"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. Attending with us for the first time
was Phil McFarland, who came to NS from the Conrail.  He shared with the
Brethren some of his "adventures" and "exploits" in their and the NS Signal
Department.  Phil has worked as a volunteer with the Virginia Museum of
Transportation and "fit right in".


 Most of the talk of the night was about the news this week that Norfolk
Southern is consolidating the Pocahontas and Virginia Divisions into a new
Pocahontas Division that covers from Port of Virginia to Portsmouth, Ohio
and from Bristol to Hagerstown, Maryland.  Charles Irvin will be the
Superintendent.  The headquarters will move from Bluefield, WV to Roanoke
and employees will be able to relocate to Roanoke or apply for other
positions at the company.  The idea is to improve service by placing the
company's coal routes under the operation authority of a single division.
Landon Gregory, who started out on the Virginian RWY as an Operator when
dots and dashes provided communication, and retired from NS as Chief
Dispatcher Virginia Division,  said "the move of dispatchers from Bluefield
to Roanoke with computers will be somewhat easy, no dots or dashes!". All
had concerns about their friends who work for NS in Bluefield and all
suspect "Bluefield will become another Crewe and Victoria".


 The Jewel from the Past like those in a 1903 Rockford Watch Company 21
jeweled Railroad Grade Movement with Roman numerals is from December 11,
2008:  "We talked about the January 'Road Trip' to the N&W (and VGN)
Historical Society Archives.  Also discussed was a future venture to ride
the new FREE Roanoke rubber- tired Trolley, now running every 10 minutes
from downtown Roanoke  to the Carilion Complex and former VGN Yard area.
This prompted Rufus Wingfield to remember VGN Brakeman Walter Hudson who
was also a 'jitney' driver in the area, on his off time.  Ruf explained
that a 'jitney' was a cross between a small trolley and a taxi, used to
transport people.  Of course the Hudson discussion ignited a heated
discourse about the famous Hudson "Hornet" automobile that was quite a
vehicle at that time.  Roanoke City police had Hudson "Hornets".  Cornbread
remembered one VGN Brakeman who had one and was famous for 'showing air'
between the Hornet and Jefferson Street, when going over the bridge, and
leaving the Yard Office parking lot at a high rate of speed and 'dust
disbursement'"


 Then there's this:  After much nagging from his wife, old Sam was visiting
the audiologist.  Yes, he would need hearing aids and they ranged in price
from $10 to $2,000.  "I'll try the $10 pair", Sam said.  The nurse placed
the hearing aids into his ears and hung a wire around his neck.  "Does the
wire really have to be around my neck?", Sam asked.  "Why of course!"
replied the nurse.  "You think these things in your ears do anything?!
It's the wire around your neck---it makes people talk louder!"


 Time to pull the pin on this one!


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DLXXXX
=============
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20160114/323bfad0/attachment.html>