Norris Steam Restoration Shop, Norris Yards, east of Ruffner Road, Irondale, Jefferson County, AL

Significance: The site contains switching yards, towers and the steam restoration shop. Norfolk Southern owns a 1943 Norfolk & Western No. 1218 steam locomotive; a 1943 Chesapeake & Ohio NO. 2716 locomotive and leases a 1950 Norfolk & Western No. 611 engine. These are maintained in the shop and leased for rides across the South. In 1952 Southern Railway (now Norfolk Southern) constructed one of the first automatic switching yards in the South, naming it for Ernest Norris, a former president of Southern Railway. The yard is still in active use and includes one of only two Class A Steam Engine Restoration Shops in the nation.
Survey number: HAER AL-40
Building/structure dates: 1952 Initial Construction