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Railroad Museum Semaphore On Top 10 Endangered List

The Fairfax Station Railroad Museum's railroad semaphore artifact is one of the ten most endangered artifacts in Virginia

The 's railroad semaphore artifact was selected by The Virginia Association of Museums as one of the top ten most endangered artifacts in Virginia.

The railroad semaphore was original to the early 20th Century railroad station, according to Jon Vrana, a railroad expert who works with the museum.

It was originally mounted on the side of the station and provided visual information critical to the engineer, Vrana said. The station served the southern railway, a railroad build in 1851 and key to the Confederacy’s victories at the Battles of first and second Manassas.

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Here are the other winners as selected by the Virginia Association of Museums:

  • Booker T. Washington National Monument (photographs with cellulose nitrate negatives) Roanoke
  • Gari Melchers Home & Studio at Belmont (Wrought Iron Staircase Railing) Fredericksburg
  • Hermitage Museum & Gardens (Korean 18th century Sakyamuni Triad Silk Tapestry) Norfolk
  • Historic Dumfries Virginia, Inc (Wood Trunk Covered in Deerskin, circa 1800) Manassas
  • Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia (Yolngu Bark Painting) Charlottesville
  • Library of Virginia (Executive Papers of Governor Thomas Jefferson, 1779-1781) Richmond
  • The Mariners’ Museum (USS Monitor’s Revolving Gun Turret) Newport News
  • Preservation Virginia (John Marshall's Supreme Court Judicial Robes) Richmond
  • Virginia National Guard Historical Society (1846 Mexican War National Flag) Blackstone

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