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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. It was good to "get back in the
saddle" after my bout with a flu virus. Raymond East and Glen McLain were
not there and may have fallen prey to the same bug.
Thanks to all you who responded with well wishes for my missing last week.
It was difficult to stay home in bed and my wife Judi was impressed when
the restaurant called during the session to inquire about me. Thanks for
Ernie Hubble bringing his photo of the VGN Heritage unit to share with the
Brethren last week.

The Jewel from the Past is from July 27, 2006: "I also showed the Brethren
James E. Dalmas' new book 'The Street Railways of Roanoke, VA 1887-1948'.
This book is a history of the Roanoke Railway and Electric Company that ran
the street cars in Roanoke. They were also the Virginian Railway's neighbor
with their motor barn near Walnut Ave and the street car tracks crossed the
VGN main line there. On one occasion, and there is a photo of the results
on page 95, a street car was struck by VGN passenger train #3. RR&E Co.
1926 Brill car #44 tangled with a Virginian locomotive under the Walnut Ave
Bridge in 1941. 'Cornbread' Victory was working that day and remembered a
crossing gate, similar to one at an automobile road crossing today, was
added to the crossing after this accident". I'll bet #3 had the "right of
way"....

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was the February 2013 "Trains"
magazine. The most interesting story in this issue is the "Inside America's
newest roundhouse". Ohio Central's Jerry Joe Jacobson built this "beauty"
near Sugarcreek, Ohio not too far from the NS Belleview Yard in north
central Ohio. The last roundhouse built was the Nickel Plate 8 stall one
built at Calumet Yard Chicago in 1951.

For Show and Tell I took one of my Christmas presents to show. It is a
Virginian Railway clip to hold files, I suppose. It has a very fancy border
and unique VGN logo in the center. I have found out that several of my
Virginian Railway collector friends also have these. I have posted a photo
of mine on this site under "Skip's Photos". None of the Brethren had ever
seen one in use on the VGN and figured they were probably used in Norfolk
and Princeton in the offices. Anyone out there got any information about
this item?

I was amazed and entertained for several minutes listening to H. Bundy and
Landon Gregory reminisce last night about running trains through their
respective interlocking plants on the VGN and original NS. Both let little
secrets slip as to how they were able to get around timers and such to keep
the wheels rolling. They also talked about the names of a lot of little
places on the lines called "ordinaries". Landon said this was a place
usually where a road crossed the rail line or near a boarding house or
store where people would get together and later became little towns.
Landon's favorite was "Smoky Ordinary".

Then there this for all you blond joke lovers: A blonde man's dog goes
missing and he is frantic. His wife says "Why don't you put an ad in the
paper?" He does, but two weeks later the dog is still missing. "What did
you put in the paper?" his wife asks. "Here boy!" he replies.....

Time to pull the pin on this one.

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDLIII

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