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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with ten of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed two Happy 
Birthday cards. One is for Dewey Houch, who started on the VGN in 1956 
as a chain man on the VGN Surveyor Gang. Dewey took part in surveying 
everything from mining sidings in WV, sounding depths from a rowboat in 
the Sewell's Point Channel, to working major derailment investigations. 
He retired from Norfolk Southern in 1990 as Assistant Manager Materials 
with 34 years service. Dewey continues working to preserve the VGN in 
various projects, including building a replica Station in Mullens, which 
will be dedicated this Saturday. He will be 77 next Monday. The other 
Birthday Card is for Jeff Sanders, retired NS brakeman who is President, 
Roanoke Chapter NRHS. Jeff is a true Friend of the Virginian Railway and 
collector of artifacts and preserver of VGN memories. He will turn 65 
this Sunday. We also signed a card for VGN Yard Brakeman and Conductor 
James Economy, who is recovering from heart bypass surgery. James, who 
worked mostly hoot owl shifts, still gets up at 2 AM each night to "take 
twenty" by having a snack, "even when I go on vacation".

Attending for the first time were Harold and Holly Castleman from 
Eddystone, PA (home of Baldwin locomotives). Harold is an avid rail fan 
and member of the Roanoke Chapter NRHS who married Holly in front of the 
Class J #611 when it displayed in Wasena Park in Roanoke.

Eddie Mooneyham showed the Brethren a power point lap top display of 
photos of the Roanoke Chapter Alco T-6 and two cabooses that were taken 
to Appomattox for the Rail Festival October 8 and 9. We discussed plans 
to attend Saturday's dedication of the Ellet-style Station that Dewey 
Houch is building for Mullens to store, and display VGN artifacts. 
Several of the Brethren plan to attend and to visit with members of the 
Virginian Nation Gathering at the State Park nearby. We also talked 
about the October 29, 2011 Reunion of VGN Brethren in Victoria.

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse were the Sept-Oct 2011 issue of 
"Biz-NS" which highlights the 21st Century Steam Program of Norfolk 
Southern and their Norfolk, VA Archives of fallen flag artifacts. Also 
passed was the October 2011 "NRHS News".

The ebay report this time has some interesting sales of VGN items: 
Original "screw back" VGN Safety First pin for $59.99; 3X5 B&W photo of 
VGN EL-2b under a bridge for $16.49; Slide of EL-2b & EL-C at Shaffer's 
Crossing in 1963 for $20.50; VGN Trust Plate for $76.00; Four loose VGN 
match books for $48.01 and a 1911 VGN "monkey wrench" for $29.99.

The Jewel from the Past is from June 30, 2005: "'Ruf' Wingfield told a 
story about Homer Duff, VGN Brakeman, who was afraid of any kind of 
'critter'. Someone put a possum in his locker at South Yard. When Homer 
opened the locker door and the possum 'hissed' at him, he went out the 
back of the locker room through the screen door, without bothering to 
open it".

We discussed a new Bayer "quick release aspirin" that is quickly 
dissolved under the tongue, first aid for symptoms of a heart attack. 
Also passed was the response from Steve Summers and Frank Bongiovanni 
about the "VGN 1" reefer car. Consensus is that this was a non-revenue, 
MOW non-roster car, perhaps used to haul ice and whatever else was 
needed along the line.

Then there's this: Several hunters were loaded into one of their 4X4 
pickups at camp, to get to a remote mountain location to hunt. After 
harvesting several white tail deer, they started back to camp. The 
temperature gauge in the 4X4 proceeded to move into the dangerous "red 
zone" and steam vapor was seen rising in the front of the truck. After a 
discussion about what to do, stranded several miles from a road or 
stream, they mulled it over and settled on urinating into the truck's 
depleted radiator. After arriving back at camp, the owner of the truck 
called his mechanic about what to do next. He responded "I'd flush the 
radiator first!"...

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCXC

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