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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Tue Oct 5 18:22:44 EDT 2010


Not to quible too much Ed, but that was the Norfolk Naval Amphibious
Base at the east end of the bay. NAS/NOB was at the west end,
at Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River.
Tom Cosgrove

On 10/5/2010 2:20 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

> OK let me chime in here. I was stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA from

> 1969-70 when I shipped out to RVN. Ft. Eustis is in Newport News, VA,

> just north of Norfolk. Ft. Eustis was the USArmy Transportation

> Center and I was assigned to the 714th TBROSD&E, the last active duty

> railway operating battalion in the USArmy. We operated several 2-8-0

> and Alco diesels. http://www.eustis.army.mil/

>

> Ft. Story was just across the creek adjacent to Norfolk Navy Base and

> was the home of the USArmy LOTS training (logistics over the shore).

> Some fellow 2LTs I went to Transportation Basic Course with served

> over there before shipping out as well. The Army used LCMs (Mike

> boats) as the Navy had the big guys (LSTs).

> http://www.eustis.army.mil/Fort_story/

>

> The Army also had some former Navy amphib vessels in Vietnam just

> north of where I was in Dong Ha. I remember very clearly when we lost

> a boat and crew to a mine in the Dong Ha River just south of the DMZ.

> http://grambo.us/atav/yboat.htm

>

> Nobody would have left either place (nor could have) in that time

> frame and would have shipped out via Norfolk Navy Base to Europe or in

> Oakland to Pacific bases. GENERALLY only full units shipped out via

> vessel, not replacements.

>

> *Ed Svitil*

> *Norfolk & Western Railway*

> **

>

>

>

>

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 13:05:46 -0400

> To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

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

> From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

>

> Can't speak to this directly, as I wasn't born until 1954, BUT my

> father's Marine Corps Reserve outfit (AMTRACKS) got shipped out of

> Norfolk,

> by sea, and ended up in San Diego, before crossing the next leg to

> Japan for duty in "Korean Conflict".

> Tom Cosgrove

>

>

> On 10/1/2010 4:45 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

> Wasn't there an Army Supply Depot or something a bit south of

> Sewells Point on the water? I have a vague recollection of a

> troop train going by my (parents) house a few blocks from the

> Granby Ave crossing around 1950. Or have I seen so many pics of

> the MB on a troop train that now I think I saw it . . . (I've

> been told that troops were sometimes transferred to ships at the

> Oakland (CA) Army Supply Depot in the late 1950s.)

>

> pete groom

> On Sep 30, 2010, at 4:43 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

> Thank you Skip, and to the VIRGINIAN BRETHERN for answering my

> question about Troop Trains. John Katz

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:44:44 -0400

> To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

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

> Salmon

> From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>

> Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of

> the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. I mentioned

> to the Brethren about the new header photo on this site

> showing "downtown" Victoria when she first became a rail town.

> I passed around a copy of the September 27, 2010 "Richmond

> Times-Dispatch" article about "Hopeful signs in Victoria as

> town gears up for fall festival", this weekend. Greg Elam is

> to be commended for providing the Richmond paper information

> for this piece. "I've told people recessions come and

> recessions go, but we've been in a recession for 50 years,"

> said Greg Elam, a member of the Town Council who led the

> acquisition of the caboose for the town's park, and remains

> its caretaker". I'll add that Greg had a hand in everything

> associated with, and the securing of, the Rail Park, including

> the low sided Virginian gondola that the Roanoke Chapter NRHS

> donated. If you can make it to Victoria this Saturday, be sure

> to give Greg a big thank you for his untiring and faithful

> service to the cause!

>

> Also passed around were the Summer 2010 "NRHS Bulletin" and

> "Trains Locomotive 2010, The magazine of today's motive

> power", which featured the NS 999 battery powered locomotive.

>

> I mentioned to the Brethren that I spoke to John Euton at the

> last Motive Power Supervisor's breakfast about doing an

> article on the slug that was made from a Virginian EL-C

> shortly after the merger. John worked on this project and gave

> me some information and will give me more, as I do the

> research. The pantograph stripped EL-C was modified with

> electrical equipment to be connected to a Virginian

> Trainmaster for remote power for yard service. John said that

> this set-up worked well at the Shaffers Crossing hump. More on

> this later.

>

> The Jewel from the Past is from September 16, 2004:

> Communications were discussed, and it was clear that the

> operating department of the Virginian Railway did not have

> radios until almost right before the merger with the N&W. They

> then only had the heavy portable type in the cabs and the

> signal went from the cab antenna to a small one when they left

> the caboose. Cabooses were equipped with an antenna in the

> center of the cupola for road communication. Locomotives had a

> permanent one. Hand signals during daylight, and lanterns at

> night, were the primary means of communication before the

> radios were used. With trackside train signals at only a few

> locations, and train orders and good watches being used for

> meets, a constant vigil was required for a safe trip".

>

> I showed the Brethren the first day cover that the Big Lick

> Stamp Club issued last Saturday at their meeting to celebrate

> the 100 anniversary of the VGN Station in Roanoke. Several of

> the Brethren bought this VGN collector's item. I purchased

> some of these covers along with protective sleeves and had the

> Grandin Road Post Office place the cancellation on them. This

> makes this item an instant piece of history and is already a

> collectors item for VGN memorabilia collectors. The Club also

> placed their cancellation on them which shows the Station,

> Mill Mountain with Star, and a VGN Steam locomotive in the

> background, on the ones I purchased. I am selling them as a

> fund-raiser for the Station. Contact me off line if you want

> some. At the Show I handed out the Station flyers and had one

> avid stamp collector make a substantial contribution to the

> Restoration Fund.

>

> From last week's report I got a question from the N&WHS

> mailing list asking "Did military movements unload at Sewalls

> Point, which was adjacent to the Naval Air Station and ship

> piers?" Wis Sowder and Glen McLain, who were clerks at Sewells

> Point and Norfolk, do not remember ever seeing or hearing

> about troops being unloaded at Sewells Point. Both also

> commented that even though there were no unloading platforms

> at the coal piers, the Army and Navy could have unloaded troop

> trains there.

>

> Landon Gregory and Frank Breedlove grew up on farms that

> produced tobacco. Both remembered the VGN hauling the

> "baskets" in box cars from Brookneal, Kenbridge, Leesville and

> Altavista. For about twenty minutes, the two Virginian

> veterans discussed the fine points of raising, weeding, bug

> killing, harvesting, curing, packing and auctioning tobacco.

> Both agreed that "cured" meant no moisture in the leaf. Most

> of the "VGN" tobacco was bright leaf cigarette type which was

> flue cured (heated in barns to remove moisture) versus the

> Lynchburg "dark" type(N&W) that was used for cigars and pipes.

> Frank Breedlove said that he remembered George Daniels, a car

> inspector, who chewed all the time. Frank said "for the first

> several years I thought he had a growth on the side of this

> cheek before discovering he chewed". Landon Gregory said that

> you could tell if a person was "level headed" if the tobacco

> juice came out the same, on both sides of his mouth!"

>

> Time to pull the pin on this one!

>

> Departing Now from V248,

>

> Skip Salmon

>

>

> __._,_.___

>

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>

> --

> Tom Cosgrove

> N2VFK

> NREMT-B

> SKYWARN Spotter LME002

> Red Cross Disaster Volunteer since 1995

>

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--
Tom Cosgrove
N2VFK
NREMT-B
SKYWARN Spotter LME002
Red Cross Disaster Volunteer since 1995

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