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

[NW Mailing List]

Skip; I always enjoy reading your column and thank you for keeping us all updated.  My mom is a board member of the P Buckley Moss Society and has been for years, as was my aunt before she passed some years back. I have a piece or two of her work, her art is different from what we railroad fans would expect of what we would deem as conventional paintings. I do look forward to seeing the final rendition. For my two kids, I would like the NS coloring book. Please contact me offline at r m g n w 6 1 1 at m s n dot c o m. Also, for all of the VGN fans, I have commissioned Robert West to paint the NS VGN Heritage unit crossing the high bridge at Garwood, WV. I will post a photo hopefully later today. Robert offers prints of his originals and has completed the Interstate unit, which I also comissioned, as well as has completed painting of both the Southern and Wabash units. Robert's plan is to paint a complete set for the heritage fleet, with each unit being at a signature location for each of the railroads. His website is: http://www.steelrailsgallery.com/ Regards,Russ Goodwin
Buford, GADate: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 08:04:34 -0400
Subject: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org; linkriver at gmail.com
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org




      Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of 
the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  I told the Brethren 
about seeing the new P. Buckley Moss painting of the Virginian Station 
in Roanoke, that will be unveiled at a convention in Roanoke later  this
  year.  Prints from this painting will be sold as a fund raiser for the
 Station Project.  I was not impressed with what the artist saw at the 
corner of Jefferson and Williamson, until I researched some of the other
 PBM paintings.  Her painting of Mr. Jefferson's Monticello gave me more
 light into what this artist visions are, and sort of explains the 
style. More on this later.



Several of the Brethren have seen the US flag on display at the Station 
now that we have security and night lighting.  Phase II is underway.



I have been told by two sources that the High Iron Southeast Explorers 
Excursion train scheduled to travel down the old VGN portion of NS next 
week has been canceled.



Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was the May "Trains" Magazine. 
 Most of this issue is about "Life or death checkup for steam" with a 
good bit on the NS 21st Century Steam Program.  One interesting article 
on page 16 is about the new six-axle units with only four AC traction 
motors being tested.  This A1A truck configuration brings back memories 
of the old days. Page 63 has a great shot of the N&W J #611 at 
Clemson, SC promoting the "Fire Up the 611" rebuild program.  



For Show and Tell I took a coloring book that caused a chuckle since the
 Brethren are fans of the "Pickles" comic strip in the newspaper.  
Pickles grandson let him color in his coloring book but only gave him a 
white crayon...then the dog ate it.  The Norfolk Southern sponsored 
Roanoke Chapter NRHS "Railroading in the Roanoke Valley" coloring book 
has become a collector's item since the art work features a lot of 
N&W and VGN rolling stock and done quite well.  I have one extra if 
anyone is interested in having one.  Page 4 has VGN Caboose #342 (now at
 Victoria Rail Park); Page 5 has VGN #4 (last VGN steam loco left now at
 VMT) and page 26 has VGN ELC #33.



Last week while working at the VGN Station, I observed a fellow walking 
up with a camera and we started talking.  He is Phillip Miller from 
Northern Virginia, who is a VGN fan who reads this report and is 
interested in our project.  Also that day a gentleman from a  
Pennsylvania NRHS Chapter stopped by to take photos. 



Passed around was a photo that John McDaniel gave me last Saturday of a 
track gang, about 1972.  These men worked the Whitethorne District 
before the merger and are shown with their N&W Dodge truck. I have 
posted this photo on this site under "Skip's Photos" and would like to 
identify the first three in the picture.  The fourth from the left is 
Earle H. Doyle.  The Brethren could not ID the other three.  If anyone 
out there can, please let me know.



The Jewel from the Past is from December 7, 2006:  "The story of the 
night was told by 'Slick' Inge.  Seems that twice each month, #3 would 
bring paychecks to each location that had a station agent for payment to
 the employees.  On one of these days, the passenger train was making 
her way through Elmore when one could see cars start up from nearby 
homes and head toward Mullens to pick up paychecks, Eddie Lawson, VGN 
Shopman, was known to 'tip an elbow with the fellows' on payday.  This 
day when #3 was spotted, he headed out the door and was handed a grocery
 list by his wife.  Two days later, he backed his truck up to the porch 
and started unloading bags of groceries.  His wife came out the door and
 exclaimed 'Where in the cat hair have you been?'  He calmly replied, 'I
 would have been home sooner, if you hadn't gave me such a long grocery 
list!'"



Time to pull the pin on this one!



Departing Now from V248,



Skip Salmon



CDLXV





    


    
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