main Street, with its tower and walnut spiral stair. A burst pipe flooded the building in August 2023. The museum reopened on June 20, 2026. Inside is an HO model of Suffolk in 1907, built by the Tidewater Division of the National Model Railroad Association, and a collection from the Seaboard, the Virginian, the Norfolk & Western, and the Atlantic and Danville.

The Eastern Shore Railway Museum, at 18468 Dunne Avenue in Parksley, uses a 1906 Pennsylvania Railroad passenger station. On the siding are the parlor-lounge Diplomat of 1927, a caboose of 1949, and a sleeper of 1950. The town grew up on the railroad that ran the length of the Eastern Shore to Cape Charles.

Historic Cambria Depot, at 630 Depot Street NE in Christiansburg, is an Italianate Virginia & Tennessee station. The railroad reached Christiansburg in 1854. A depot opened in 1857, and Union troops burned it in 1864. The standing building later became the freight station, in 1906, when a new passenger station opened down the track. It was listed on the National Register on December 12, 1985. The Scale Cabinetmaker museum and its miniatures occupy the depot now. The Norfolk & Western is the later name of this railroad.

Crewe was laid out in 1888 as the Norfolk & Western’s shop town between the coalfields and Hampton Roads. The Crewe Railroad Museum is in the former depot.

Fort Eustis

The U.S. Army Transportation Museum is at 300 Washington Boulevard, Besson Hall, on Joint Base Langley-Eustis, in the Newport News side of the base. The collection covers Army transportation, and the outdoor yards include railroad equipment. Visitors with a valid identification can get a pass at the gate. The museum posts the days. American-Rails does not arrange the pass and does not sell a ticket.

Sources

Virginia Museum of Transportation, vmt.org. Began in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum at Wasena Park. Flood, November 1985. Reopened April 1986 in the Norfolk & Western freight station, both sections completed in 1918, at 303 Norfolk Avenue SW. General Assembly recognition as the official transportation museum, 1983. Norfolk & Western No. 611, class J, built at Roanoke in 1950, the surviving J, named the commonwealth’s official steam locomotive in 2017. Class A No. 1218, built at Roanoke in 1943, is at the museum. City transfer of both locomotives, April 2, 2012. Summer 2026 Virginia Scenic Railway trips in June and through July 4. News-Gazette, August 19, 2026: No. 611 then at Fishersville, annual inspection in mid-September, so the fall calendar left 611 off the road. The existing profile is the museum’s own page. Specs stay on the J-class page. Excursion history stays on the 611 page. Ride dates stay on the scenic guide.
O. Winston Link Museum, Historical Society of Western Virginia. Grand opening January 10, 2004. Norfolk & Western passenger station on a site in use from June 29, 1905. Restyled station opened April 1, 1949, to plans by Allmon Fordyce of Raymond Loewy and Associates. Link’s Norfolk & Western photographs, 1955–1960.
Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, cohs.org. Society founded 1969. Heritage center in the restored Clifton Forge freight depot of 1895. Chesapeake & Ohio GP7 of 1952. SD40 No. 7534, March 1971, restored to as-built appearance. Combination car 458, 1926. Sleeper City of Petoskey, 1950. Chesapeake & Ohio No. 614, Lima, June 1948, class J-3a Greenbrier, left Clifton Forge on June 7, 2025, for restoration at Strasburg. That restoration has its own page.
Richmond Railroad Museum, Old Dominion Chapter, NRHS. Chapter chartered 1957. Hull Street Station built 1915, passenger service ended 1957, donated 1982, museum reopened in the station November 2011. Address 102 Hull Street. Porter 0-4-0T, 1924, David M. Lee & Co. Railway Express car 185, built 1937, used on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac until 1969. Chapter yard at Hallsboro. Excursion dates stay on the scenic guide.
Fairfax Station Railroad Museum, fairfax-station-railroad-museum.org. Friends of the Fairfax Station organized in 1973. Replica of the 1891 station dedicated in 1987 and opened in 1988, at 11200 Fairfax Station Road. Orange & Alexandria reached the site in 1852. Clara Barton worked the 1862 medical evacuation after Second Manassas. Suffolk Seaboard Station, 326 North Main Street, built 1885, reopened June 20, 2026, after the August 2023 flood. Eastern Shore Railway Museum, 18468 Dunne Avenue, Parksley, in a 1906 Pennsylvania Railroad passenger station, with the 1927 parlor-lounge Diplomat, a 1949 caboose, and a 1950 sleeper. Cambria Depot, 630 Depot Street NE, Christiansburg. Virginia & Tennessee depot opened 1857, burned 1864, freight station from 1906, National Register December 12, 1985, reference 85003351. Crewe, laid out in 1888, museum in the former Norfolk & Western depot.
U.S. Army Transportation Museum, transportation.army.mil. Address 300 Washington Boulevard, Besson Hall, Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Open to visitors who present valid identification and receive a pass at the gate. Railroad equipment is part of the outdoor collection.

Confirm hours and which locomotive is on the property before you travel.

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