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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night, on Ash Wednesday this year, I had the pleasure of "Takin'
Twenty" with seven of the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We
signed a Happy Birthday card for Virginian Railway Conductor Bill Turner,
who turns eighty this Saturday. Bill started with the VGN in 1957, and
retired from Norfolk Southern in 1991.

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was the February 1912 "NRHS News"
and a list of "You Know You're in a Redneck Church if..." Our favorite is
"if a member of the church requests to be buried in his 4-wheel drive
pick-up truck because 'it ain't never been in a hole it couldn't get out
of'". Also passed around was another of Gordon Hamilton's quotes from the
"Bluefield Daily Telegraph". This one is form March 29, 1912 with
headlines: "Rumors again persistent that New York Central will soon take
over Local Railroad". The "local railroad" mentioned was of course the VGN.
I can't even imagine the New York Central in Roanoke!

Most of the conversation was after I told the Brethren that Norfolk
Southern is going to paint 18(10 EMD SD70ACe's, unit numbers 1065 up, and 8
GE ES44AC's, unit numbers 8091 up) in Heritage paint schemes by June 1,
2012. The buzz of course was what the Virginian Unit would be: EL-C,
EL-2b??? I could verify that, at the N&W(and VGN) Historical Society
Archives earlier this month, Charlie Schlotthober and I worked on a request
by NS Atlanta Locomotive Department representative Allen Ryder, concerning
paint diagrams for N&W and VGN diesels. The N&W unit will most likely be in
blue with the hamburger logo. The VGN request was for paint information,
stencils and herald for VGN Trainmaster Fairbanks-Morse H24-66. The
Heritage units will be numbered in sequence of the EMDs and GEs already in
service. The Trainmaster number font that N&W used in 1960(adding a "1" and
placing the numbers under the cab window) was requested. Ironically, while
researching the font for unit numbers, I discovered that N&W used yellow
numbers on black just under the cab window on H16-44s, and black numbers on
yellow on the Trainmaster H24-66s on the access door. We were also told
that somewhere on the Heritage units near the numbers on the cab, will be "NS".

I took the photo of VGN 0-8-0 #248 near Franklin Road Bridge in Roanoke
that has been discussed on this site recently. Raymond East, VGN Yard
Fireman, said that he "could be in that cab window" of #248. He also said
that this is where the yard unit was "parked" at the end of each shift, and
the three fellows in the background could be their relief crew. This is
railpictures.com photo #389775.

Last night I was able to give the Brethren a GREAT VGN Station Report: Work
began on renovation yesterday! I showed them photos, and I have posted one
on this site under "Skip's Photos".

The Jewel from the Past is from November 24, 2005: "Ken Tanner told us
about his friend Frank Claybrook. He was the son of 'Rosie' Claybrook,
Operator at JK. Seems that 'Rosie' was quite a lady's man and he spent a
lot of time watching the ladies on Walnut Ave Bridge, just above JK Tower.
One day, the Northbound N&W Passenger Train from Winston-Salem, NC was
approaching JK, and 'Rosie' had failed to reline the switch from the N&W,
and ran the train down the Silk Mill Lead. The N&W train had to be backed
up, and afterwards the connecting track was known as the 'Claybook' track".

After consulting with a Catholic Friend, there's this: Little Jason was
getting terrible grades in school. His parents decided to send him to new
schools with the hopes that things would improve. Still he got bad grades.
As a last resort, they decided to send him to a Catholic School. The first
day he came home, he rushed to his room and did his homework. This
continued every day until report cards came out, and Jason's parents were
thrilled to see that he had straight "A"s. They were curious to find out
how come there was such an improvement since going to the Catholic School.
"Well," Jason told them, "When I walked in the first day and looked up, and
saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, something told me they meant business".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDVIII

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