Fwd: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts] "Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren"

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--
Skip Salmon

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To: VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts at yahoogroups.com
From: "Charles E. Salmon, Jr." <gkholine at cox.net>
Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 11:47:33 -0000
Subject: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts] "Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren"

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 10 of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a card for
Rufus Wingfield who has developed pneumonia in Brandon Oaks Rehab.
We also signed a Happy Birthday Card for Russell McDaniel who turns
84 today. Russell started with the VGN in 1948 after returning from
the US Army. He had worked for the "W" after finishing VPI(VA TECH)
before the war, but hired on with the VGN when he returned. One of
his first jobs was setting up systems in the Narrows Power Plant. He
was Master Mechanic at Victoria in 1959 at the merger. Russell went
up the ladder with N&W and NS and is retired as Mananger Motive Power
&Equipment-Locomotive with over 40 years service.

I passed around the May 2008 NS "Newsbreak" and May-
June "Turntable Times" newsletter of the Roanoke Chapter NRHS.
The "Newsbreak" reported an 11% increase in the first quarter of 2008
of a record $2.5 billion operating revenues. The latter has my photo
of the Commonwealth Coach bus between the Roanoke VGN Station and
mainline at South Yard, of the April 26 outing of the new coalition
of Roanoke rail groups. This outing visited sites of the 16 rail
lines that once converged in Roanoke and was the first of many
upcoming united efforts to promote rail history in the Roanoke area.


>From last week and Landon's winning photo. It is a "staged"

photo of Landon as he would have been taking train orders somewhere,
sometime, on the old Virginian. The oddity of the photo was that he
chose NOT to sharpen the original VGN pencil that he was using in the
photo. I would also like to thank Mark Fisher for using the photo of
Jimmy Whittaker's tribute at the "Takin' Twenty" after he passed.
The photo on the table beside the lantern and his obit was one I took
of Jimmy in his pickup the last time he was able to be with us.

Bob Rowland told a story about a VGN carpeck who was
investigated for smelling like alcohol on duty and his defense at his
investigation. Seems that the car inspectors used an alcohol
solution on very cold and icy nights to "lace up" the air hoses on
coal hoppers and he said the the alcohol smell was from "issued
materials and not hooch".

The Brethren especially enjoyed Gordon Hamilton's articles from
the early days on the VGN. They liked the fact that the N&W turned
down an offer to buy the Tidewater line in 1907. The one about the
man with a gun on a train who "became OBSTREPEROUS and was led off
the train by officers and was GESTICULATING and invited the officers
to call on him later" was really liked. They also enjoyed one
that "set up" the VGN when H. H. Rogers refused N&W's offer to move
coal for 3.5 mil per ton when he wanted a rate of 3 mil per ton..."I
shall build a road of my own to carry the coal to tidewater". Boy, a
penny was really worth something back then!

It came to our attention that Cornbread requested the state of
Virginia remove the "DEER CROSSING" sign in front of his apartment.
He said "too many deer are being hit by cars out there! I don't
think this is a good place for them to be crossing any more!"

I think I'll pull the pin on this one.

Departing Now,

Skip Salmon



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