Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 8, 1995                   TAG: 9502080060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AN ESSENTIAL TRIP FOR THE RAIL FAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING

Well, now's your chance. Norfolk Southern Corp. said Tuesday it will sell hundreds of items from its former steam excursion program at an auction Feb. 28.

The auction, intended to liquidate the NS steam division, will be held in Irondale, Ala., northeast of Birmingham.

Among the items for sale, NS said, will be eight passenger coaches, at least 15 cabooses, 10 motor cars, a tool car, four water cars, two derrick cars, a 30-ton overhead crane and more than 25 shop cars. Other items will include steam engine parts, blacksmith tools, railroad car parts, air tools, shop welders, and repair-shop and office equipment.

Not included in the auction will be certain tools and parts for the Class J No. 611 locomotive, which will go on display this year at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. The railroad has donated those items to the museum, according to Executive Director Kay Houck.

NS announced in October that it was ending its steam excursion program because it was incompatible with the operation of a modern freight railroad. The announcement raised cries of protest from some rail fans.

The streamlined No. 611, used in the steam excursions, was built in the Norfolk and Western Railway's Roanoke shops and was given to the city after NW ended its steam passenger service in 1959. The locomotive later was refurbished and returned to the city in 1982 - the same year NW merged with the Southern Railway to form NS - as a gift for Roanoke's centennial.

Houck said the museum has joined several others in asking for another NS steam engine, the Class A No.1218, which also was built in NW's Roanoke shops. "We feel like this would be a grand resting place for it," she said.

The museum signed a contract Monday with Hayes Seay Mattern & Mattern of Roanoke to design a shed to house the No. 611. The shed will be large enough to accommodate the No. 1218 as well, Houck said.

The steam auction will be held in the Ernest Norris building at the NS rail yard in Irondale. It begins at 9 a.m., and the cars will be auctioned at noon. To get to the yard, take Exit 32 off Interstate 459 and go south on U.S. 11 for half a mile. Turn left on Ruffner Road, and drive for 3.7 miles. Turn left on Ruffner Court, drive one-fourth mile, and turn left into Ernest Norris Yard.

For a brochure listing the items to be sold, call Blackmon Auctions in Little Rock, Ark., at (501)664-4526. The equipment will be available for inspection Feb. 21-24 and Feb. 27. For more information, call Doug Karhan at (205)951-4954.