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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending for the first 
time in a long time was Dewey Houch, who started out on the Virginian 
May 17, 1956 in Mullens as a "chain man" on the surveyor gang. He worked 
his way up to Assistant Manager Material for Norfolk Southern and 
retired in 1990 with 34 years service. Dewey is now working with 60 
volunteers from Georgia in the Mullens area. He has gotten several 
government grants for restoring old buildings and is currently working 
on a church in Wyco, WV. He is trying to save the old VGN Motor Barn in 
Mullens and wanting to draw attention to Southern West Virginia (VGN 
territory) by saving some of the area's most precious memories.

 From the last report, I got a response from our friend Ken Tanner 
"Voice of the Durham Bulls" whose grandfather R. S. "Bob" Cawley was a 
conductor on the VGN West End mostly out of Elmore. Ken told me about a 
cabin that his grandfather retired to in Wabun, west of Salem, so he 
could be close to the VGN line. This week I visited the area and saw 
where the cabin was located. It was destroyed by fire but a house is now 
near the spot. Ken was born in Roanoke and on that day (1-7-1939) his 
grandfather got a dispatch (train order) which he hooked on his arm 
somewhere west of Roanoke probably on Train #3 that said: "Bob Cawley, 
you are grandfather with 6-1/2 pound boy 230 today. Yard Office, Roanoke".

Also from last week, I shared an email with the Brethren from Kevin 
EuDaly, distinguished publisher of the N&WHS "The Arrow" with White 
River Productions in Kansas City. Kevin said that the C&O hauled a lot 
of iron ore west across Virginia from Newport News to the Great Lakes. 
The ore came in from Argentina. On the C&O "a capacity load of iron ore 
would barely fill the three bays on a triple hopper, so unless you were 
directly overhead, they looked empty, except, of course for the 
depressed springs on the trucks". Kevin remembered visiting Clifton 
Forge when he was 12 and "found a large pile of iron ore pellets 
(taconite) that had leaked out of a hopper. Recognizing them as valuable 
slingshot ammo, I collected two grocery sacks full and hauled them back 
to Missouri. I shot uncountable birds and rabbits with those pellets 
scattering those pellets all about the woods in several mile radius of 
Dad's current house in Kansas City". Wis Sowder remembered seeing iron 
ore going west on the N&W in coal hoppers also.

For show and tell I brought two items that I have posted photos of on 
this site. The first is a small button with "NWhy?" attached to a pencil 
clip. In the photo the pencil clip is attached to an original VGN RWY 
No. 1 pencil with no eraser. (Ken McLain said that VGN clerks were NOT 
suppose to make any mistakes). Does anyone out there know the story 
behind this "NWhy?". Is it related to Mr. Fishwick's new Norfolk and 
Western logo? The second photo shows an early weed control device use on 
rail lines....VGN?

The Jewel from the Past, like one in Billy Daniel's Dad's Hamilton 950 
23 jewel is from April 15, 2004: "It was said that a certain town on the 
VGN would have grown, but every time a woman became pregnant, two men 
left town. Wes Sowder mentioned that while at Altavista, he sold tickets 
and you could ride to Leesville for 25 cents. A green and white flag was 
used to flag the passenger train".

Passed around was the September 2010 "Trains Magazine" which highlights 
the use of distributed power "the way railroads run big trains". One 
article "Distributed Power's Wonder Years" tells about the November 15, 
1967 N&W train that "grabbed national attention by safely operating the 
mother of all trains: a 500-car, 48,179 ton coal train 159 miles from 
Iaeger, WV to Portsmouth, OH. N&W put three SD45s on the 
point("Masters")and three more radio-controlled units("Slaves") 300 cars 
back". Also in this issue is an article "Back into the fire" about 
Norfolk Southern's new steam excursion program called "21st Century 
Steam". The article spoke of using Southern 2-8-2 #4501 and 2-8-0 #630 
as well as Tennessee Valley Railroad 2-8-0 #610. Conspicuously missing 
is any mention of the N&W "J" #611 or "A" #1218.

Gibby Davis told the Brethren about his grandmother, Lucy Vivian Vaughn, 
regularly riding #4 from Roanoke on his grandfather Malcom Vaught, VGN 
machinist's pass to Dolphin, VA and "getting off the train and walking 
up the bank to her sister's house".

When I saw the article in the September "Trains" magazine about the 
historic N&W 500-car coal train, it brought back a lot of memories. I 
worked in the N&W Locomotive Design section in the Motive Power Building 
that year and was sent to Cocoa Beach, FL to Radiation Locotrol school. 
I rode these radio controlled units as a sort of technical observer and 
became familiar with the transmitted information so that I would tell 
when the engineer, who was on the head end made a throttle change, air 
brake application or release etc. I made the one trip just prior to the 
"big one" from Roanoke to Norfolk on a 420-car coal train using the 
radio controlled units. I was on the "Slave" units 240 cars of coal back 
from the head end. The Road Foreman of Engines on this trip was Sammy 
Noe. When we approached a road crossing, there would be cars backed up 
as far as we could see. They would immediately start their cars thinking 
we were a pusher engine, not knowing there were 180 more cars to come. 
Once on the communication radio near Portlock, I heard someone say "Boy, 
the N&W is running them coal trains really close together today".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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