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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with five of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. The conversation started about the
killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe  last week.  This prompted VGN
Engineer Raymond East to tell about Benny Russo, VGN Brakeman who came into
Roanoke with a circus and got a job on the VGN.  Benny "married into money
and had big plans.  He even went to Africa on a lion safari but didn't get
one".  For some reason the conversation turned to snakes.  Wis Sowder told
of going to a tent revival in the 1950s near Starkey, VA and observing a
service where the people handled copperheads and rattlers.  Raymond East
then commented that he was only scared of two kinds of snakes:  "little
ones and big ones".


The ebay report this times has the following VGN RWY items sold:  500
shares VGN Stock@ 3% due 5-1-95  sold for $14.99;  VGN Lima Allegheny paper
weight for $76.00;  VGN 1947 steel lock for $91.00; VGN Operating Rule book
of 1943 for $15.25, and an early post card of the VGN Station in Roanoke
for $26.00.


For Show and Tell I took the September "Trains" magazine.  Pages 28 and 29
has a map of the Locomotive Shops of Railroads in the US in 2015 and
Roanoke IS still on the map.  Page 46-57 is the feature article about Rail
Roadings' Biggest Blunders.  At the top of the list is "The Dysfunctional
Penn Central".  Fortunately the VGN, N&W or Southern did not make the
list.  Page 63 has a great photo of our #611 "on home rails" near
Shawsville, VA during a recent excursion.


The Jewel from lthe Past is from October 2, 2008:  "I told the Brethren
about a CBS news article last week on the annual Hobo Convention the second
weekend of August each year in Brit, Iowa.  The article says there are more
 than 1,000 'active' hobos out there riding the rails, at this time.
Several of them commented that in the Spring 'the smell of kreosol cross
ties is like perfume drawing us to the track".  This prompted the Brethren
to talk about hobos and led Wis Sowder to tell of VGN Conductor Major Wood.
 "He was up in his eighties and still active on the road.  He would bring
in his bills but no one could read them so we would have to check the car
numbers".  Landon Gregory then told of a Lamberts Point clerk who was left
handed and wrote up side down and backwards "neat as a pen" but no one
could read his writing.  Wis was told by Clerk Wallace Binkly when he hired
on, "Learn to write so nobody can read it so you can sneak out of it when
it's wrong".


Then there's this:  A blonde and her husband are lying in bed listening to
the next door neighbour's dog.  It has been in the backyard barking for
hours and hours.  The blond jumps up out of bed and says, "I've had enough
of this".  She goes downstairs.  The blond finally comes back up to bed and
her husband says, "The dog is still barking, what have you been doing?"
 The blond says, "I put the dog in our backyard...let's see how THEY like
it!"


Time to pull the pin  on this one.


Departing Now from V248,


Skip Salmon


DLXX




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