Welcome to the online headquarters of The Western Virginia Railroad Preservation Society. Centrally located in the foothills of Virginia, we are a varied organization that takes pride in the fact that it calls the great state of Virginia home. Since our first humble beginnings in late 2003, we have grown into a working nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the preservation of railroad artifacts great and small, especially those in immediate danger of being destroyed.

After our first encounter with the Lost Engines of Roanoke back in 2003, we realized that since we did not have a working facility at the time, the traditional approach of acquiring a locomotive and building a museum around it might not be the best suited for the society.

Instead of working towards acquiring some railroad equipment, we wanted to establish a working facility before branching out to include such equipment. Over the last several years we have been working hard toward accomplishing this new goal. We have been collecting and restoring the tools and equipment necessary to be able to stabilize and repair anything that might come our way in the future.

What we have managed to acquire over the last several years though, while laying the foundation for a full fledged machine shop, is still far from a complete set of working tools. During this time we have also been working on acquiring a patch of land down in the Western part of Virginia in order to eventually construct a working machine shop and museum, as well as maintain a largely complete digital library of railroading history and practices. More recently, we have returned to our roots, and now stand once again, this time much wiser and more prepared, to take on the Lost Engines of Roanoke.

 

Message from the President

Welcome and thank you for visiting our website. When The Western Virginia Railroad Preservation Society was formed back in 2003 our original mandate for the "preservation of railroad artifacts ... especially those in immediate danger" was in part due to the ongoing situation with the "Lost Engines of Roanoke". While we as a society have faced many challenges over the last 5 years, none have had as much significance to the society compared to the one we face now. Given recent circumstances regarding the possible fate of the Lost Engines, we have decided to join forces with the Virginia Museum of Transportation in a massive fundraising effort to see the remaining locomotives moved out of the scrapyard and into a location where they can be given a new lease on life.

Since Ohio native Terry Byrne recently rescued the 917 from being turned into scrap metal interest has been renewed in saving the other locomotives and rolling stock that are still lingering in the scrapyard, yet at the same time keeping them in the state. This turn of events gives us all an opportunity to make a difference in a project that we will most likely remember for the rest of our lives. It is at this time that we must band together to preserve our heritage that these locomotives represent.

I ask each and every one of you now to help in this exciting adventure. There are people the world over who are already participating in the effort to preserve our heritage. By helping even in the smallest of ways, you are contributing to making an impact toward preserving your own local history.

I know that there are naysayers out there, and to those of you who say this task is impossible or not worth the effort, I say to you if we heed your words then we have already failed. But to do anything in this world we must fight for what we believe in and never back down no matter the odds.

You may ask, "What can I do to help? I am just one person." To answer this, you must do whatever your hearts tells you to do. It does not matter if you live in Roanoke, Virginia or even Sydney, Australia, you can still make an impact with preserving the history of our community. You can spread the world of what we are doing. You can donate time and effort to help move the program along. Monetary donations, while not all we require, are a major necessity to our operation and are always welcome. It does not matter if your donation is only $1 or $1000, it all goes to help preserve our history for future generations.

Again I would like to say Thank You to everyone from the bottom of my heart for all of the contributions that you are making to this project so that it will be a success.

Andrew Martin
President
TWVRPS Inc