Takin' 20 with the brethren ....

[NW Mailing List]

Skip:

I have a couple of quasi-similar airline tales from when I used to
travel extensively via commercial airline. One particular memorable
one was when I lived in Hawaii and was flying Aloha Airlines,
returning from some RR historical work on the outer island of Kauai,
at Grove Farm Plantation where they have three operational 30" gauge
steam engines; one a restored 1881 Hohenzolleren wood burner.

As the 737-100 came in for a landing at Honolulu Int'l, we never quite
touched down, and seemed to be riding a pocket of air just above the
ground. This proceeded for several seconds before I heard and felt the
accelerating thrust as we took off (again), and saw parts of
Honolulu's harbors at low altitude I had never seen at such close
proximity before (or since for that matter).

We circled back around and next time, it wasn't so fast of a landing
and we finally touched down. In the 10 minutes which entailed circling
around, I inquire to one of the ever attentive stewardii as to what
that was all about and her response was "local weather condition."

I was both astute enough and observant enough to know that wasn't the
case but was still  curious and seated in the front of the plane, that
when we landed, the cockpit door would usually be opened and I, being
the pain in the neck I could be, figured to ask the pilots if they
were practicing their touch and go's.

The smart flight crew astutely didn't open the cockpit door, darnit,
and I exited the plane, but I never forgot the incident. That was
around 1985, when airline things were a whole bunch different, long
before 9-11.

Bob Cohen
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>

> Message: 3

> Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:18:11 -0400

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

> To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Message-ID: <4C1ABB43.4090706 at vt.edu>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

>

> Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 10 of the Brethren

> and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We continued the discussion about

> "coal crapping or cropping". I told the Brethren a story that my Dad

> told me. He lived on Hollins Road in Roanoke and the N&W Shenandoah

> Division ran behind their home. It was his, and his brother Jim's job,

> every day, to gather coal that one would "crop" off an N&W hopper and

> bring enough home in their red wagon for the night's banking of the

> "Warm Morning" heater. When my grandfather, W. B. Salmon, became a

> Christian, he decided to pay the railroad back for all that coal. He

> "took money to the General Office...and they kept it". Rail Historian,

> Louis Newton, told me that the N&W called this account their "Conscience

> Fund" and many have contributed to it.

>

> Passed around were the May-June "NS Biz", all about employee safety and

> the "NRHS News" with a great article about the anniversary of the 611.

>

> A correction from last week: The largest yard in the US is the UP Bailey

> Yard, not the "Berkley" as reported. Thanks to Robin R. Shavers for this

> correction.

>

> The Brethren asked me to have some more "Friends of the Virginian

> Railway" baseball style caps made. I did and showed them last night and

> several bought them. The black hats have a mesh back (for summer), sewn

> on VGN yellow logo and Velcro adjustable strip for perfect fit. The

> proceeds of the sale of these hats go toward the renovation of the VGN

> Station in Roanoke. Contact me at gkholine at cox.net for more info.

>

> At the N&W (and VGN) Historical Society workday at the Archives last

> week, Landon and I had the opportunity to go through several boxes of

> photos that were sent on consignment from "Bob's Photos" and separate

> out all of the Virginian photos from the N&W. We then checked to see if

> these photos were already in the Archive VGN photo section. We found

> several hundred "new" VGN photos that are now part of the N&WHS system.

> One was a great shot at Matoaka. Louis Newton helped us ID the spot and

> recalled that once when there was a derailment near Bluefield, as road

> foreman for N&W, he detoured three east-bound N&W passenger trains

> around the wreck to Matoaka. The idea was to run the trains down the VGN

> to Norcross and back on to the N&W. The first train's "K" trailing truck

> derailed on the steep interchange track. When Louis and his crew tried

> to re-track her with a re-railer, there were no spikes to be found. A

> boy standing by and watching all this excitement, exclaimed "I know were

> there are spikes" and left running. He returned shortly with an arm full

> of VGN spikes...

>

> The Jewel from the Past is like one in Joe Hartsel's Elgin 21 jewel

> given to him by his Dad, is from September 9, 2004: "I asked if the

> Virginian had any special equipment for snow removal. 'Slick' Inge

> quickly replied 'Yes, shovels and brooms'. He and others remembered

> several deep snows and the concensious was that the VGN 'kept the trains

> rolling' all the time, even in deep snow".

>

> I showed the Brethren a "Roanoke Times" article given to me by Louis

> Newton from December 1, 1959: "Virginian Rail Worker Retires, Dies Same

> Day". It was an account of the death of John W. Harrison, 67 who was a

> VGN section foreman at Goodview with 49 years service who retired and

> "took the west bound" on the date of the VGN-N&W merger.

>

> I shared with the Brethren a date from George Weber's Winston-Salem NRHS

> Chapter newsletter "The Rail": Under "Lasts", "June 1, 1957, Virginian

> Class SB, 0-8-0 Number 251 is the last VGN steam locomotive to operate".

>

> Robert "Little Abner" Glass, VGN Clerk who still lives near Sewells

> Point, sent this story: "An airline pilot wrote that on this particular

> flight he had 'hammered' his ship into the runway really hard. The

> airline had a policy that required the first officer to stand at the

> door while passengers exited, and give them a 'Thanks for flying our

> airline'. He said that in light of this bad landing, he had a hard time

> looking the passengers in the eye. Finally everyone was off the plane

> except one little old lady, walking with a cane. She said 'Sir, do you

> mind if I ask you a question? Why no m'am, answered the pilot'. 'Did we

> land or were we shot down?'"

>

> Time to pull the pin on this one!

>

> Departing Now from V248,

>

> Skip Salmon