Fwd: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts] "Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren"

[NW Mailing List]

--
Skip Salmon

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To: VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts at yahoogroups.com
From: "Charles E. Salmon, Jr." <gkholine at cox.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:54:43 -0000
Subject: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts] "Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren"

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 11 of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending for the
first time was yardmaster, Sam "Tights" Rutherford, who came over
from the "W" and worked with the Brethren at South Yard after the
merger.

The latest NS "Newsbreak" was passed around and the article
about the newly opened Rickenbacker Intermodal Terminal near Columbus
OH was especially interesting to the Brethren. The news came this
week that NS has chosen Elliston, VA (nearer to Lafayette on the old
VGN) for the next one in the Roanoke area.

Recently in the Roanoke paper they published the "new" official
reworked weather records for the area. I asked the Brethren to guess
the highest and lowest temperatures recorded. They guessed close to
the 105 high and -12 low. This prompted Billy Daniels to tell about
his Dad's snow story. His father was a VGN "car peck" (car
inspector) and recalled to Billy about an 18 inch snow that
required "a lot of effort to lace up those coal hoppers".

Also shown was an ebay download of a VGN slide that sold for
$204.51 showing the PA 215 posing in front of the VGN Station in
Roanoke. As for the station, I passed on to the the Brethren about a
meeting Landon and I attended on Tuesday that was also attended by
the Architect and Landscape Engineer on the Roanoke Station project.
We discussed ideas for the inside and outside renovation and we are
planning to have a special area with a wide screen TV to show VGN
DVDs and CDs from just such valuable slides. We currently need
photos taken inside the station to help us make it like it was when
there were Virginian Passenger Trains. If you have any inside photos
or know of any, please let me know.

The cut off date for Registration for the May 2-4 "Friends of
the Virginian Railway at Milepost 2008" is next Thursday the 17th.
There are several seats left on the bus for the Saturday tour and
even though the motel rooms are almost gone, they have several other
options with cabins. You can contact Twin Falls State Park for more
information at 304 294 4000.

Also passed around was a September 1957 photo taken from Mill
Mountain in Roanoke, showing South Yard and the Virginian Railway
facilities including the Roundhouse. This promped several stories.
One concerned "George's", a prominent structure on the corner of
Naval Reserve and Jefferson, beside the Roundhouse. This was a 24-7
restaurant and rooming house that catered to the crews of Virginian
trains and VGN shop workers. Bob Rowland, who was a call boy and had
to go to Georges's often to get crews, remembered one hoot owl shift
story. He entered the establishment about 3 AM and observed the
owner's son Mike, who collected the 50 cent rent for rooms, sitting
with his feet soaking in a large pot. This woke Mike who got up and
walked across the saw dust laden floor to get Bob the information
about the crew member's room. Mike then proceeded to put his feet
with the saw dust and all back into the pot. Bob returned to George's
near quitting time about 6:30 AM that morning to find that Mike was
using the same pot on the stove cooking the daily pinto "saw dust"
beans!

I think I will pull the pin on this one.

Departing Now,

Skip Salmon



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