Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409270040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke Valley railroad and transportation history buffs hope the answer is a crowd-pleasing, greatly expanded Virginia Museum of Transportation.
"Can you imagine driving down here and seeing a passenger plane on top of the roof?" asked Kay Houck, the museum's enthusiastic executive director.
Long a poor cousin of Roanoke's more popular tourist attractions, the museum is planning a four-year improvement blitz that will see it triple in size; build protective sheds for its engines and rail cars; and add slick, new interactive exhibits now demanded by museum-goers.
A much-ballyhooed pedestrian walkway stretching three blocks from the popular City Market should bring the people.
At the prodding of Mayor David Bowers, City Council has proposed spending $1.3 million on the rail walk's first phase, part of a $23 million bond referendum that goes to the voters in November. When complete, the total cost of the linear park is expected to be just over $2.5 million.
With approval of voters in November, the city also will give the museum $812,000 for capital improvements in a matching grant that would require its board of directors to raise a like amount in cash and in-kind services. They will launch a $300,000 capital campaign soon, Houck said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, through a federal highway program, has promised another $228,000. Much more is needed, and Houck hesitates to guess at how much all the improvements eventually will cost.
"Many of the businesses in Roanoke have been very generous and are helping us with in-kind donations," she said. For example, the Equitable Life Assurance Co. raised $10,000 for the museum by holding a golf tournament.
If it all comes to pass, the museum expects vast increases in the number - now 70,000 - of visitors who stop there annually, Houck said.
"We want to be the premier museum for Western Virginia. And I think we can do that," she said.
The concept for the improvements began with some architecture students from Virginia Tech, Houck said. The plans were developed as a class project and presented to the museum's board of directors late last year.
"With those ideas, our board got really excited," she said. It hired Hayes Seay Mattern & Mattern to work with the students to refine the plan.
The initial improvements will occur in three phases. The first, improvements to the building's exterior, probably will begin next summer, Houck said.
The museum will be dressed up with a coat of paint, a new entryway and neon signs on the rooftop, according to plans presented to the city. The first phase also includes construction of a brick pedestrian plaza along Norfolk Avenue between Second and Third streets. The road will be blocked by the soon-to-be-built bridge over the railroad tracks on Second Street.
The second phase is construction of a 50,000-square-foot train shed to protect the museum's 46 pieces of rolling stock - one of the largest collections in the country.
The need for a roof over the old rail cars and engines is apparent. All are housed outdoors, where they're exposed to the elements.
Sun-bleached passengers cars now stand forlornly on rail sidings behind the facility, and massive steam locomotives are slowly rusting from rain and snow. Red paint on a 1926 Norfolk and Western caboose is peeling.
"It's very tough to fight these battles," Houck says.
The third phase includes an amphitheater behind the building. It would face the Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks and would include an elevated viewing platform so patrons can watch the railroad's moving trains.
Houck said a rooftop airliner would be added later - she's looking for a donated passenger plane. Likewise with an aging train that she hopes to have mounted as if it's coming out of the front of the museum.
The Transportation Museum previously was in Wasena Park near the banks of the Roanoke River. It sustained heavy damage in the 1985 flood and relocated in 1987 to vacant Norfolk Southern freight offices between Norfolk Avenue and NS tracks.
by CNB