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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eleven of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday
Card for William W. "Scotty" Scott, retired N&W Engineer who came to the
VGN South Yard right after merger day. "Scotty" is well known for "hoggin"
a cut of cars into a track that was occupied, (thinking it was NOT) and
making an 11 MPH coupling, with none of the money or cards being lost in
the knock rummy game in progress...He turns 73 on Christmas Eve.

This was our Annual Wednesday before Christmas "Takin' Twenty". Thanks to
Norfolk Southern, N&W Historical Society, Woodmen of the World, and Bill
Honeycut for helping me fill each of the Brethren's "stocking" for the
celebration. Also door prize winners were: Keenan Jordan of an NS horse
collectable made out of coal and Raymond East of a "Grandpa Skip's Virginia
Chocolate Creme Pie". (Recipe upon request.

I asked the Brethren if they recalled anything they would like to tell
about something that happened during the Christmas Season while they were
working. Felix Price, Assistant Power Director at Narrows said he always
had to work on Christmas Day because of his seniority and it was a 24-7/365
operation. Landon Gregory recalled after the merger he was working one
Christmas as Dispatcher and there was a wreck at Suffolk. "It was really
hard to get e nought help to clear the tracks that day" he said. Glen
McLain and Wis Sowder almost together said it was "just another day except
we got double time and a half wages".

Eddie Mooneyham brought with him a drum style EMD nickel plated reverser
handle that he is supplying Shaffers Crossing for use on one of their older
EMDs. He also showed us what NS gave their Roanoke Shops employees for
Christmas during a catered luncheon: a real nice Gerber pocket knife. The
VGN guys said they "never got anything like that from VGN..."

The Jewel from the Past is from July 20, 2006: "Another discovery at the
N&W (and VGN) HS Archives was passed around. Jim Gillum found a proposal
dated October 1954 where Alco Locomotive Company made a motive power study
of the Virginian Railway Norfolk Division to dieselize it. 'Operating data
for the five days from Monday, August 30 to Friday September 3, 1954 has
been used to analyze the motive power requirements'. Alco studied all
trains and recommended 'a total of 23 Alco 1600 HP four-motor road
switchers (DL-600) ballasted to 260,000 pounds, would be required to
dieselize the operation". Of course, VGN opted for the Fairbanks Morse
H16-44s to do the job.

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was the Nov-Dec "Biz-NS" and the
Oct-Nov-Dec Roanoke Chapter NRHS "Turntable Times". The "Biz-NS" mostly is
about the NS Intermodal "Firing on all Cylinders". The "Turntable Times"
features current news of the Roanoke Chapter and has a John Krause photo on
the cover on an N&W Shenandoah Division 1956 train with a greeting from the
Turntable Times Staff of "Bringing You A Trainload of Best Wishes: Happy
Holidays".

As the Brethren left, I handed each of them a copy of my "Friends of the
Virginian Railway" 2013 Calendar. This one page time marker features a
photo I got from the US 460 bridge of a coal train passing the famous barn
beside the Kumis passing siding.

During a Christmas party at my sister's last Saturday, my brother-in-law
was expressing how he wanted his ashes spread after his demise. He is a
tremendous fan of football, especially UVA's. He said all his life he
really enjoyed football anytime, anywhere, but sort a wished his ashes be
scattered somewhere where there was no football being played. Almost
immediately my sister spoke up and said "I know the very spot...in the end
zone in Scott Stadium in Charlottesville...

Closing now on a serious note: I would like to wish all of you a Very Merry
Christmas!

Time to pull the pin on this one.

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDLI

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