On New Year's Eve the VMT community said goodbye to a dear friend and a devoted volunteer. After a long struggle with cancer and a short battle with pneumonia, Robert Sessions passed away on December 29, 2013. I closed the Museum early on December 31 so we could all attend his funeral.

 

Bob loved the museum and did so much to help us.  His passion was the O Gauge, but he helped with all aspects of museum operations. When it came to electricity or electronics, he was our go-to man. Changing fluorescent tubes, re-wiring a railroad switch, installing AV equipment, editing a video recording, or trouble-shooting a computer: there was nothing Bob couldn't do.

We were all aware of the daily battles he fought just to stay alive and so impressed with the courage and resolve he showed as he faced each new day. Bob refused to give up, working through his pain and fatigue.  He told me that if he was going to feel like crap anyway, he'd rather be at the museum doing something than being at home sitting around.  He definitely was not one to sit around!

Bob's is death is a great loss to all of us personally, and it is also a great loss to the museum. We will miss him terribly.

Our prayers of sympathy are with his wife, Sharon, and his family.  Our sadness is deep, but our hearts are full with the blessings of knowing him.  It is so hard to believe that we will not be seeing him again. Goodbye, Bob, and thank you for being a part of our lives.

 

From a distance, it's the QUEEN. Up close, she's a cardboard model cutout designed, manufactured and donated by Roanoke's Corrugated Container Corporation. 

Our Class J 611 Cardboard Model is perfect for a desk top, a bookshelf, the train room, or almost any place in your home.

The Virginia Museum of Transportation joined forces with Roanoke City Public Schools to design an interactive learning experience for 7th grade US History II students.

The 7th graders used VMT's Samsung Galaxy tables with a special app created by M3:Graphix. The app led students through the Museum as they explored exhibits and engaged in a morning of interactive activities including videography, tablet/photo scavenger hunt, the African American experience on the railroad, barnstorming stunts and much more. This Learning Lab went far beyond history, touching on 15 different SOLs in all disciplines.

To schedule a VMT Learning Lab field trip for any age group, contact Courtney Plaster at cplaster@vmt.org.

You don't believe it at first. It sounds too incredible, too historic, too daring. But it's true. Captain Bill Overstreet, a World War II pilot and a Roanoke native, chased a German bomber through the legs of the Eiffel Tower during an epic air battle over Paris.

Overstreet was awarded hundreds of medals for his service in the 357th squadron of the U.S. Army Air Forces. One of his greatest honors was receiving France's Legion of Honor from the French ambassador to the United States in 2009 at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

At the ceremony, the French ambassador said Overstreet led some of the most heroic actions that we have ever heard of during the liberation of France. Captain Overstreet passed away on December 29, 2013.

Captain Overstreet's story is included in Flight Talk, our oral history booth in the Wings Over Virginia Aviation Gallery. Our mission at the VMT is to record the stories of Virginia's aviators and preserve them for future generations.

Come hear Captain Overstreet's story -- and many others -- at the VMT.

 

 

VMT Online Store 

  

Membership | Donate 

  

Rail Cam  

  

Virginia's Rail Heritage Region