"Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

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Subject: Re: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon








What was the Powhatan Arrow doing there? It ran on the old main line through Farmville.    Jim Nichols
)

I The Jewel from the Past is like one in Louis Newton's Watham Cresent Model 1892, 21-jewel given to him by his grandfather, James A. Newton, Railway Postal Clerk is from July 1, 2004: "Keith Sowder, VGN clerk said that for a while he came home to Roanoke from Sewells Point every weekend and would ride VGN trains both days. Several times near Algreen, where the N&W and VGN were almost side by side and the track is pretty straight, the VGN 900s pulling the crack Ford Train #72 would walk away from the N&W Powhatan Arrow.




>From the joint passenger station at Suffolk,  VGN paralleled SAL's Portsmouth Sub-Division

What was the Powhatan Arrow doing there? It ran on the old main line through Farmville.    Jim Nichols
)

I The Jewel from the Past is like one in Louis Newton's Watham Cresent Model 1892, 21-jewel given to him by his grandfather, James A. Newton, Railway Postal Clerk is from July 1, 2004: "Keith Sowder, VGN clerk said that for a while he came home to Roanoke from Sewells Point every weekend and would ride VGN trains both days. Several times near Algreen, where the N&W and VGN were almost side by side and the track is pretty straight, the VGN 900s pulling the crack Ford Train #72 would walk away from the N&W Powhatan Arrow.




>From the joint passenger station at Suffolk,  VGN paralleled SAL's Portsmouth Sub-Division

for 9.0 miles before crossing the SAL at Algren.  Any side-by-side running would certainly
be in the eastward direction.  Algren was an automated interlocking -- first come; first served
without regard to tonnage, class, or direction.  There are tales of VGN and SAL crews going
all out to be the first one on the approach circuit, the reward being a "clear" signal to cross
and the satisfaction of knowing the competitor was going to have to brake and wait.

VGN westbounds couldn't see SAL traffic east of Algren and had to rely on the approach signal
near Sunray.  Circa 1947, S. H. Kirby had a BA on a westbound hopper train.  AN SAL eastbound
was first on the approach signal and got the "clear".  When Kirby put the brake on, the train
didn't respond, but kept galloping toward the diamond.  Kirby jumped and spent 3 mos. in
Maryview Hospital in Portsmouth.  The train went through the 10th car on the SAL freight.
The ICC never investigated but Kirby said that someone had bottled the air on the last 10
cars of the hopper train.           Harry Bundy


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