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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. A lot of the talk was 
about the opening of regular firearms deer hunting season last Saturday. 
"Gibby" Davis and William W. Scott both bagged deer, but NOT with 
firearms. Scotty got one about 300 yards south of Country Cookin' with 
his Volvo on US 221, and Gibby was coming home to his farm near Catawba 
Saturday night when he saw several coming down his driveway. He stopped, 
and a large doe committed suicide using his Chevrolet 350 pick-up truck. 
I told the Brethren about my oldest Son, Scott, who is also a gunsmith, 
and has the perfect deer hunting set up. He has a 19 acre farm in 
Franklin County with a horse barn equipped with refrigerator, couch and 
other deer hunter perks. He only has to open a window for the perfect 
view of a large pasture that deer and wild turkeys frequent. Recently he 
zeroed in a new .308 rifle with a large scope. On opening day he shot it 
twice at a deer from his "special window". After watching the deer not 
even flinch, he discovered that he had shot two holes in the horse gate 
directly under the window but not in the sight of the scope...he had 
bagged a "two-point turnstile"!.

Bill McClure sent me a photo of VGN Fairbanks-Morse Trainmaster #71 in 
Pevler blue and numbered #171 in N&W livery. He asked if I would show 
this to the Brethren and see if they knew what the large box on top of 
the short hood end was. After consulting several of the Brethren and my 
good friend Bill Honeycutt, we concluded that the #171 was an extension 
of the use of a VGN MB 2-8-2 on the White Oak Railroad at Oak Hill, that 
worked the interchange with the C&O at nearby Lochgelly, WV. The #171 
was left running at night near some local homes, and the people 
complained about the noise. A standby heater was applied to #171 and 
this box may have been part of the engine exhaust for the heater. This 
was to allow the shutting down of the Trainmaster when not in use. I do 
seem to recall that we did almost the unthinkable, by applying several 
barrels of antifreeze to the #171 cooling system once in Roanoke Shops, 
for this operation also.

The ebay report this time includes the sale of the following Virginian 
Railway items: 1944 Norfolk Division Timetable #20 for $46.57; Slide of 
VGN bulk head flat car for $26.61; VGN Bond Certificate for $16.99; 
Globe only for VGN short lantern $120.00; 1958 Annual Report for $15.53; 
1924 article about Sewells Point construction $20.50, and an original 
slide of an EL-3B passing Salem for $66.00.

The Jewell from the Past is from April 15, 2001: "Keith Sowder told of 
watching his brand new 1950 Plymouth sedan being unloaded from a VGN 
Automobile box car on the Baker track near Reserve Ave. He bought it at 
Antrim Motors in Roanoke. Keith also told of once trying to get from 
Victoria to Roanoke and caught #71 time freight and under-estimated the 
speed of the train:'It stretched me out like a flag!' he said".

At the N&W (and VGN) Historical Society Archives work day last week, I 
entered into their system the photos that "LC" Hall brought last week to 
our dinner of the Phoenix wreck and VGN B-18 derrick. Also at the 
Archives, Landon and I entered several more "one of a kind" Virginian 
Railway photos. I encourage you to check out the N&W Historical Society 
site and to search the Archives under the various collections for photos 
and interesting information about our beloved fallen flag line.

Passed around was a proposal for the new Hurt connection south of 
Altivista, by the N&W to connect the VGN to the Southern Railway after 
the merger that created Norfolk Southern. The N-34072 sketch is dated 
October 1981. Also passed around was a photo on the KCS of a welded rail 
joint that separated because of cold weather earlier this month. Landon 
recalled reporting separations in cold weather several times where a 
section would be welded in during the winter, and removed when hot 
weather arrived in the summer.

I also showed the Brethren a 1915 "Constitution of the Order of Railroad 
Telegraphers" that I was given last Saturday by my good friend John 
McDaniel. This item was donated to the Landon Gregory 
operator/telegrapher/dispatcher collection. One interesting note in the 
booklet: in order to get the insurance from the union, a telegrapher who 
was 5' 8" tall had to weigh between 120 and 215 pounds!

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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