"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. I showed the Brethren a Thank You 
Letter from the Roanoke Chapter NRHS for their generous donation to the 
Virginian Station Project in memory of Elbert Miller.

I told the Brethren that Louis Newton recently told me about a Virginian 
Railway Section Foreman, east of Roanoke, finishing his shift on November 
30, 1959, going home and passing away. This was just minutes before the VGN 
passed away and became part of the N&W. None of the Brethren knew of the 
story. Anybody out there know anything about this?

A photo was passed around of a brand new CSX Chevy high rail pickup (only 
400 miles on the odometer) that was crushed by blown over trees while the 
maintainer was repairing a rail joint bond wire somewhere near Parkersburg, 
WV. Landon Gregory speculated that it would have caused a derailment if the 
incident had happened in front of a moving train. This prompted Scotty to 
tell of a VGN yard conductor, Charlie Thacker, who was cutting down a tree 
for firewood and it fell on top of his truck. He said Charlie got a lot of 
kidding about "cutting up the firewood BEFORE he put it in his pickup".

This somehow caused the Brethren to talk about the consumption of spirits 
while working on the VGN. Landon recalled one trainman who was always 
eating an orange and feeling good. Seems that he would squeeze the juice 
out of an orange replace it with Vodka. Another crew were always drinking 
Coca Colas. Their secret was to empty out half of the cola and replace it 
with booze. Landon also recalled deadheading a train and it stopped just 
past a road crossing at Suffolk. Conveniently, the ABC store was just 
across the street. Conductor C. V. Ezelle had a system worked out on 
Saturdays when the ABC store closed at 2PM in Victoria. If he felt he his 
local couldn't make it to Victoria by 2, he would call Agent Finch at 
Alberta and give him a code that cause Finch to purchase 2 "Virginia 
Gentlemen" to board at Alberta. Landon said that one of the "gentlemen" 
would be wiped out by the time the train got to Victoria.

I showed the Brethren a clip from Monday's "Roanoke Times" from "100 years 
Ago Today": "A freight train left Roanoke this morning over the Virginian 
Railroad with one hundred and twenty loaded cars. It was a record-breaker".

Also passed around was the latest issue (Nov./Dec.) of "Biz/NS". One 
highlight in it is the NS Police security role in the G-20 meeting recently 
held in Pittsburgh, with representatives from all over the world. Raymond 
East commented that this is really a long way "from the VGN special agent 
who could not track an elephant in the snow". Also passed around was my 
report on last Saturday's Candy Cane Shifter at the 9th Street Roanoke 
Chapter NRHS. We safely gave rides to 188 men, women and children from as 
far away as Waynesboro, Huddleston, Martinsville and Abington. About noon, 
the NS crew delivered the Chapter's 0-6-0 tank engine EJ Lavino #34 from 
VMT to the end of our siding. The Chapter is trading the #34 for the N&W 
Mike #1118. After the 8th run of the "Shifter" about 4:30 PM, the #34 was 
coupled to the N&W caboose. Our resourceful mechanical department staff 
"fired up" the EJ Lavino #34. With oily rags smoldering in the firebox, she 
crossed 9th Street on the rear of the Christmas train. The "whishing" sound 
of the tank engine's exhaust of cylinders, along with the smoke pouring out 
her stack, caused the waiting motorists to think she was pushing the train 
under steam power...

I handed out NS pins donated to the Brethren by Bill Honeycutt. Also given 
out was the new VGN "Friends of the Virginian Railway" "Takin' Twenty" 2010 
calendar.

I shared with the Brethren the following that Rail Photographer "Wizzy" 
Strom passed on to me: "If time is a train rollin' down the track, every 
minute is a box car that don't come back!".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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