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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We talked about the 
collision last Wednesday in the NS Roanoke Yard at 12th Street. 
Destroyed was a former N&W wooden boxcar that was painted in St. Louis 
to resemble a "Budweiser" billboard beer car. In the affected VMT 
storage line was one of the very last former Virginian Railway coal 
hoppers, which seemed to just get a good "shake-down". We talked about 
this car in the Roanoke Chapter NRHS Board Meeting on Tuesday night, and 
plans are to try to repair, repaint, and re-stencil it in VGN livery if 
possible.

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse were the Winter, 2011 NRHS 
"Bulletin" and the April 2011 "Trains Magazine". The "Bulletin" had a 
lot of western lines stories and photos as usual, but also featured an 
article on EMD SW1 switchers. The "Trains" is mostly about streamline 
high-speed trains.

"Gibby" Davis gave a report on the train show last weekend in Clifton 
Forge. "It was mostly CSX and I saw little VGN stuff", he said.

For "Show and Tell" I took a recent gift of some Stuart T. Saunders 
stationery with 4-cent envelopes marked "President, Norfolk and Western 
Railway Co. Roanoke, Virginia". Raymond East responded when I asked if 
President Saunders was a "Friend of the Virginian Railway": "I don't 
think he had any friends at all".

The "Jewel from the Past" is from February 17, 2005: "Today I went to 
visit VGN Operator Clyde Weatherly at Loyalton Assisted Living, and took 
a photo of he and I, that I am posting on this site under 'People'. 
Clyde really enjoyed looking at the new book on the Virginian in Color. 
He told me about handing up the orders to the ill-fated VGN #800 crew at 
JK, just minutes before she blew up near Stewartsville. When he was told 
there was a wreck, he searched every train order, even in the trash can, 
thinking it was a head-on, and he had messed up the orders. He went to 
the scene later that night and told me about seeing the carnage". (Note: 
Clyde passed away several days after this interview).

Last week I had an opportunity to see the new train wreck movie 
"Unstoppable" starring Denzel Washington. He played a "28 year veteran" 
engineer who stepped on a rail on his way to his "5,000 HP" SD-40 in the 
opening scenes. The film is based on an actual CSX incident (which 
incidentally, I heard they did not make public until AFTER it happened). 
This movie was nominated for an Academy Award last Sunday for its great 
SOUND, even though the lead units of the runaway were GEs and their 
sound in the movie was that of EMDs. We discussed this movie and I 
challenged the Brethren to go see it, and see if they could find more 
mistakes in it than I could (21 and counting).

The ebay report this time includes (3) 8X10 VGN cabooses for $22.47 and 
(9) great VGN slides (duplicates) for $20.65. Those of you who watch 
ebay, and look for VGN stuff...heads up, I am putting some choice items 
on soon.

In keeping up with past sessions, our friend Eddie Mooneyham, new NS 
employee, gave me a current (May 2009) version of the previously mention 
NW company issued "Glossary of railroad terminology and jargon". He got 
this book recently at the NS Training Center in McDonough, GA. The 
Brethren enjoyed trying to figure out what the new words meant and 
especially how they would have been "exposed" on VGN tracks. Abe: It has 
"CTC" defined as "Centralized Traffic Control". This new thick 21st 
Century version of terms has several new ones: "ACRE" is defined as 
measured along railroad right-of-way 8' 3" wide by one mile. "CUBING" 
means "on the job training" and a "SANDWICH CAR" is "a super-insulated 
tank car whose inner tank is supported solely by urethane foam 
insulation". I challenge you to figure out the following NS terminology 
and jargon sentence: "The DOG CATCHER and DUTCHMAN passed the KISS AND 
RIDE and picked up a MUD HOP near the POT SIGNAL for a SKIN LIFT".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLVII

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