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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night, the first Wednesday of 2012, I had the pleasure of "Takin' 
Twenty with nine of the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. 
We talked about New Year's resolutions. At our ages, a resolve to us 
becomes a precious thing to be taken seriously, or simply a hollow 
promise. None were announced.

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was the February "Trains" 
magazine. On page 18 "Fido's favorites and fiberglass" tells of 
researchers "quest for a better railroad crosstie, leads to new designs 
and materials". One of the most promising is a special mix of cured 
concrete formed in the shape of a dog bone. Other materials considered 
are plastics, composites and fiberglass. Norfolk Southern plans to 
field-test the latest in these composite ties from Japan on bridges 
first. I told the Brethren about the concrete ties, recently discussed 
on this site, installed when the siding at Kumis was extended, after the 
merger. They are still in service. Page 64 has a great photo of N&W 
SD-45 #1776 in red white and blue for our Nation's 200th birthday in 
1976, and the announcement that Virginia Museum of Transportation just 
got a "Trains" grant of $10,000 to repaint her in the 1976 scheme. We 
discussed, as we have in the past, what the VGN might have painted in 
the anniversary scheme. Most agreed that an EL-2b would have been a good 
candidate; I'm betting that if the VGN had survived to 1976, they would 
have also had an SD-45 to use, but would have opted not to paint anything...

For Show and Tell, I passed around a 1919 USRA Virginian Railway card 
certifying that "E. M. Hey was employed as a fireman and was examined on 
the rules of the Operating Department and is qualified by his knowledge 
of the rules to fill the position of Fireman". It is signed by Charles 
Reid, Engineer. Ronnie Victory brought an early photo of a VGN Yard crew 
posing at the Roanoke Yard Office. Raymond East commented about "Pop" 
Stone, VGN Conductor who posed in the photo. "Pop" was known as one who 
almost never broke a sweat, worked into his eighties, and had an unusual 
walk. "His knees protruded and got to where he was going first", Raymond 
commented.

Also passed was the March 8, 1912 "Bluefield Daily Telegraph" articles 
from the N&WHS site posted by Gordon Hamilton. One states "The 
structural steel work for the new railroad shops at this place 
(Princeton), according to the Roanoke Times of Tuesday, was let early 
this week to the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company at the price of 
$25,000". We all agreed that now, $25,000 wouldn't cover the cost of the 
working drawings to build such a shop. Another article tells of the 
first couple cars of Pocahontas coal ever hauled to Norfolk. According 
to a history of Roanoke County, Roanoke City and the N&W RWY, "When the 
first car of coal reached Norfolk, it was decorated with flags and 
bunting, switched to the street car tracks, and hauled about the city, 
drawn by six horses, while ahead of it went a brass band. The coal was 
afterwards, by order of N&W President Kimball, distributed among the 
poor of Norfolk, who received the benefit of the first car of Pocahontas 
coal ever hauled to tidewater".

The Jewel from the Past is from October 6, 2005: "The VGN Brethren are 
NASCAR fans and last Sunday's Talladega Race was re-lived. Landon 
Gregory said he remembers the King of NASCAR, Richard Petty, racing at 
Victory Stadium, next to the VGN Roundhouse in Roanoke. He said in one 
race, a wheel came off Richard's car and killed a fan. 'Cornbread' 
Victory recalled once riding with NASCAR driver Curtis Turner (from 
Floyd and Roanoke, VA) in his 1940 Ford modified at the Starkey track 
just south of Roanoke. Seems that Curtis had a shoulder belt but 
'Cornbread' said 'Curtis, if you'll stop this thing, I think I should 
get out!'"

Then there's this: When an elderly VGN Operator was stopped by a young 
state trooper for speeding, he got the best speeding excuse ever: "I had 
to get there before I forgot where I was going".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCCI

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