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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin Twenty" with eight of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We talked about an interview last
Saturday with Jim Cosby, Chairman of the Virginian Station Restoration
Committee and Jeff Sanders, President Roanoke Chapter NRHS with the RFD TV
network.  The VGN Station Restoration and other Roanoke Rail venues (O.
Winston Link and Virginia Museum of Transportation) will be featured on an
upcoming "Tracks Ahead" Show.  Look for this in the near future.


For Show and Tell, I took a Ken Kuehne photo from Rail Pictures showing
several Boeing airplane fuselages on a slope near a river after a
derailment near Rivulet, MT on July 4.  The Brethren all agreed that our
VGN probably never carried an airplane anywhere...


The ebay report this time has some good bargains:  December 10, 1910 Public
timetable for $95.55; "V RY" tall globe lantern $384.99; VGN 4/4/32
Timetable  #15 $36.00;  55 Timetable #22 Norfolk Division $67.66; 1955
Timetable New River Division $67.66; Fairbanks Morse Engineer's Manual
$22.00.


The winner of this week's pin is Eddie Mooneyham for his answer of 30 cents
that Goober paid for the 16 cents worth of copper tubing.  This week's
question for another pen:  What was the name of the lady who looked after
Opie before Aunt Bea?  Send answer and home address to gkholine at cox.net


Last night Tom "Saltwater" Salmon joined us again with many stories of his
travels all over the US and in Europe.  He told of European Police NOT
chasing speeders but taking a photo of their car and tag number and sending
a polite ticket.  He said in France the photo has the people in the car
blocked out so if someone is cheating perhaps on their spouse, their deed
would go undetected.


Gordon Hamilton told the Brethren about his designing a canti-levered car
inspector building at Lamberts Point after the merger, to inspect coal
hoppers just before dumping the coal.  He used old VGN electric pantograph
"H" beams and found out something very interesting about them.  Seems they
did not conform to US standards and found out they were metric.  Was there
a "French Connection" involved in the 1920's when these were bought by the
VGN?


The Jewel from the Past , like those in an American Walthan Watch Company ,
"For RR Service", 17 jewel "Special Railroad King " with Fahy's Montauk
case is from December 27, 2007:  "I asked the Brethren if they ever got
anything from businesses when they shifted out their box cars at Christmas
time.  Cornbread, Rufus and Raymond remembered getting cigarettes, liquor,
and fruit from Home Lumber Company, Roanoke Ready Mix, Moore paint and
Pitzer Transfer.  Landon recalled getting chocolate covered peanuts from
Planters in Suffolk, when Raymond East mentioned firing #4 and working the
peanut plants there.  Rufus told about taking one fifth of liquor to
several officials in the offices; each one would put another name on the
card and sign his for another official, until it got to one who would keep
it.  Rufus was kidded about being 'naughty' this year and getting coal even
though it has been years since he heated with a 'Warm Morning'.  Aubrey
Wiley sent this account of one 'present':  Seems Landon Gregory's wife
Sandra had asked this year for 'something that was compact, had lots of
chrome and would go from zero to 150 in a giffy'.  Landon got her the
perfect present that met all the requirements, a set of bathroom scales.


Then there's this:  An elderly Italian man who lived on the outskirts of
Rimini, Italy, went to the local church for confession. "Father, during
WWII, a beautiful Jewish woman from our neighborhood knocked urgently on my
door and asked me to hide her form the Nazis.  So I hid her in my attic."
 The priest replied:  "That was a wonderful thing you did, and you have no
need to confess that."  "There is more to tell, Father.  She started to
repay me with sexual favours.  this happened several times a week, and
sometimes twice on Sundays."  The priest said, "That was a long time ago
and by doing what your did, you placed the two of you in great danger, but
two people under those circumstances can easily succumb to the weakness of
the flesh.  However, if you are truly sorry for your actions, you are
indeed forgiven."  Thank you, Father.  That's a great load off my mind.  I
do have one more question. Should I tell her the war is over?"


Time to pull the pin on this one!


Departing Now from V248,


Skip Salmon


DXXVI



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