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

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Last night I had the honor of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday card 
for yard brakeman and conductor James Economy who is turning 81. James 
claims to be kin to the inventor of the famous "Economy Rail Joint"...

Passed around were the August 2010 "Trains" magazine and the Spring 2010 
NRHS "Bulletin". "Trains" spotlights the Norfolk Southern's track 
geometry train with "A matter of pride". This train is made up of former 
SD-35 #1530, which was "reborn into a high-tech 'clean room' housing an 
array of computers to measure Norfolk Southern's geometry, and Office 
car No. 33 which is a rolling laboratory, engineering office, and a 
conference room - with a kitchen in the back". The NRHS "Bulletin" is 
all about trains going over the famous Techachapi Mountains in the 21st 
Century.

 From last week, I have posted on this site under "Logos and Patches" a 
photo of the 1955 Virginian Railway Bowling League patch donated to the 
VGN Station project by Myron C. White, Jr., who worked in the VGN 
Freight Traffic office in the Union Station in Norfolk. Mr. White told 
me that he was a member of the VGN sponsored "duck pin" four-man bowling 
team. He could not remember whether the VGN purchased the patches for 
the team, but remembered that several of his co-workers played on the 
City League team. He said that in December 1959 when the merger with the 
N&W was announced to employees, he was told that he would be transferred 
to Roanoke and to "take anything he wanted that was in the office". This 
is when he salvaged the other three items mentioned last week. He said 
that the equipment in his office in Norfolk was very old and when they 
tried to move one desk to the elevator, "it just fell apart". He 
recalled being really impressed with the new office in Roanoke at the 
General Office Building where all the desks were brand new and "the 
lighting was good". Mr. White retired from Norfolk Southern in 1987 with 
38 years service.

The Jewel from the Past, like one in Landon Gregory's 21 jewel Elgin, BW 
Raymond movement, 10K J Boss case, is from October 28, 2004: "Slick Inge 
said that the Virginian had hot box detectors and signals to indicate 
such and the train had to be inspected if stopped, but most times the 
'culprit could be detected by smoke, smell, or carnage'. Inge remembered 
one train coming into Elmore Yard once with the rear trucks of a 70-ton 
hopper between two of the hopper pockets".

I showed the Brethren the new flyer from the Roanoke Chapter NRHS "Save 
the Date" telling about the Fall excursion trains they are sponsoring 
November 6 and 7. The Saturday train will travel from Roanoke down the 
old VGN to the Hurt Connection and go on the old Southern to Danville 
and return on the N&W. Sunday's train will be to Bluefield and back with 
a possible return on the Whitethorne District if track slide fence 
clearances can be overcome for the 3 done cars that will be on the trains.

Also displayed for the Brethren was a flyer for a locomotive auction by 
the Union Pacific. Several joked about which one of the engines they 
would buy if they could, from an SW1500 to an SD-40. I told the Brethren 
about Progress Rail signing an agreement to purchase EMD for $820 
million. Progress Rail is a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. Someone 
commented that the VGN would probably have purchased Caterpillar diesels 
if they had been available then. This prompted me to tell the Brethren 
what Walter Grigg, VGN Assistant Superintendent of Motive Power once 
told me, when I asked him why the VGN did not purchase EMD GP-9s or Alco 
RS-11 like N&W, but Fairbanks Morse Trainmasters. He answered "Why send 
two boys into a mine to pull a string of hoppers when one man can do the 
job".

Also from last week, I showed the Brethren a photo that Gordon Hamilton 
sent me of the December 6, 1941 (day before Pearl Harbor attack) wreck 
damage of a 1926 Brill Street Car #44. This is the one that was struck 
by VGN #3 while backing up into the Station in Roanoke.

When the street car photo was passed, someone mentioned that they 
remember listening to President Roosevelt's famous "day of infamy" 
speech on their family radio. Ken McLain recalled that his Dad had to 
take the battery out of his truck to run the radio and would only allow 
it to be on when "Gabriel Heater spoke". Others remembered listening to 
Wayne Rainey on WCKY-Cincinnati and that famous "put another log on the 
fire" quip. Landon Gregory liked to hear WWVA, Lee Moore from Wheeling, 
WV. Raymond East liked Uncle Dave Macon announcing the Grand Ole Opry on 
WSM from Nashville.

Raymond East told us that several Amtrak trains were delayed yesterday 
because of the heat causing the tracks to "expand out of gauge". He said 
that once while running a yard engine in Roanoke Yard during a real hot 
summer, he approached 15th Street and the "tracks ahead looked like 
spaghetti that had been dropped on the floor".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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