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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. For "Show and Tell" I 
showed the Brethren a Brian J. Hadley photo off railphotos.net of what 
happens to a coal hopper when too much horsepower is applied at the 
wrong time. To see this photo go to:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=334596

Yesterday on my way to "Takin' Twenty" I visited Rufus Wingfield who is 
at home suffering from pneumonia. He was feeling OK enough to review the 
photo of South Yard, taken from the Franklin Road Bridge showing all of 
the various yard tracks in the VGN Roanoke Yard, that we have discussed 
before. He had given me the track designations and I wanted to verify if 
I had the numbered tracks labeled correctly. I have posted this photo on 
this site in the photo section under "Skip's Photos". The following is 
the identity of each numbered track in the photo. A1:VGN Main Line 
(farther est track on the left); 1-8:Yard Storage Tracks; 9:Running 
Track; 10:Outgoing Engine Track; 11:Outgoing Motor Barn Track; 12:East 
#3 Track; (note there was no East #4) 13:East #5 Track; 14:East #6 
Track; 15:East #7 Track; 16:Ingoing Motor Barn Track; 17:Coal Tipple 
Track; 18:Ingoing Engine Track; 19: Shop Track #1; 20:Shop Track #2; 
21:Shop Track #3; 22:Shop Track #4; 23:Shop Track #5; 24:Shop Track #6; 
25:Coach Track and 26:Baker Track for unloading automobiles.

I told the Brethren about recently visiting the Farmer's Market in Salem 
and buying some peaches from VGN clerk Wis Sowder. He also had a very 
large tub of sweet green grapes on display. I picked one to give it a 
"taste test" when a nice lady told Wis "I'll take the whole tub". Seem 
that she was making wine and these VGN raised "Niagra" beauties were her 
favorite type, for this year's vintage.

Last week at the N&W(and VGN) Historical Society Archives Work Day, VGN 
and N&W Accountant Horace McPherson made a visit. Seems that Horace was 
the donor of most of the Society's Virginian Annual Reports...he told us 
that he actually edited the last one in 1958. He said that the now 
famous EL-2B posing at Eggleston had to be re-cleaned after coming 
through a nearby tunnel. He also said that the ballast in the photo was 
carefully raked and manicured for the shot. I sat down with Mr. 
McPherson and taped about 45 minutes of an interview. Horace rode the 
last VGN#3 from Norfolk to Victoria and the last VGN#4 from Victoria 
back to Norfolk. He told several stories about working in the VGN 
Accounting Department in the Union Station in Norfolk, and working his 
way up to Assistant Vice President in the N&W Accounting Department in 
Roanoke. My favorite sentence from the interview: "The Virginian was so 
tight that if you needed a new one of those VGN eraser-less pencils, you 
had to turn in the 'nub' of an old one to get it". This interview will 
become part of the data stream in the restored VGN Station in Roanoke, 
when it is completed.

The Jewel from the Past is from August 19, 2004: "A discussion of the 
'best' locomotives on the VGN created these statements: Rufus 
Wingfield's champion was 'those 500s(BA 2-8-4)that really 'walked the 
dog' on trains #71 and #72. Jimmy Whittaker liked the big AG 900's best. 
Walter Grigg said that the 'EL-2Bs belonged to me and I treated them 
like they were mine'. Walter told of going from his home in Jarratt to 
Alberta (Seaboard Coast Line diesel territory) once in the early 40s 
'just to see what a diesel locomotive actually looked like'".

There was a discussion about an article in Wednesday's "Roanoke Times" 
"Group supports tax cut for railroads". This was about an $8 Million 
dollar tax credit to "bolster freight railroads". The "BlueGreen 
Alliance said increased investment in freight railroads will create 
needed new jobs, conserve oil through a reduction in truck traffic and 
in turn reduce air pollution". "Scotty" said that the only green 
projects he ever saw in South Yard were "the bananas in those ice cars".

"Gibby" Davis told the group about visiting Victoria this week and 
looking for his Mother's "white house" just beyond where the old VGN 
Roundhouse was located. He could not find any information but several of 
the Brethren suggested that when we go there for the Virginian 
Gathering, the last Saturday in October, Greg Elam will probably know 
exactly where the house was located. "Gibby" also told of hearing about 
a fellow stopping at a store north of Princeton once, and asking the 
elderly gentlemen who were sitting outside "How far is it to Mullens 
from here?". One of the 'weathered' gentlemen answered "Well if you 
continue in the same direction, it is about 24,982 miles; but if you 
will turn around and go down that road over there, it's about 18 miles..."

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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