Roanoke was born a railroad town.

Once known as Big Lick with a population of a few hundred people, the small community on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern Virginia was selected in 1881 as a rail hub for the Shenandoah Valley and the Norfolk & Western railroads.

The resulting surge in business and people transformed a rural wayside into Virginia’s third-largest city.

Trains still lumber through Roanoke, though its status as a rail hub and headquarters is long in the past. Despite the declining importance of railroads to the local economy, however, Roanoke remains a great place for train buffs.

The old Norfolk & Western passenger station now serves as home to the Roanoke Valley Visitor Center, where large rear windows overlook mainline tracks and slowly moving freight trains. The building also houses the museum of innovative train photographer O. Winston Link.

The centerpiece of Roanoke’s retold railroad history is the Virginia Museum of Transportation, housed in a 1918 vintage Norfolk & Western freight station. The 45,000-square foot building, located beside the Norfolk Southern mainline tracks, displays automotive, aviation and transit exhibits, but it is the rail collection that dominates.

For Roanoke, nee Big Lick, the city can attribute its very name to the railroads. Their arrival led citizens to rename their community Roanoke to match that of the river flowing through the valley. The name is derived from an Algonquian word, “rawrenock,” a shell bead used for trade and worn by Native Americans.

Once selected as a hub, Roanoke-the-city became a company town with businesses, jobs, activities and local facilities dependent upon the railroad.

The massive Roanoke Shops built nearly 450 steam locomotives and hundreds of freight cars between the late 1880s and mid-1900s. It employed thousands and produced some of the world’s most advanced steam locomotives.

The city was also home to impressive passenger stations and a large freight facility.

For decades, the railroad and Roanoke were one.

Today, Roanoke is no longer a company town, or even a railroad town, although Amtrak is expected to restore passenger service next fall. The last steam locomotive rolled out of Roanoke Shops in 1953, and Norfolk Southern closed its downtown offices in 2015, moving more than 500 white-collar jobs to Atlanta and Norfolk.

This city, now eighth or ninth largest in the state by population, promotes its proximity to the scenic Blue Ridge as a draw for tourists in search of outdoor activities. It has also attracted Bend, Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery, which will open an East Coast operation in Roanoke, from which it hopes to ship beer by 2021.

But Roanoke’s run on the rails is not far from mind or view.

The Link Museum displays some of the best of the Brooklyn photographer’s 2,400 black-and-white images documenting the final years of steam locomotives. Link developed unique lighting techniques to produce stunning photographs of locomotives in a variety of settings, the most famous of which highlights one passing a drive-in movie theater.

The Virginia Museum of Transportation, in its cavernous old freight station, displays more than 50 pieces of rolling stock including diesel locomotives, steam locomotives, electric locomotives, switch engines, flatcars, boxcars and a mail car. The collection even includes a fireless locomotive that operated using stored steam.

Most are in a pavilion just outside the main building, near the active mainline tracks.

The main attractions are two of the most powerful steam locomotives ever built. A sleek 1950 Class J 611 was rebuilt two years ago for $1 million and is in working condition. It is used for occasional excursions.

Next to it is the massive Class A 1218 steam locomotive built in 1943 by Roanoke Shops.

Train buffs can spend at least half a day in the transportation museum.

An interactive walking trail, one-third of a mile long, follows the still-operating mainline railroad tracks, connecting the transportation museum with the visitor center and Link Museum. Along the way, memorabilia including signals, platforms, and whistles – with storyboards and audio stations – tell the story of Roanoke’s railroad history.

While the old Norfolk & Western passenger station is being used as a visitor center and museum, another renovated passenger station is looking for a tenant.

The Virginian Railway Station, built in 1909, has been beautifully renovated following a 2001 fire and currently sits empty at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Williamson Road.

The building is simply beautiful and, like the city itself, is a worthwhile stop for train buffs.

David and Kay Scott are authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot). Visit them at www.valdosta.edu/~dlscott/Scott