"Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

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Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 10 of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending the session with us was 
Phil McFarland, long time volunteer at the Virginia Museum of 
Transportation, who laughed at our corny jokes and added several of his 
own personal rail experiences to the Brethren.

One highlight of discussion was yesterday's news announcement that 
Norfolk Southern has earned $257 million, or 68 cents per share, the 
first quarter of 2010. This is a 45% increase over the first quarter of 
2009, despite a 60% increase in fuel prices.

I showed the Brethren an email from Gary Price who works in the NS 
Maintenance of Way Department. Gary says that the Old Virginian Railway 
Route is now referred to at Norfolk Southern as the "Eastern/Western 
Region V-Line". Wonder what old H. H. Rogers would think of this?

For "Show and Tell" I passed around three Virginian artifacts recently 
donated to our Archives by my friend John McDaniel. The first is a VGN 
RWY Contract with a Grist Mill at Eggleston, VA. It stipulates that "all 
buildings must be painted and kept in neat condition by the party of the 
second part; neither red nor yellow paint is to be used; the red 
interfering with the danger signals and yellow being the Railway 
Company's standard color". The second was a letter on VGN stationary 
from W. B. Goldblatt, Comptroller to all VGN employees, 12/31/36, about 
"The Tax Act accompanying the Railway retirement Act of 1935 purports to 
require that there be a deducted 3-1/2% from the wages of each employee 
up to $300 per month". The third is an Interstate Commerce Commission 
application by the VGN to issue bonds dated October 14, 1948. The 
unusual item in this application is the Notorized Seal "The Virginian 
Railway Company Incorporated Virginia 1904".

The Jewel from the Past is like one in my cousin Gary Wood's 1951 Elgin 
Raymond 21 jewel, 24K case, given to him in 1973 by his Dad, Wilburn 
Wood, N&W carman, from June 24, 2004: "'Slick' Inge described a 
derailment at Lafayette that was quite unusual. The train came in two 
and a tank car actually derailed and went into the Roanoke River. When 
the crew inspected the train (that had gone into Emergency) it was dark 
and they did not see the tank car in the river. They saw no damage and 
reconnected the train, charged the air, made a brake test and proceeded 
to the Roanoke Yard. Only then, did the conductor come up one car short. 
The next day the tank car was discovered 'wild and wet'".

I told the Brethren about the Roanoke Chapter NRHS sponsoring and 
helping with a bus/train trip for about 150 Thaxton Elementary School 
students on Tuesday. This trip was an award for the students reading 
progress, and allowed them to "Take a Ride on the Reading Train", the 
Amtrak from Lynchburg to Charlottesville.

Also passed around were the almost two complete pages from last Sunday's 
"Roanoke Times" about the progress of work on the "lost engines of 
Roanoke" (3 former N&W 4-8-0- M2 steam locomotives that were stored at 
Virginia Scrap Iron since 1950) by Kevin Kittredge. This article also 
included ten color photos. It explained work on the 1134 being done by 
the Roanoke Chapter NRHS and Will Harris, Goshen lumber man who made all 
of the moves. This locomotive is destined for the Railroad Museum of VA 
in Portsmouth. The 1151 (Roanoke Shops built) is at the VMT where they 
will make restorations, and the 1118 is being restored by, and belongs 
to, the Roanoke Chapter NRHS. Leading the 1118 restoration, Gary Wood, 
feels that one day this one will "come alive and run on steam". The 
Brethren are excited that this much progress has been made so far and 
suggested that we recommend Kevin Kittredge for the "pullet surprise".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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