"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with ten of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday Card for 
Russell McDaniel, our "Mr. Virginian", who was Master Mechanic at Victoria 
when the VGN merged with the N&W in 1959. Mr. McDaniel started his career 
with the VGN in 1948 and is highlighted in a two hour interview that I did 
with him for the N&W (and VGN) Historical Society. The VHS tape is in the 
N&WHS library. I remember my first interview with him in 1968 when I was 
promoted to the N&W Locomotive Design Department as an EET student. He was 
N&W Manager Locomotive and Equipment and we talked about AC traction motors 
in the interview and he told me then that "some day our railway would buy 
diesels with AC traction motors". His prediction came true last year when 
NS purchased the GE ES44AC units 8000-8023. Russell will be 85 tomorrow.

The ebay report of recently sold VGN items include: 1926 ad for VGN 
Electrification $21.78; 1950-51 VGN Annual Pass $43.27; The VGN Railway 
Handbook by Wiley and Wallace $18.60; Original slide of VGN H16-44 #32 at 
Norfolk in 1955 $70.99; June 12, 1912 VGN Timetable $115.29; 1955 VGN 
Timetable $36.17; 1932 VGN Public Timetable $45.00; 1945 VGN Timetable 
$37.55; and a Slide of EL-2B and EL-C meet $22.49.

I passed around a Mark Hardin photo of NS K-9 "Muis" guarding the 1218 at 
the O. Winston Link photo shoot last week. He is posing on the front of the 
N&W Class A steam locomotive. See photo at:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=283246
I asked the uniformed NS Special Agent from Atlanta who is "Muis'" partner, 
what union did "Muis" have to join to be an NS "employee"? He just laughed. 
He did say that the K-9 responded to German...

There was no DVD shown, but I told the Brethren about one I got last 
Saturday while waiting on a coal train on the old VGN at Ironto, VA MP 
V266. I was in position when a turkey hen approached with a gobbler, in 
fill strut, right behind her. It was the last day of Spring Gobbler season 
in Virginia, but my Browning was still in the gun cabinet at home.....

I asked the Brethren about the discussion lately of different grades of 
lamp oil used on RR lanterns. They only remembered "getting kerosene from 
cab supply cans". Raymond East recalled that "carpecks used VGN issued 
carbide headlamps (like coal miners used) to inspect trains". This led to 
Ruf Wingfield telling about using "waste" dampened with 'coal oil' (what 
some call kerosene) to start the fire in the Yard Office Warm Morning 
stove. This prompted Jeff Sanders to tell about his wife, Susan, taking 
some of Jeff's "waste" (multicolored cotton balls of string used to fire 
steam engines and to pack wheel bearings)to a lady's contest for the "most 
useless item in the house". She won first place!

 From one of our readers, I asked the Brethren if they knew VGN employee 
Titus R. Payne of Norfolk, who passed away this week, and none knew him. 
Thanks for all of the comments about geese crossing the road and drakes and 
ganders and goslings....

There was a lot of discussion last night about the 3.0 Richter Scale 
Earthquake we experienced at 4:08 AM last Sunday morning in Roanoke. The 
epi-center was at 37.248N and 80.002W about two miles south of Virginian MP 
V248. Most were awakened by it. I checked to see if a car had run into my 
house. Ruf Wingfield, who lives about 500 yards from the epi-center, slept 
through the whole thing...

After I told my Spring Gobbler story, Frank Breedlove asked the Brethren 
"why does a chicken coup have two doors?". "If it had four doors it would 
be a chicken sedan".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon