Steam & Excursion > Museum lokie trade

St. Louis Museum of Transportation and Virginia Museum of Transportation to trade historic locomotives

NORFOLK, VA. – The Museum of Transportation, St. Louis, and the Virginia Museum of Transportation are in discussions to bring Norfolk and Western Y6a steam engine #2156, currently in the St. Louis museum, back to its place of origin at Roanoke, Va., on a five-year loan for display at the Virginia museum, in a transaction facilitated by Norfolk Southern.

In exchange, the Virginia museum will send to St. Louis a Southern Railway diesel General Motors EMD FTB unit to complement the St. Louis museum’s FTA demonstration unit.

“This will reunite the last surviving Y-class locomotive, one of the hardest pulling steam locomotives ever built, with the J-611 and the A-1218 in Roanoke, where all three were designed and built by Norfolk and Western,” said Molly Butterworth, cultural site manager for the St. Louis Museum of Transportation. ”In return, our historic FTA, built in 1939 to demonstrate to the rail industry the efficiency of diesel power, will be reunited with its complimentary B unit.”

“We are thrilled to welcome the Y6a home again,” said Bev Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Virginia Museum of Transportation. “We’re grateful to the St. Louis Museum of Transportation for this opportunity to reunite three powerful sisters of steam in their home town.”

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3417991

You should apparently visit this branch of Trainorders.com more often. Been discussed into oblivion as marked above. As a former high school age volunteer (I'm 57 now) and later employee of both the pre and post St. Louis County Parks Department NMOT and having worked on the 2156 (before it had show time at the PV tracks in St. Louis Union Station), someone down the line may find the epoxy fillings in the rotted out cab window sashes sanded down and "wood grained" to look good under the cheap and quick fix that the initial Parks Department "curators" (a term used in the smallest sense you could imagine) demanded and I, not enthusiastically had to comply with. If I could underline "smallest" from above, I would. It was a paycheck.
I welcome the 2156's return to Roanoke and she truly does belong there.
Long after finding a real job, I was honored to be called to assist in the restoration of the Frisco 1522 right along side this boards own "Frisco1522" and was there the first day when the cab was removed as she sat on display track #4 on the lower lot and enjoyed a lot of weekends and Wednesday late night work sessions and commaraderie after that.


Michael Perkins
Manager- PV Puget Sound