"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. Our friend Eddie 
Mooneyham called me about 3 PM and told me the C&O 614 steam giant, 
which had been pulled out of display at the Virginia Museum of 
Transportation in Roanoke on Tuesday, had derailed. The plans were 
changed for this precious artifact for lack of a train crew, and she was 
being moved back into VMT to wait for the weekend for movement, when she 
went to ground. Plans are to transfer her to the C&O Historical Society 
facility in Clifton Forge, via Buckingham Branch RR and CSX. I took 
several photos of the re-railing progress and showed them, still in my 
camera, to the Brethren. This prompted several memories of VGN 
derailments and delays.

The ebay report this time includes the following VGN items sold: Photo 
of a VGN PA #214 in August 1954 taking on water, for $30.77; 8X10 color 
photo of EL-2b #126 in Roanoke 8-31-57 for $40.99; H. Reid book (1961 
first edition) for $31.00; 1948 VGN Annual Report for $27.98; EL-C 
Instruction manual for $51.00; EL-2b Operator's manual for $51.00, and 
an AG model paperweight from Lima Locomotive for $51.00.

The Jewel from the Past is from March 31, 2005: "During this discussion, 
it was learned that on the VGN, laborers were called 'truckers' from the 
time when 'less than a car load' box cars had to be loaded and unloaded 
with two-wheel trucks. Also I discovered that the coal that went to 
Sewells Point was not weighed in Roanoke, but just before it was dumped 
in Norfolk. Also a lot of knuckle pins were shipped to Europe in the 
coal ships along with some knuckles that fell of when the car was dumped 
because of missing cotter pins".

Passed around was a photo that our friend Roger Link sent me, showing 
destruction of trestle #7, on the old abandoned N&W Abingdon Branch by 
recent tornadoes in the area. Also passed around was the latest June 
2011 "Trains" Magazine. This issue has an outstanding photo on pages 72 
and 73 of a July 2010 NS Train 37Q, west of Radford on the Bristol Line. 
Another item passed was the April "NRHS News". This newsletter 
highlights the 40th Anniversary of Amtrak. The cover color photo is of 
one the four Amtrak P42DC diesel locomotives that have been painted in 
the "bloody nose" scheme, Amtrak once used. One of the Brethren 
commented when seeing this photo "you can paint a pig red/white/blue, 
but it's still a pig".

Of course much of the talk was about our Navy Seals killing OBL in 
Pakistan last Sunday. Also we talked some about the Royal Wedding of 
last week and one of the guys said he watched a CMT tribute to the 
event, by sitting for several hours in front of his TV watching a 
marathon of "My Big Redneck Wedding". Glen McLain, when asked about the 
wedding, said "I didn't get an invitation".

I showed the Brethren a "goody bag" from last Saturday's Norfolk 
Southern Roanoke Locomotive Shop Open House (for employees and their 
families) to celebrate working one million man hours (3-1/2 years) 
without an accident. They remembered the open house by the VGN in 
Roanoke in 1957 for the NRHS Convention, but no other special on-site 
activities for employees and their families.

Also posted in our restaurant were several fliers to "Save the Dates" of 
November 5 and 6 this year. The Roanoke Chapter NRHS is sponsoring an 
Amtrak excursion, Roanoke to Abingdon on Saturday with an additional 
extension trip on to Bristol and return; and Roanoke to Bluefield and 
return on Sunday.

Last night I wore my brand new boxcar red T-Shirt, bought from "Junkman" 
Aubrey Wiley, with "WHEN EMPTY, RETURN TO ROANOKE, VIRGINIA" and a VGN 
logo on it. Got several comments from the Brethren about it including 
"the way you eat, you'll never make it back to Roanoke".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXVI

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