"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with six of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway, on a rainy Veteran's Day evening. All
of the Brethren present served in our military. Raymond East is the most
decorated; he served in combat in Korea. We had a pool and Rufus Wingfield
won the free meal representing our Veterans.

Several of Gordon Hamilton's "Bluefield Daily Telegraph" pages from 1910
were passed around. They concerned the opening of Princeton Shop on May 17;
the wreck of May 7, 1910 near Oakvale where the train turned over on her
side; a man and three women injured while trying to outrun an N&W passenger
train while joy riding on a signal corps gasoline powered company track
automobile; but the one they like the best was a report on the possibility
of The New Your Central taking over the VGN. The article stated that if H.
H. Rogers were still alive, it would be who might the VGN take over, 
instead!

As for the "Straight A" and "Slanted Sixes" from last week, this is not a
discussion about grades or automobile engines. It is from discussion about
the direction of exhaust from steam locomotives. The "Straight As" were N&W
Class A locomotives whose exhaust went straight up and the "Slanted Sixes"
were the N&W Y Class locomotives whose exhaust slanted toward the tender.

A lot of the discussion last night was about our excursion trains last
weekend to Bluefield and Shenandoah. Last Thursday the train was
"deadheaded" from Spencer, NC to Roanoke, and at Hurt,VA below Altavista,
and the new connection between the SOU and VGN, it traveled on the old VGN
to Roanoke. Landon and I met the train at Moneta and I took a video and I
showed that video last night to the Brethren.

The Roanoke Chapter NRHS Fall Excursion Trains were a success. We had a
full train of over 800 to Bluefield and had over 600 on the Shenandoah
train on Sunday. Car hosts Landon Gregory and I met many VGN related people
on the trains. One gentlemen told of his father working in the VGN
Roundhouse in Roanoke, and as a 10-year-old going with him to a VGN picnic
at the resort at Yellow Sulphur. Joyce B. Mullins, granddaughter of A. J.
Mullins, told me the story of how the town of Mullens was named after her
grandfather. In her soft Appalachian style voice, she said "When the sign
painter forgot to dot the "I" in "Mullins", the town was named what it is
today". On Sunday, on the way to Shenandoah, we had several West Virginians
tell about the making of the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter", the story of
Loretta Lynn. Cassie Blanton from Norton, VA worked as a baby sitter for
the children from Norton who worked as extras (Loretta's children and
siblings in the movie). One lady, Lillian P. Burks of the Stunning Styles
Beauty and Barbershop on Athens Road in Princeton, told Dewey Houch, former
VGN surveyor who was my assistant Host on Car C09, that he needed a
haircut. Dewey said "if we only had a pair of scissors, I would let you cut
it". This was my signal, and I proceeded immediately to one of the EMTs on
board, borrowed scissors, returned and she cut Dewey's hair while traveling
about 40MPH toward Shenandoah. I have placed a photo on this site under
"Skip's Photos" of Dewey getting a trim. I also showed the Brethren many
picturesque photos taken of the two trains by various friends.

On Monday this week I was invited to "deadhead" our excursion Amtrak train
back to Lynchburg. I chose to ride on the New Orleans bound dome car
"Southern Hospitality". The train went as "068" and I was able to get a
copy from the Amtrak Conductor of the train orders. These contained 8 pages
of slow orders and safety reminders, printed from a computer. I showed
these to VGN hogger Raymond East who commented "these are unlike the thin
yellow ones handed up years ago on a bended wooden hoop by VGN operators
like Landon Gregory"!

On Sunday morning's Shenandoah run, I met an older gentleman as he boarded
Coach 09 and started him toward his seat. I asked "if he preferred an aisle
or window seat". He responded "I would rather have a chair seat".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon






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