"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

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Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eleven of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending for the first time 
was my oldest grandson, Hunter who is 15 and an avid VGN rail fan.

The video shown was one that Hunter and I took yesterday of a coal train 
that we chased on the old N&W (VGN had track work in progress)from west of 
Salem to the VGN Passenger Station via the "VN" connection. Also we shot 
the last remains of the old Roanoke Mills (Metropolitan and Martha White 
Flour and dog food)with all of the grain elevators now down for the 
Carilion Project. If you have photos of the Virginian in Roanoke anywhere 
near the old Roundhouse area, the grain elevators will probably be in the 
now "much more valuable" photos. Ruf remembered the mill burning down in 
1944 and the burnt flour odor filled the yard for about a year until the 
new silos were rebuilt in 1945. Scotty said that spotting grain cars behind 
the silos was like "working on ice, when the grain was wet". This is also 
the area in the news lately, concerning the moving of the "lost steam 
engines" to their new homes.

I passed around photos of Aubrey Wiley's newest Virginian rail artifact, a 
1932 Fairbanks Morse Sheffield Motor Car Model 41, VGN #109. Aubrey tells 
me that there are only five other Sheffield Model 41s in existence. He and 
his lovely wife Charlotte plan to overhaul the 8.5 HP engine and ride it on 
branch line railroads that allow privately owned motor cars. Aubrey has 
constructed a 2/3 size motor car shed to house it from plans sent to him by 
Tom Marshall. You can visit Aubrey's collection and see this rare VGN 
artifact on the afternoon of August 8 as part of Lynchburg Rail Day. 
Aubrey's Relic Garden now has 32 pieces of Rail History. This prompted the 
Brethren to talk of motor cars that they remember. Russell McDaniel, Master 
Mechanic at Victoria at the merger, recalled riding a motor car from 
Roanoke to Victoria with E. E. Jones every other month and "it was a very 
bumpy ride". Ruf Wingfield said that Mr. Jones hit a box car once with his 
motor car at "PD Bottom" near the west end of the Roanoke yard.

Landon brought photos sent to him by Kenny Kirkman of the last passenger 
train on the VGN and a toy VGN steam locomotive and tender whittled by Roy 
Matheas. Raymond East brought a very nice 12 X 12 inch VGN metal logo that 
he recently purchased at a local flea market.

Russell McDaniel's lovely wife Lou visited our group for a few minutes and 
told me that I had added two years to Russell's life on the Birthday card 
that we prepared for him this year. I have in my records his birth date of 
5-22-24 and he was actually born in 1922 making him 87 instead of 85...

The ebay report this week has the following: Slide of VGN 75-ton hopper 
$7.50; 1949 ad "Virginian's New Electrics Meet All" $21.89; Negative of VGN 
Squarehead #106 $9.95; Negative of VGN #806 $9.95; Two photos of VGN wreck 
at Lafayette $14.95; Slide of VGN FM #115 $24.49; 1910 VGN Rwy club car 
permit $38.55 and 3 VGN Annual Passes: 1910 for $38.55, 1917 for $25.37 and 
1920 for $28.21.

I passed around to the Brethren a group of letters from young children to 
God, sent to me by a good friend. One that I liked was from "Mickey D": 
"Dear God, If you watch in Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes". 
The Brethren's favorite was from "Jane": "Dear God, Instead of letting 
people die and haveing to make new ones, why don't you just keep the ones 
you got now?"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip and Hunter Salmon







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