Fwd: Link Museum News

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

By _Kevin  Kittredge_ (mailto:kevin.kittredge at roanoke.com)
981-3323
The Roanoke Times

"Mission accomplished"
The O. Winston Link Museum, which opened in January 2004, has achieved its
fundraising goal, museum board member David Helmer said. Though the museum is
still seeking donations for a $1 million endowment, the roughly $3 million it
needed to pay for close to 300 of Link's famed railroad photographs, exhibits
and other expenses has been raised. "The museum is debt-free and has
developed a  sizable endowment," Helmer said.
Center in the Square handled the outside renovation work on the former
Norfolk and Western passenger station where the museum is located. Center will
meet its own fundraising goal of $6.8 million once $400,000-plus worth of
already-approved federal transportation funds is released, said 
Center president
Jim Sears. The museum's total cost was close to $9 million.
Link, a New York photographer who spent several years photographing the
waning days of steam locomotion on the N&W in the 1950s, died in 2001.

Link's caboose
The Link museum, with the help of Norfolk Southern Corp. and Lee Hi Travel
Plaza, will install Link's prized 1950s-vintage N&W caboose at the museum  over
the next few weeks. The caboose, to be installed on the east, or Williamson
Road, side of the building, will eventually be open to the  public."