"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

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Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 13 of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy
Birthday card for VGN brakeman and conductor Bill Turner, who just
turned 77. At the N&W (and VGN) HS Open House at their Archives last
month, Bill donated to the Society his VGN switch lock key, two
uncashed paychecks and a letter of accommodation for preventing a
derailment.

I passed around a copy of the artwork, by Ken Miller, that we
designed and presented to Bev Fitzpatrick, Director of the Virginia
Museum of Transportation, for the door into our Virginian Railway
Room. It is posted on this site under "Photos, logos and patches".
The exhibit is not complete, but there are many VGN artifacts,
drawings, photos and displays in this room and we have received a lot
of positive feedback from it.

The Brethren enjoy Gordon Hamilton's posting of the 100 year ago
articles about the beginnings of VGN from the "Bluefield Daily
Telegraph". I showed them the one about the first coal train over
the whole VGN of April 3, 1909 and about VGN having 3 Divisions at
that time. The three divisions were: Deepwater to Princeton;
Princeton to Victoria; and Victoria to Norfolk. Ruf Wingfield said
that he didn't know that, and he only remembered the last two,
Norfolk Division (Norfolk to Roanoke) and the New River (Roanoke
west). Any one know when the VGN went from three Divisions to two?

Also passed around was a "100 years ago today" article from last
Monday's 2-23-09 "Roanoke Times": "Bids for the erection of a
passenger station for the Virginian railroad at Roanoke are to be
opened in Norfolk, some time today". When showed to Jeff Sanders, he
commented, "we could just build a new one like they did".

I now have the capability of making DVDs from my new digital
video camera. However, the Country Cookin's older DVD player will
not play them. I brought one of NS work train 946 meeting a coal
train at Kumis last month, and the entire "Takin' Twenty" session
with interviews of January 21, 2009. Two of the Brethren took them
home to view. I plan to interview each of the Brethren and make his
DVD interview available from the N&W HS Archives. I have started a
list of questions to ask each former VGN employee. Do you have
questions that you would like for me to ask them? If you do, contact
me ASAP off line at <gkholine at cox.net>.

Landon Gregory showed the Brethren photos and a short video of
the Circus Train that came through Roanoke on Tuesday. He also
commented that as Dispatcher, he was instructed not to "haul the
Circus Train until a 'order notify' had been received, showing that
the freight had been paid 'in cash'".

Cornbread kidded Billy Daniel about being "too tall for his
hair" and remembered that his father, George Daniel, VGN car knocker
was also bald. Ruf told about an extra clerk who smoked a pipe. He
carried several pouches of "bacca", one being a little different from
the others (he called that one Mary Jane) and he would "blend them".
Ruf said that one night this clerk took the van to pick up a crew at
AG and had to turn it around to return to the Yard Office. When he
did, he went over the bank almost into the river. No one was hurt
and "they took the yard engine up there and pull the van out".

Raymond East and Cornbread were talking about yard activity on
the VGN and it was established that the yard limits in Roanoke for
the VGN were from Buzzard Rock Forge on the east to Belt Line on the
west. Ruf and Landon got into a grand discussion about getting
trains out of town on cold nights when it might take hours to get the
necessary 60 pounds brake pressure on the caboose. They
remembered "Cricket Long, a VGN car peck who tested one train and then
went to the third unit on a coal train and went to sleep. He could
not be found for several hours to test the next train. When
found, "Cricket was given a 30 day sleep break".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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