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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night, the last Wednesday of Summer this year, I had the pleasure 
of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the Brethren and Friends of the 
Virginian Railway. We talked about tonight's "Road Trip" to the 
Homeplace Restaurant in Catawba, VA. The Brethren plan to bring their 
wives, and eat a lot of Southern fried chicken, country ham, roast beef, 
biscuits, and cobbler.

We also discussed Saturday's "Virginian Railway Day" (10:30 AM to 3 
PM)at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. We went over 
their scheduled appearances in the "Virginian-Roanoke's Other Railway" 
Room at VMT: 10:30 Raymond East and Wis Sowder; 11:00 Wis Sowder and 
Greely Wyatt; 11:30 Greely Wyatt and Russell McDaniel; 12 noon Russell 
McDaniel and Gordon Glenn; 12:30 Gordon Glenn and Frank Breedlove; 1:00 
Frank Breedlove and Dewey Houch; 1:30 Dewey Houch and Ken McLain; 2:00 
Ken McLain and Felix Price; 2:30 Felix Price and Landon Gregory. Don't 
miss this golden opportunity to have these Brethren answer questions you 
have about their VGN RWY experiences. The Brethren will also be at other 
VGN artifacts during the day: EL-C #135, 0-8-0 SA #4, and the Ellett 
Station where Landon Gregory and Harry Bundy will be "sending code" like 
they did on the VGN and original Norfolk Southern. I am bringing about a 
dozen of my VGN photo books for display also. Aubrey Wiley will have his 
motor car to see. Come join us if you can. Note: All former Virginian 
employees are to be given free pass to this event.

Dewey Houch "took twenty" with us last night and told about his many 
projects in the Mullens area. We are planning to attend the dedication 
of the Ellett type station he is building in Mullens and fellowship with 
members of the Virginian Nation attending the October get-to-gether. 
Dewey told the Brethren that as a surveyor for the VGN, part of his job 
was to "take the coal pile's temperature" at the Narrow's Power plant to 
see if it was overheating.

The Jewel from the Past is from June 9, 2005: "Gordon 'Rubber Jaw' 
Glenn, former VGN engineer, and 'Cornbread' Victory had a marathon 
telling old 'war stories' about yard operations. One included Victory 
removing the nails from a wooden keg and using the keg to insulate a 
caboose from signals at 'JK'. 'Ruf' Wingfield told of Trainmaster Wilson 
Moser. Seems shortly after the merger, a yard crew doubled a coal train 
out of the wrong yard track and added many extra coal hoppers to the 
train. The train left town with 260 loaded coal hoppers without 
'ceremony or permission'. The normal train was 220. The incident was 
kept quiet, and the bills were mailed forward. Later when Moser was 
asked by N&W officials, if he thought a 250 car coal train east was 
possible, he responded 'Already done that one!'".

Last night I displayed a new banner "Takin' Twenty with the Virginian 
Brethren" with an EL-2b, VGN Station in Roanoke, AG, VGN herold and 
"Former Employees of the Virginian Railway" on it. I had it made to 
display at VMT Saturday where the Brethren will be answering questions. 
This may become a fixture at "Country Cookin' after their current 
remodeling is finished, as promised by the manager....

Then there's this: A Virginian brakeman and his wife were traveling from 
West Virginia toward Victoria, on US 460, when his wife says "Look honey 
we're in "LAA-FAA-yette", VA. The husband says NO, its pronounced 
"La-fette" on the VGN. After a heated debate, he decides to settle the 
argument and pulls into a nearby business to ask a local how to 
pronounce it, correctly. He asks the fellow to 'please tell my wife 
where we are, and say it very slowly". The fellow answers "Wen...dies"!

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXXXVI

__._,_.___
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20110922/9700d108/attachment.html>