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

[NW Mailing List]

Skip;

 

Our family are all big Pat Moss fans. It is true her style of painting is
not hyper realism, but in my mind conveys much of the spirit of the
individuals, animals and structures she paints.  ON another note, Stephen
Shoemaker in West Jefferson NC, is a local artist who has produced 8 or 9
prints of the Virginia Creeper in various locations in Ashe County. Stephen
has recently published a collection of stories which are illustrated with
his paintings, the cover photo in the link attached is of "Devils Cut" as
the Creeper travels north away from West Jefferson.  This is at the spot
where the train struck a small girl playing on the tracks and killed her.

 

Stephen has also participated in the West Jefferson mural project, I've
attached link to a Google page which shows a variety of photos of the town's
collection

 

R.D. Williams

 

http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7467-7

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=west+jefferson+murals
<https://www.google.com/search?q=west+jefferson+murals&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&
source=univ&sa=X&ei=I5VdUePbHo7o8gSljIG4CQ&ved=0CFEQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=891>
&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=I5VdUePbHo7o8gSljIG4CQ&ved=0CFEQsA
Q&biw=1280&bih=891

 

From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 8:05 AM
To: NW Mailing List; Roger Link
Subject: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

 

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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