The 611 locomotive is officially chugging along the train tracks ahead of its fall excursions beginning next week.

Operation Lifesaver is hosting “See tracks? Think Trains” Week promoting safety around train tracks and train crossings. It comes as Virginia has seen over 170 incidents with train crossings in the past four years.

A new report says the U.S. has seen an increase in the number of a certain kind of derailment related to the forces created when railcars push and pull against each other as freight trains have gotten longer.

All aboard the 611! Public excursions on the beloved “Queen of Steam” locomotive begin this fall.

One Christiansburg woman is pushing for change after being stranded across the train tracks from her house for nearly 17 hours.

The Queen of Steam is on the move and passed through our area Monday, a welcome sight to railfans.

ROANOKE, Va. – The Virginia Museum of Transportation started reviving a piece of Roanoke’s rail history Sunday afternoon. Volunteers began clearing a stretch of track in Wasena Park, known as the beltline, of plants and debris. It’s so important to keep the knowledge passed down from one generation to another.”Volunteers begin clearing an abandoned rail track at Wasena Park in Roanoke. The beltline is owned by the museum and is where the museum first started in 1963. This is the first step in a long journey.”AdThe museum plans to return to Wasena Park at least once a month to work on the track.

ROANOKE, Va. – A new addition to a Roanoke rail yard will help keep the city’s train history alive. Roanoke’s chapter of the National Railway Historical Society built a structure on its property to protect both train cars and volunteers from the weather. The structure will soon house Norfolk & Western car 512, a formerly segregated passenger car, as volunteers work to restore it. Chapter vice president Gary Gray said volunteers have often been interrupted in their restoration work by the weather. "It’s going to be great to be able to not get wet.”According to Gray, the new shelter costs $50,000 to construct, which the chapter paid for themselves.

ROANOKE, Va. – It’s the end of an era in Roanoke as one of what are known as “The Big Three” class of Norfolk Southern steam engines leaves. Engine 2156 left Wednesday afternoon for the transportation museum in St. Louis. It had been loaned to the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke for the past five years to be with engines from the other two classes. “We did work with the museum in St. Louis to try to come to an agreement on possibly keeping it. He said the museum may try to get it back in the future.