Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Historic engine removed from scrap yard
Seth Gitner | The Roanoke Times
Cranes prepare to move Engine No. 917 from its place in the Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal yard in Roanoke.
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Gently.
That's how you lift a 75-ton locomotive. And that's how you place it on a highway transport trailer.
Tight.
That's how you lash it down before heading into traffic.
Before 50 spectators, a crew completed most of those steps Tuesday afternoon to extract a historic steam engine from a 50-year resting place in a Roanoke scrap yard and prepare it for shipment to Ohio. The transport is scheduled to leave Wednesday morning for Bellville, Ohio, where Ohio resident Terry Byrne plans to restore the 105-year-old machine. Byrne plans to use it in a railroad-themed restaurant.
The engine was given to Byrne by Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal Co. in Roanoke, which is winding down its affairs on South Jefferson Street.
