"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

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Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We did a lot of "reflecting" about 
events in the last years since 2000. Most spoke of those VGN Brethren who 
have taken the westbound and the events of September 11, 2001 as memories 
of this period. I was reminded of a famous quote said to be given by 
Napoleon Bonaparte, "History is the version of past events that people have 
decided to agree upon".

I showed some of the emails to the Brethren about the July 23, 1910 wreck 
"when a negro excursion train on the VGN from Princeton to Roanoke ran into 
a freight train on a curve near Salem". The emails sparked a discussion 
about "short flagging". Landon Gregory was familiar with the term and this 
prompted the Brethren to remember the whistle signals used in train 
operation. This prompted me to check out the Book of Operating Rules issued 
to me by the N&W in 1967 to verify what the Brethren had remembered. 
Flagging is when a trainman on the rear of a train (then in a caboose) is 
required to protect the rear of the train by proceeding at a high rate of 
speed in a direction opposite to the direction of the train for at least 
one mile to warn, with flares or torpedoes, any trains following, that 
there is a stoppage or emergency. When there were no radios on engines and 
cabooses, a whistle whistle signal from the engineer of one long and three 
shorts (__ 000) was the signal for the flagman to protect the rear of the 
train. When the engineer wants the flagman to return to the cab from the 
west or south he signals with four longs (__ __ __ __); from the east or 
north the signal is five longs (__ __ __ __ __). Short flagging is when the 
trainman does not go far enough to stop the following train in time or 
lacks time to do so. This prompted Rufus Wingfield to recall an incident 
where the flagman on a VGN train did NOT hear the signal to return after 
flagging and after a short period they left him....for the following train...

We talked about the passing on Christmas Day of Leon Atkinson ,Jr., 
Vice-President Transportation on the N&W and NS who retired with 43 years 
of service. Ruf said that he enjoyed working for Mr. Atkinson who was "just 
Leon, and one of the guys".

The first ebay report of 2010 has the following VGN items sold: 1914 VGN 
pass $26.00; Tall Globe for a VGN lantern with "VIRGINIAN" in raised 
letters $450.00(just globe and no lantern); Slide of VGN Pacific #212 for 
$26.20; 1949 VGN Public Timetable $16.50; 1943 VGN Public Timetable $18.05. 
The deal of the year so far is a VGN "Coal on the Move" booklet for $7.50.

I asked the Brethren what they remember about the last scheduled Virginian 
passenger train that stopped in Roanoke on January 9, 1956. Raymond East 
and Wis Sowder said that "it was just a normal day". Rufus Wingfield, who 
was yardmaster in Roanoke, said that "there was nothing special about it". 
Landon Gregory, who was VGN operator at Victoria, said that operator Clay 
Dickerson told him that extra operator Mary Grant rode in the locomotive 
from Victoria to Roanoke that day...

Someone mentioned beer, and Rufus Wingfield told a story about the Sholtz 
Family, owners of the Virginia Brewery in Roanoke who also owned the 
American Theater. They made Dixie Beer. This prompted several food stories. 
Ruf Wingfield told us about in grade school on Bent Mountain, trading an 
egg and homemade mustard sandwich daily for another schoolmate's buckwheat 
cake sandwich. I told the Brethren about my first peanut butter and jelly 
sandwich in Junior High, now Middle School, and telling my Mom how much I 
liked it. I then had P&J sandwiches through high school...

These stories prompted me to tell my favorite food story about a very poor 
lad whose family subsisted on turnips. They had turnips almost at every 
meal. His Mom fixed turnips every which way: fried, boiled, baked, raw, in 
sandwiches etc. He had grown tired of turnip sandwiches every day in his 
lunch box at school. So one day he decided to trade his lunch box with the 
one in the lunchroom that was the heaviest. When it came time to eat, he 
opened the box and found out that he had a schoolmate in worse shape than 
him. In the box was a ball peen hammer and two black walnuts...

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon