"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin Twenty" with ten of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending with us from Norfolk, VA 
was former Virginian Railway Clerk, Abner Ersel Glass. Most of us know 
him as "Little Abner" but last night VGN Clerk Glen McLain let it slip 
that Abner was known as "Ersel" at Sewalls Point. Ersel told us of 
recent flooding in Norfolk and memories of riding the Virginian 
Passenger trains with his Mom. He said that she told him "there is no 
need to take a bath two days before our train trip, because thirty 
minutes after boarding, you will be dirty again". He also recalled while 
clerking on the VGN, reporting a fire caused by the exhaust from one of 
the VGN Fairbanks-Morse switchers working a lumber yard. He and the crew 
were able to "stomp out the fire before it got to the lumber".

Also attending with us was Eddie Mooneyham, Vice-President of the 
Roanoke Chapter NRHS and Friend of the Virginian Railway. It was like 
Christmas already when Eddie brought out his "bag of goodies". He gave 
the Brethren Hotel Roanoke (when the N&W owned it) coasters and had a 
drawing and gave out several Shenandoah Valley Railroad hats and shirts. 
He also brought VGN Timetable #15, an EL-C wiring diagram book, 1936 VGN 
Safety Rule Book and an SC RR $5 bill for "Show and Tell". Eddie also 
has for sale the perfect Christmas gift for a rail fan: Long Island 32 
foot bay window caboose class N22B, #C67 complete with roller bearings, 
primed and ready to paint in any shade of red you want. He "will let it 
go for about $8,000".

Ebay had some "hot Virginian items" sold last week: Clear Tall Globe (no 
lantern, just globe) marked "VIRGINIAN RY" for $401.10; 1950 VGN Annual 
Report $14.50; 1958 VGN Annual Report $104.49; Set of VGN Date Nails 
with VGN patch for $25.45; and a 1955 VGN "Coal on the Move" for $27.55.

I passed around the January 2010 "Trains" magazine and the Oct-Nov-Dec 
N&WHS "The Arrow". A Dave Blaze photo of an original Norfolk Southern 
covered hopper taken in October this year in Anchorage Alaska was also 
shown. Also passed was Dale Wimbrow's 1934 "The Guy in the Glass" poem 
that was made famous last Saturday when, now fired University of 
Virginia football coach Al Groh, read it after Virginia Tech beat UVA 
42-13. The last verse: "You can fool the whole world down the pathway of 
years, and get pats on the back as you pass; but your final reward will 
be heartaches and tears if you've cheated the guy in the glass".

We discussed the death of N&W engineer Fredrick A. Whittaker on 
Thanksgiving Day. Wis Sowder was his friend and neighbor. Mr. Whittaker 
was at the top of N&W's Radford Division Seniority list for years and he 
retired after bringing the last Amtrak train into Roanoke. Many of the 
Brethren knew him. Louis Newton asked me about a month ago if we could 
help with getting Mr. Whittaker on our Bluefield Excursion train, the 
first weekend in November. I worked with our ticket master, Jim Cosby, 
and we got him, his daughter and Bill Honeycutt in the same car. We even 
got a friendly couple to give up a nice window seat on the New River 
side, so Mr. Whittaker could see the River for what turned out to be his 
last train ride on his beloved Radford Division...

I showed the Brethren a clipping out of Monday's "Roanoke Times" 
entitled "50 years ago today": "The first merger of two wholly 
independent American railroads in modern time will become a legal and 
physical reality at 12:01 AM Tuesday December 1, when the Norfolk and 
Western and The Virginian become a single system--the expanded Norfolk 
and Western Railway". My good friend and steam locomotive authority Bud 
Jeffries emailed me on Tuesday about this and reminded me that the 
merger took place also on a Tuesday, 50 years ago. VGN Engineer Raymond 
East commented that it "seemed like yesterday when that first N&W diesel 
and crew came to South Yard".

Posted at the Country Cookin' and given to the Brethren was a flyer 
about our Candy Cane Shifter train rides on December 12 at our 9th 
Street Siding of the Roanoke Chapter NRHS. We will begin at 9 AM and 
give rides until about 4 PM. Mrs. Santa Clause will be riding the N&W 
Caboose #518409 pulled by the Chapter's N&W GP-30 #522. There will also 
be a drawing for an NS HO train set for some lucky rider. Tickets are 
free but donations are gratefully accepted. All are welcome to take part 
in this event.

I told a story to our waitress Princess about a train crew that stopped 
by a restaurant and decided to "take their twenty there". The brakeman 
and conductor went to a booth and opened their dinner buckets and 
proceeded to start eating a sandwich. The waitress approached the men 
and told them "You can't eat your own sandwiches in here". The crew, 
being resourceful, immediately swapped sandwiches!

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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