This collection contains materials from the Norfolk & Western Railway, several of its predecessor and subsidiary lines, and associated companies. The collection contains such items as financial and legal documents, reports, maps, plans, timetables, work documents, and printed materials.

The operations of the Norfolk & Western Railway are represented in the collection by a diverse array of materials, including such items as seniority rosters, descriptions / classifications of the company's rolling stock, and printed materials (including legal agreements and a list of Roanoke sidings and team tracks). The N&W materials also include several timetables, train orders, and memoranda from the Passenger Traffic Department. Most significantly, perhaps, the materials include a bound set of standard plans issued by the office of the company's chief engineer. The standards book includes specifications for company-manufactured or -constructed buildings, tools, signs, roadways, bridges, tunnels, appurtenances, etc. Among the remaining materials are a number of financial documents, including such materials as account statements and disbursement vouchers. Also relating to various aspects of daily company operations are several items, including a record book of clerical personnel at the Bluefield Yards; a conductor's train book, bulletins from Crew, Virginia; Passenger Traffic Department circular letters; and time return and delay reports.

The collection also includes several construction job files for the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company (the "Nickel Plate Road") projects in Ohio during the late 1950s. Included in the files for jobs at Huron, Canton, Toledo, Massilon, Georgetown, Fremont, Ironville, Cleveland, and Burbank, are maps, legal documents, balance sheets, correspondence, and reports.

Among the materials in the collection representing other companies are antebellum payment records from the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (including payrolls and disbursement vouchers). From the Norfolk and Western Railroad are various financial and legal documents, including account statements, purchase vouchers, and reports, all largely relating to the company's reorganization. Among the many other companies represented in the collection are: the Deepwater Railway; Hotel Roanoke; New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois Railroad; Roanoke Machine Works; Shenandoah Valley Railroad; Tidewater Railway; and Winston-Salem Southbound Railway.