The Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) , a US class I railroad, was formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It had headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia for most of its 150 year existence. The company was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house at the Roanoke Shops as well as their own hopper cars. Around 1960, N&W was the last major American railroad to convert from steam to diesel motive power. In the mid 20th century, N&W merged with long-time rival Virginian Railway in the Pocahontas coal region and grew even more in size and profitability by mergers with other rail carriers including Nickel Plate Road and Wabash in adjacent areas to form a system serving 14 states and a Canadian province between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River and Great Lakes with more than 7,000 miles of trackage. Norfolk & Western Railway was combined with the Southern Railway, another profitable carrie