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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Oct 7 08:55:23 EDT 2010




Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed cards for Rufus
Wingfield, who is in Friendship Rehab Community, Landon Gregory who had
heart surgery on Tuesday, and Raymond East who turns 86 years old today.
Landon had to cancel a month long trip to Hawaii for the quadruple
bypass on Tuesday and is recovering well today. Raymond East started at
Victoria on the extra board as a road fireman in 1951. He moved to the
yard in Roanoke in 1955 and became a yard engineer. Raymond served in
combat during the Korean Conflict and retired from Norfolk Southern with
36 years service. I recently taped an interview with Raymond in front of
VGN #4, the last remaining VGN steam locomotive that is on display at
the Virginia Museum of Transportation. He told of firing the switcher at
Suffolk and working the peanut plants there.

From last week, I got several responses concerning the possible
unloading of troop trains near Sewells Point during WWII. Retired
Virginian Clerk, Robert "Little Abner" Glass, who still lives in
Norfolk, said that he thinks "troops were unloaded at an Army Base just
west of Sewells Point at Wards Corner". Pete Groom referred to an Army
Supply Depot "a bit south of Sewells Point on the water" where troops
could have been delivered.

I pasted on to the Brethren a post card from Ronald Mattox with a photo
of VGN caboose 342 and "Victoria, Virginia" proudly displayed on the
front that read: "The annual reunion of former Virginian Railway
Employees and friends will be held on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the
Victoria Restaurant". Plans are being formed for our annual "road trip"
to this Gathering.

The Jewel from the Past like my Hamilton 992B, 21 jewel with gold center
wheel and Wadsworth case, just purchased on ebay, is from October 21,
2004: "We talked about the 1907 Jamestown Exhibition that the VGN played
a key part. Henry H. Rogers had President Teddy Roosevelt dock his
yacht, the "Mayflower", conveniently next to the 'under construction'
Sewells Point Pier. Slick Inge told a story of Will Rogers docking his
yacht "Kanawha" on the Eastern Shore of VA and offering the crew to join
him for a meal at the famous Chamberlain Hotel. They refused saying that
'their job was to take care of him and the yacht'. 'Slick' Inge also
told about Will Rogers being on a train that stopped at Mullens on a
curve. Dr. B. W. Steele had one of the few cars in Mullens, and cleaned
it up and set it on a knoll between the tracks and the town. Twain was
asked what he thought of Mullens, he said 'if you'll move that d---
automobile, I'll tell you'".

I passed around the November 2010 "Trains" magazine, one of the best
that has been published. The theme is "The greatest of yesterday" and
covers the 70 year anniversary of the publication. The inside cover is
worth the price of one copy featuring Norfolk Southern, "one line,
infinite possibilities" with photos highlighting "one line connects our
past to our future". The "map of the month" on page 56 includes a
"family tree" of NS with a VGN herald standing out! Also this issue has
a very nice obituary of former N&W president John Fishwick where NS CEO
Wick Moorman said that Fishwick "was a visionary leader and principal
architect of today's NS". Also featured in this issue is the NS Research
#34 Track Geometry Car. An interesting statistic listed NS as having the
least number of stored locomotives at this time of all Class 1 Lines
with 88. CSX has 165 stored and UP has over 1200 not in service. How
many locomotives did the VGN have at one time?

Also passed around was a flyer that I will give out this Saturday and
Sunday at "Historic Appomattox Railroad Festival". The Roanoke Chapter
NRHS is providing a train for display, consisting of the Chapter's EMD
N&W GP30 #522, N&W Tool Car #1407 and N&W Caboose #518409. NS is moving
this train from Roanoke to Appomattox, VA on Friday afternoon and
Chapter member, and NS engineer, Percy Wilkins has been assigned
engineer for the trip. I will represent the Virginian Railway with
displays and the sale of VGN items as a fundraiser for the VGN Station
Restoration Project, on the #1407.

While discussing the probability of troop trains being unloaded at
Sewells Point, several of the Brethren who worked there "went down
memory lane" and recalled other activities in and around Norfolk while
working for the VGN at the eastern terminal. Some I can not repeat but I
will tell you the term "hoochie coochie" was used frequently...

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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