"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin Twenty" with eight of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday Card for 
Tom "Cornbread" Victory, VGN Conductor, who will be 86 this Sunday. We also 
signed a Happy Anniversary card for Russell and Luella McDaniel who just 
celebrated their 67th year of marriage. Mr. McDaniel was Master Mechanic at 
Victoria when the VGN/N&W merger went into effect. He retired as Manager 
Motive Power and Equipment with N&W and is a "regular" at "Takin Twenty".

Making the rounds was a photo I got from "railpictures" showing a female 
Norfolk Southern Conductor of NS P20 at East Durham Yard on August first. 
VGN Clerk Glen McLain said "that's something the Virginian certain ally 
didn't have!" To see her photo go to:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=292782

I reported to the Brethren about last Saturday's Lynchburg Rail Day where 
the old Virginian was remembered in many ways including slides, books, and 
model trains. I represented Friends of the Virginian Railway and the 
Roanoke Chapter NRHS at a table and was able to "meet and greet" a lot of 
rail fans including five who regularly read this report.

One of the "Takin Twenty" readers I met was George Weber, editor of "The 
Rail", outstanding newsletter of the Winston-Salem Chapter NRHS. He 
recently followed a train from the old Southern on to the New Connection 
(NS former VGN) at Hurt, VA and on to Roanoke. He asked me to check with 
the Brethren about two questions: 1. Back in the days of the VGN and SOU, 
what types of loads would the VGN or SOU run between Greensboro and 
Roanoke? 2. Did each have trackage rights on the other? Rufus Wingfield, 
yardmaster at Roanoke and Raymond East, VGN engineer who grew up in nearby 
Altavista answered George's questions. Ruf said "that there was no sharing 
of trackage rights". Raymond remembered that the Southern had a diesel 
locomotive assigned to Hurt for transfers to the Virginian and Virginian 
back. Wis Sowder, VGN Clerk who worked at Altavista remembered that the SOU 
diesel "ran all night". They all spoke of SOU Conductor Frank Ingram who 
was in charge of the transfers. Frank had an accident and worked with only 
one arm. The Brethren remembered there were many coal hoppers (mostly 
empty) transferred as well as cedar chests from the Lane Factory in 
Altavista and Wis recalled some tank cars were transferred from SOU to VGN 
for Lane Furniture. Of course there were also many box cars containing 
various freight shipped on to Roanoke.

Also passed around was an item that I got at the work day last week at the 
N&W (and VGN) Historical Society Archives. It is a photo of a German State 
Railway container car. The 3 containers were transported to and from the 
railroad siding by a specially constructed truck, which has a mechanical 
arrangement for handling them. The photo was taken in 1951! I also found 
some old Pullman Company drawings of Virginian passenger and club cars. The 
passenger car had ladies bathroom (Saloon) on one end and men's Saloon on 
the other. On the men's Saloon end, there was a 17' 6" smoking compartment 
separated from the 43' 9" coach section with swinging doors. The club car 
drawing showed an observation room with magazine racks and storage for 6 
"camp chairs" and a 19' dining room with tables to seat 18. The kitchen had 
a gas range, ice box, silver drawers, garbage chute (to ???), sinks, 3 
gallon hot water tank, vegetable bins under sinks, and dish racks above the 
refrigerator that was iced from the roof.

We talked about the upcoming October 3, annual Gathering of Virginian 
Railway Veterans at Victoria. The Roanoke Chapter NRHS donated the #90500 
former VGN G5 gondola that is now in the Rail Park in Victoria on 
"Roundhouse Rails" and will be "spiffed up" for the October third, 100 year 
celebration of the town of Victoria.

I showed the Brethren a sign in the N&W (and VGN) Archive bathrooms 
("saloons?"): OUR AIM IS TO KEEP THIS BATHROOM CLEAN! GENTLEMEN YOUR AIM 
WILL HELP. STAND CLOSER. IT'S SHORTER THAN YOU THINK! LADIES PLEASE REMAIN 
SEATED FOR THE ENTIRE PERFORMANCE!

Really time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon




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