"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

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Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday Card for 
Greely Wyatt, Virginian Railway electrical geru and diesel locomotive 
expert. Greely is known far and wide as the "go-to man" about the operation 
and history of non-steam motive power on the VGN. He was recently honored 
for working at every Habitat for Humanity home built in the Roanoke area, 
and is one of the most colorful and resourceful men we know. I passed on to 
the Brethren from Tom Marshall, an article about the giant coal tipple at 
Kopperston and told them about the fire this week in the office of the 
Motor Barn in Mullens as well as flooding in the area.

Passed around was my recent ebay purchase of an article from August 1956 
"Trains" entitled "Of Black Upholstery and Commanding Exhaust". "Cessation 
of Virginian passenger service provokes warm memories of orange cars, 
shoebox lunches, and Teddy Roosevelt regaling the riders with tales of San 
Juan Hill". The article mentioned Sunday "extra" Church Trains, Teddy 
Roosevelt speaking at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition to VGN riders and 
called VGN #3 and #4 "shoebox and cinders trains". The article told of 
orange coaches that matched the stations before WWI and riders "bragging 
about dinners on the night trains (#3) that left Norfolk's Union Station at 
10 PM and arrived in Roanoke at 8 AM the next morning, the same hour as the 
day train (#4), took off for Norfolk". "They were trains with straight-back 
seats of somber black upholstery, spittoons and windows to stick your head 
into the winds and hear the stout steam engine moan, and whistle (sound) 
with commanding exhaust pluming from the smokestack. Engineers and firemen 
were quick to pitch candy to kids..."

Also passed were photos of a G5 with "VIRGINIAN" peeking through the N&W 
paint, similar to the one that the Roanoke Chapter NRHS is donating to 
Victoria, and a great N&W (and VGN) HS Archives photo of one of the first 
trains across the tremendous Glyn Lyn Bridge May 13, 1909, exactly 100 
years ago.

 From May 11, 2009 "Roanoke Times" Community Section of "50 years ago" I 
shared with the Brethren: "Overwhelming approval of a proposed merger of 
the Norfolk and Western and Virginian railways was given by N&W 
stockholders here today".

I continued showing recent DVDs made in my collection for future showing at 
our restored Depot in Roanoke. The first showed an NS crew pulling vintage 
rolling stock, including the VGN EL-C #135, out of the Virginia Museum of 
Transportation to get to the N&W A-Class 1218, that was taken to the O. 
Winston Link for the Celebration at the Station, last Saturday. The next 
DVD showed the two NS executive "F" units and business cars "Claytor Lake", 
"Virginia" and "West Virginia" fresh from the Kentucky Derby, also on 
display. I was able to video the inside of the business cars and this was 
the first time some of the Brethren had ever seen the interior of one. Also 
shown were videos of trains on the old Virginian tracks at the location of 
Hardy Station and Wabun, formally known as "Sears", where the eastern-most 
transformer station from the Narrows Power Plant (88,000 volts to catinary 
11,000 volts) was located. On my way to Wabun, I was able to film, when 
stopped by two large drake geese who stood in the middle of the road, while 
a gander and 7 small chicks crossed to the Roanoke River. This turned out 
to be the tape that the Brethren wanted to see the second and third time...

I told the Brethren about the progress being made for the Roanoke Chapter 
NRHS Fall Trip Excursions in November. This will be a train from Roanoke to 
Bluefield and return on Saturday and from Roanoke to Shenandoah and return 
on Sunday. More on this later.

One of the Brethren said that his grandson ask him how old he was. When he 
answered "84", the youngster replied "Grandpa, did you start at one?"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now at V248,

Skip Salmon