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

[NW Mailing List]

No need to yell fellows!
 
 
In a message dated 4/10/2010 9:08:43 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

 
David,  
Thanks for your inquiry. Unfortunately the Virginian clerk that I quoted  
from 2004, Keith Sowder, passed away several years ago. I will talk to his  
brother and see if he can shed some light on this particular story.  
Skip
---- NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>  wrote:

=============

Skip,   
I think there  may have been be a mix-up below in either the cited location 
or identification  of the passenger train getting left in the dust in your 
original anecdote  below.  Based on Rev. Jim’s reply, I gather he inferred 
the subject  location was near Abilene on the Farmville Belt Line.  Could you 
provide clarification?  
Algren (on the  VGN) is in Chesapeake, near the Suffolk city line, at the  
northern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp.  The N&W mainline lies  parallel, 
but at least a mile farther south, passing from Yadkin (in  Chesapeake) at 
the east end of the swamp, through Juniper deep in the swamp,  to Suffolk at 
the west end of the swamp.  Juniper is where the J611 NS  employee’s 
excursion train sadly jumped the rails in May ’85.  
At Algren, the  VGN crossed the SAL at a shallow angle.  The Virginian and 
the Seaboard  Air Line rights of way are directly side-by-side each other 
(and adjacent to  highway US 13/58/460) from Bower’s Hill, about 1 mile east 
of  Algren,  all the way to downtown Suffolk.  The VGN right of way lies  
north of the SAL west of Algren and south of the SAL to the east.  East  of 
Bower’s Hill, the VGN forms the southern border between the cities of  
Portsmouth and Chesapeake, and the SAL line diverges northward into  Portsmouth.  
The rails were pulled up from the old Virginian right of way  some years back 
(80’s or 90’s, maybe?), but the right of way is still  intact.  On N. Main 
St. in downtown Suffolk, the VGN and SAL shared a  passenger depot.  This 
depot in recent years has been nicely restored and  is open as a museum that 
is well worth a visit.  The Seaboard line is  still active as CSX’s link to 
Southside Hampton Roads.  
Interestingly, a  recent proposal for bringing high speed passenger rail 
service to  Norfolk could revive this section of the old VGN.  Talks of  
running a train from a new station in downtown Norfolk by Harbor Park (i.e.,  
former site of Union Station, by Bridge 5) to Richmond include stops -- and  
new stations -- in Bower’s Hill and Petersburg.  Since the only current  rail 
route from downtown Norfolk to Bowers Hill involves looping around the  
Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line over to the SAL track in Portsmouth, I  wonder if 
the powers that be are considering restoring the VGN line at least  as far 
as Bowers’ Hill.   From Suffolk, the route would follow the  N&W to 
Petersburg, and the ACL from Petersburg to Richmond.  …Anyone  up for a ride on “
The Cannonball” (21st century edition)?   
David  Rice  
Chesapeake, VA  

________________________________
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.



Skip  Salmon

__._,_.___  


--
Skip  Salmon



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