Board members of the Virginia Museum of Transportation resign

Roanoke, Virginia – The board of directors of the Virginia Museum of Transportation has lost six members. Last Thursday during the museum’s annual meeting, they turned in their resignation letters.

Furthermore, rumors and worries regarding the museum’s and the steam excursion program’s future have been stoked by their departure.

Will Harris, who owns the land where passengers boarded the train, led the team that carried out the excursions with the 611 steam engine last October. He has since resigned, along with at least two other board members who played a crucial role in that operation.

During a phone call on Thursday morning, Harris stated that his motivation stemmed from his desire to spend more time with his grandchildren and health issues. He expressed his best wishes to the museum and promised to do his part to keep the excursion program going.

Bev Fitzpatrick, the former executive director, says the news of the six resignations is a serious worry even though he is not a current board member and did not attend the annual meeting.

“And for something that’s that important to me and to Roanoke, your first reaction is something’s not right,” Fitzpatrick said. “And that’s not what we want from a major icon.”

Tom Cox, a board member, joined us for a Thursday afternoon speech on behalf of the museum. He expressed his gratitude to the board members for their tireless efforts at the museum and the recent outings.

Although he accepted that there were some disagreements among the board members, he stated he didn’t think there was a significant split that led to the resignations.

According to Cox, the museum is dedicated to maintaining the 611 in operational order and anticipates doing excursions once more in the future.