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

Fri Aug 1 14:49:53 EDT 2014

Skip,

Sorry to have missed Wednesday's supper, but I have developed a head cold that kept me away.

By the way, the fellow who submitted the VGN pier photo was Al Kresse, not Al Dresse.  Just a typo I'm sure.

Gordon
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 9:06 AM
  Subject: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

  Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with six of the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  We signed two cards. One a Happy Birthday for Bill Spencer who retired from the US Post Office and worked one summer with N&W and just sat in one night several years ago, and had been with us ever since.  Bill turns 88 Sunday.  The second card is a Get Well for former Virginian Chief Clerk, Sewells Point, Glen McLain who is now not able to make it across town from Vinton, VA to be with us.

   Congratulations to Aubrey Wiley who is now the Virginia Museum of Transportation "Author in Residence".  He has been a Friend of the Virginian Railway for many years and the Brethren wish him success in this endeavor.

   The Jewel from the Past is from January 3, 2008:  "We signed a Happy Birthday card for Cornbread's son Ronnie, AKA 'Muffin" Victory.  He was born New Year's Eve 1943 and is now a retired Clerk from Norfolk Southern and is one of our 'regulars'.  I asked Cornbread about the extra tax dependent for 1943  being born on the last day.  He responded 'sure was, and it was late at night too, just under the wire, as I had planned it'".

   Raymond East, former Virginian Engineer, who fired steam brought "Trains" special edition about UP's "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4. Page 80-81 has a comparison of big steam which includes the N&W  and VGN.  Of course the standout as far as wheel arrangement is the VGN triplex #700 2-8-8-8-4.  Looking good in the comparison are the VGN AG 2-6-6-6 and VGN AE 2-10-10-2. "The wartime president of C&O neighbor Virginian, Frank Beale, came form C&O, where he'd been an operating official on Allegheny Mountain when the 2-6-6-6s came.  Beale was impressed.  He must have figured the Virginian had no mountains east of Roanoke, so the 2-6-6-6 would work just fine.  He bought eight more of them, plus five C&O style 2-8-4s for fast freights.  For a 35-mph railroad, here were 13 big, heavy, expensive locomotives, each of which developed its maximum draw bar horsepower at better than 40 mph.  But, like their C&O counterparts, the fans and historians liked them.  The stockholders didn't have a choice".

   The winner of the pin this week is Jim Legge of Hurricane, WV for identifying Rose as the lady who took care of Opie before Aunt Bea.  This week's question:  What was the first item given to Opie by Mr. McPeevee that Andy made him give back.  Send answer and home address to gkholine at cox.net

   For Show and Tell I took the two Al Dreese photos from Sewells Point showing the early pier and Tidewater flat #649 with a load of what looks like sand, in 1913.  I also took a clip out of Monday's roanoke times "100 years ago today":  "The prospect of a great European war brings with it a prospect of great business for the Virginia and West Virginia coal fields, and, incidentally for the Norfolk and Western and Virginian railroads".

   Then there's this:  The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Max, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner.  On July 17, 1946 the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees. The four brothers thought this would be a good time to present their invention to Henry Ford and got an interview with him.  They insisted on meeting Ford in the parking lot where the interior of their car was 130 degrees.  He got in and they turned on the air, which immediately cooled the car off.  Ford got very excited and offered them $3 million for their patent.  The brothers refused saying they would settle for $2 million but wanted the recognition by having a label, "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner" on the dash board of each car in which it was installed.  Ford was more than just a little anti-Jewish and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg's name on two million Fords.  They haggled back and forth and agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown.
   And so to this day, all Ford air conditioners show Lo, Norm, Hi and Max on the controls.

   Time to pull the pin on this one!

   Departing Now from V248,

   Skip Salmon

   DXXVII

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