The Virginia Museum of Transportation celebrates family togetherness and the cars and trains your grandparents loved with discounts and special activities for Grandparents Day Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Bring your grandparents or your grandchildren and share your family stories and memories with the next generation.
Admission is discounted to $5 per person: grandparents, museum members, and children age two and under get in free! Grandparents Day is sponsored by AARP Virginia. Thanks to AARP, there will be a free gift for the first 250 children, and free ice cream for everyone from 11 am to 3 pm, while supplies last. Parking in the Brandon lot in front of the Museum will be free for the day.
A short train ride in a vintage coach or caboose fires the imagination! Train rides are provided by the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society pulled by the chapter’s historic T-6 Alco Diesel Locomotive (not J 611). Train rides are $3 per person per ride: children age two and under ride free.
New! The engineer’s cab of the world-famous Norfolk & Western Class J 611 will be open for tours. Learn from a member of the engine crew what it takes to operate the steam locomotive.
The Roanoke Valley Model Engineers located in the Museum’s basement will welcome guests to their Open House. Their O, HO, On30, and N scale layouts are always changing, always growing, but only open to the public a few times each year. Plus, there is a layout for children to run!
New! Learn how to make a model tree to “plant” at the Museum, to help the forest in the Museum’s O-Gauge layout grow.
New! Antique automobile experts will be on hand in the Advance Auto Parts Automotive Gallery to answer questions and enable guests to explore some of the cars in the Museum’s collection. Open for visitors to see and/or sit in: 1995 Hummer H-1, 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, 1963 Chevrolet Impala, 1962 Studebaker Lark, 1950 Studebaker Land Cruiser, and 1932 Ford Model B Pickup Truck.
New! Dash Dupree and the Queen of Steam is a special children’s story book that tells a fanciful story of one child’s love for the Class J 611 steam locomotive. Nancy Ruth Patterson, Dash’s “grandmother,” will be on hand to read the story and share the beautiful illustrations at 11 am and 1 and 2 pm. Afterwards, children are invited to join our educators for a special activity related to the book.
Families can capture the memories and fun of the day by taking a family photo in a photo booth with a 611 backdrop.
Food will be available for purchase.
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