Dear Piedmont Silver Eagles:

Members of the Piedmont Airlines Silver Eagles will be among the visitors best able to appreciate and enjoy the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Occupying a site that was built as Southern Railway’s then cutting-edge steam locomotive repair facility, the Museum has its very roots in transportation. It is appropriate that a site so near the point where the Great Wagon Road and the Great Trading Path merged should now preserve and display the myriad transportation-related artifacts that pay tribute to the ingenuity of North Carolinians in overcoming the geographical barriers that made unification of the state such a challenge.

The birth of Piedmont Airlines is one of the finest examples of overcoming such obstacles, and that achievement is honored at the Museum. The DC-3 “Potomac Pacemaker” is scheduled to be the first artifact installed in what will become our largest exhibit hall, the Back Shop. The airplane has already been moved from Durham and is currently stored in that building, awaiting restoration. A special exhibit on the history of Piedmont Airlines was on display for approximately two years in our “Wagons, Wheels and Wings” exhibit hall. It inaugurated a series of long-term temporary exhibits designed to maintain the interest of visitors until the larger hall is ready several years from now.

The first parcel of land was donated to the state for creation of a transportation museum in 1977, followed by a larger parcel in 1979. The first exhibit hall, “People, Places Times” (now “Wagons, Wheels and Wings”) opened in 1983, followed by the “Bumper to Bumper” exhibit (antique automobiles) in the Flue Shop in 1990, and the Roundhouse (railroad history) in 1996. It may interest you to know that your Tom Davis served on the Board of Directors of the Museum’s support group in the 1980’s and was so much involved in planning for the Museum’s growth. The estimated date for completion of the Back Shop is 2008. A model of the proposed exhibit hall is on display in the Orientation Room in the Roundhouse.

For full information on directions, operating hours, and train ride schedules, check out our web site http://nctrans.org or call us at 704-636-2889. We’ll be glad to show you why, in more ways than one, we’re “the museum that moves you”.

Cordially,

Elizabeth Smith
Executive Director
North Carolina Transportation Museum