"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. We discussed our upcoming 
"Road Trips" to Mullens and Victoria. It was agreed that we will try to 
make it to both events and carpool.

I showed the Brethren a photo from the N&W (and VGN) Historical Society 
Archives of "VGN 1", a wooden reefer car taken in Princeton in 1956. 
This photo was from the Jim Gillum Collection and was a surprise because 
no one at the Archives thought the VGN had any ice cars. I could not 
find this car in the Archives' records. It was known that there were 
facilities for "Icing" refrigerators cars at several locations along the 
VGN line, but no one knew of any VGN reefers. Russell McDaniel recalled 
the ramp and seeing the yellow and sometimes orange cars with access 
doors on the top corners being iced in Roanoke, but knew of none marked 
"VGN". Wis Sowder also recalled seeing these cars serviced and 
remembered a fellow from Covington coming to Roanoke "to check the 
bananas" in reefers. The photo shows the "VGN 1" in a line of MW cars 
and several of the Brethren surmised that it was used to distribute ice 
to crews along the line. Anybody out there in the Virginian Nation know 
anything about this lone reefer marked "VGN 1"? I have posted the photo 
on this site under "Rolling Stock".

Also passed was a photo taken in the 1950s of South Yard showing the 
Yard Office from the east and a photo of a wreck on the "W" side about 
1958 with my Grandfather, George P. Craig at the controls of the 
Shaffers Crossing Derrick car. The wreck was at Park (5th) Street.

 >From last week, we discussed the wreck at Oak Hill Junction that 
resulted in our having a VGN sugar bowl with cover for our display at 
the Station. The bowl is marked "Reed & Barton" and "The Virginian 
Railway" on the bottom. The accident report said that our own Russell 
"Slick" Inge was the Conductor on the pusher caboose and indicates that 
"Slick" was given orders to take the siding with no indication that the 
supply train was already there. I also showed the Brethren D. F. Thomas' 
annual pass for 1935-36 that came with the silver bowl. Even though Phil 
Thomas told me that the cook on the Club Car later died, there was no 
mention of this on the accident report. I also researched the ICC 
accident reports and found nothing about this wreck.

Also passed around was a photo I took of the Roanoke Chapter NRHS Alco 
T-6 #41 at the Blue Ridge signal on her way to Appomattox for Rail 
Festival last weekend. This was the first time an Alco pulled on the 
famous Blue Ridge grade in many years!

The Jewel from the Past is from June 30, 2005: "Raymond East said that 
once in South Yard, he was talking, and cut come cabooses off, going too 
fast. They made a very quick coupling with the ones already on the cab 
track. Seems that one cab was occupied by a conductor who was 'sleeping 
over' until his next run. He came out of the cab in his 'long handles' 
and exclaimed 'Recon you boys could hit it a little harder?'"

The ebay report this time includes the following: Slide of EL-3A #101 at 
Princeton for $26.00 and a Slide of #905 at Victoria for $11.99.

Then there's this, send to me by a Catholic friend of mine: "A bus on a 
busy street struck a Catholic man. He was lying near the sidewalk when a 
crowd gathered. He was not seriously injured but overcome with the 
experience and asked for a priest. 'Somebody get me a priest'. Long 
seconds dragged on but no one stepped out of the crowd. A policeman 
checked the crowd and finally yelled, 'A priest, Please! Isn't there a 
priest in this crowd to give this man some help?" Finally out of the 
crowd stepped a little old Jewish man in his 80's. "Mr. Policeman, I'm 
not a priest. I'm not even a Christian, but for 50 years now, I'm living 
behind the Catholic Church on Second Ave. and every night I'm 
overhearing their services. I can recall a lot of it, and maybe I can be 
of some comfort to this poor man'. The policeman agreed and cleared the 
crowd so the man could get through to where the injured man lay. The old 
Jewish man knelt down, leaned over the man and said in a solemn voice: 
B-5....I-19....N-38....G-54......"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXXXIX

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