Stolen Railroadiana

Vintage bell stolen off engine in rail yard
The brass bell was taken from a locomotive owned by the National Railway Historic Society.

Eddie Mooneyham figures the people who broke into the rail yard at the Roanoke Industrial Center off Ninth Street Southeast sometime last weekend or early this week knew just what they were looking for.

The fenced-in rail yard houses several historic locomotives and passenger cars owned by the Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Two of the steam locomotives known as the "Lost Engines," recently saved from a Roanoke scrapyard, are also being restored there.

Someone took a brass bell from the front of a diesel locomotive owned by the NRHS, said Mooneyham, the chapter's vice president. The bell measures 9 by 12 inches and says "C&O RY" -- for "Chesapeake and Ohio Railway," he said. Mooneyham said the bell would probably be worth several hundred dollars at a pawn or antique shop. The thieves also took an oval sign that says "Stop, look and listen."

"It was somebody who knew what they wanted to get," said Mooneyham. "They were fairly brazen. Those bells are not light." He said the thieves cut the 8-foot-high fence to get in.

Mooneyham said it was the first major theft to occur at the site in 30 years.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Roanoke police, or send a message via the chapter's Web site at roanokenrhs.org.