Fwd: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts] "Taking 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, 10 Jul 2008 11:22:30 -0000
Subject: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts] "Taking Twenty with the Virginian Brethren"

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 9 of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We were saddened to
hear about the passing of Luther A. Twist last week. Luther started
with the VGN as a messenger in 1941 and retired in 1975 from the N&W as
Directer of Computer Services in Roanoke with 35 years service.

There was a lot of discussion on this site and other rail sites
this week about steam, so I passed on to the Brethren several questions
and comments. One concerned Ed King's comment that "diesels and
electrics were 'units', steam locomotives are NOT units". The Brethren
agreed that they always referred to steam as individual locomotives,
sometimes by their numbers, i.e. "500s" or "900s" but never called them
units. They enjoyed a comment passed on concerning an inspection trip
of Stuart Saunders to Bluefield, when he saw a K2a after diesels were
assigned there, and said "that nasty hunk of junk had better not be
here when I come back". Most of the Brethren consider Saunders
the "Darth Vader" of Railroading and "Father of Cutworms". The
term "cutworms" was used by VGN employees to discribe diesel
locomotives, since when diesels were put into service, many employees
were cut from the payroll.

Rufus Wingfield told a story about VGN brakeman-conducter A. L.
Allen on trains 71 and 72. He knew a Park Service employee in Richmond
and came to Ruf's house several times anc collected many burlap sacks
of pine cones. He then took them to Victoria and on to Richmond where
he sold them to the Park Service for seeds and then gave the money to
Ruf's son, who now works for the FBI.

I passed around a photo that I took Tuesday at the Virginia Scrap
Iron in Roanoke. The occasion was the lifting and loading on to a
highway lowboy N&W Baldwin steam locomotive 2-8-0 number 917, built in
1903. The city gave the locomotive to a Diner Restaurant owner in
Bellville, OH. It will become part of a train that will draw attention
to the Diner and "choo-choo burgers". This is one of the locomotives
that were scrapped by N&W in the 1950s that are "in the way" of the new
Carilion Clinic Complex. It has already partly risen over the graves
of the old VGN Roundhouse, Freighthouse and Yard facilities on South
Jefferson Street in Roanoke. We are hoping that we can save the rest
for Roanoke museums...

Speaking of steam trains, I passed on to the Brethren the
discussion of the September 26, 1952 Eisenhower Campaign Train that
traveled from Winston-Salem to Roanoke and on to Richmond. It was
pulled by two N&W J-Class steam locomotives with a Y class following
the train in case there was trouble. Cornbread remembered the train
coming into Roanoke. He said that he was working the second trick and
at the safety meeting, VGN yardmaster Otis Karns told them that the
train would stop beside the VGN complex near the Roanoke Hospital. He
instructed all of the men to be as quite as possible and make as little
smoke as they could since Eisenhower was going to make a speech from
the back of the nearby N&W train. Cornbread said that "since he was a
good Democrat as most of the rail employees were then, they proceeded
to make as much noise and smoke as they could".

I also brought a copy of Cornbread holding that red VGN battery
lantern posted last week. In the photo you can see that his left index
finger is a "shorty". He lost part of it in a textile mill accident in
Tennessee before he started with the VGN. He tells kids that the
reason it is shorter than the others is that "I was picking my nose and
a booger got it".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now,

Skip Salmon

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