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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with three of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  I mentioned to them that I got a
response from the current owner of the former Virginian tug boat "W. R.
Coe" and he is asking $100,000 for her.  If anybody out there is
interested, contact me for more information.  It would be great to find her
a home where we all could visit and enjoy this great piece of VGN history.


 One interesting ebay sale peeked the interest this week of VGN fans.  A
matching set of builders plates for former Virginian #22 "Junior
Trainmaster" as the owner of the plates calls them, went for $3,821.00.
Makes you wonder what the whole diesel would bring....


 I told the Brethren that an N&W "dog house" (a small shed-like enclosure
that was built atop the freight tenders for the head end Brakeman to ride
and observe the train) was shipped from our Roanoke Chapter NRHS 9th Street
Shop this week to Spencer for a photo shoot next week on the 611 tender,
showing how she worked freight in her last days of service.  I discovered
this "dog house" many years ago on a farm near Wabun, and tried to get the
owner to donate it to our historical work.  He was using it as an actual
dog house. When the property was sold several years ago, the present owner
had no use for it and donated it to us. These unique structures had windows
and a hinged door and a steam line running into it for heat in the winter.


 The Jewel from the Past is from January 22, 2009:  "Raymond East brought a
book recently purchased for him by his wife at a local book store.  It is
Bill Archer's "Images of Rail, The Virginian Railway".  This is the book
that identifies an EL-C lying on her side in the Roanoke River near Kumis
as a 'diesel'".

                                                   For Show and Tell, I
took the May 2016 "Trains" for the Brethren to peruse.  Page 5 has a photo
of an NS locomotive 5140 sporting a new "Admiral" cab at the Juniata Shop
last year.  It is called an "admiral" cab because the windshields tilt in
at the bottom like those on a Navy ship.  This is designed to shed water so
the windshield wipers don't do all the work.  The Brethren however wondered
how this affects snow....The Admiral cab also has stainless steel doors.
Page 9 under "News Photos" has a photo of  the NC Transportation Museum at
Spencer's N&W GP-9 #620 they have painted in a tuscan color.  The caption
reads "Just not right".  I asked the Brethren to look at the picture and
not read the paragraph under it, and tell me what is "just not right".
They observed that the N&W tuscan GP-9 was numbered 620 and NOT 520  which
would be the correct number for a former N&W "redbird" passenger diesel.  I
agreed but "Trains" says the "just not right" is the Denver Broncos banner
across the front, displayed because Denver beat the Carolina Panthers in
this years Super Bowl, and they lost a bet....go figure!  Page 60 has a
great shot of our 611 going thru Danville, VA February 11, 2016 en route to
Spencer and the 2016 NC and VA excursion trips.


 Then there's this because its almost tax deadline:  "If you want to
prepare your child for the future, don't teach him to subtract--teach him
to deduct!"


 Time to pull the pin on this one.


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DCI




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