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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin Twenty" with five of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Our number was low 
because several of our "regulars" are on the sick list.

The Brethren enjoyed a photo I showed them of the Virginian G5 low gon 
#22019 that now stands out with "V I R G I N I A N" in white on black 
sparkling to all who pass by the Victoria Rail Park in Victoria. Ken 
Miller is a real Friend of the Virginian Railway and is to be commended 
for seeing that this car and the VGN caboose at the Station Museum in 
Princeton, now have the proper Virginian livery on display.

In response from last week's report, John sent this comment: "I really 
want to Thank You and the Virginian Brethren for confirming what I 
thought must have been the unloading point for the East Bound Virginian 
troop trains I saw on the video 'Virginian Vignettes'. I had always 
thought that these trains had taken the military personnel to either 
General Booth Boulevard, or to the former Hampton Boulevard Army Supply 
Depot". John owns property just west of Abilene and recognized scenes 
from the video shot near his property.

The Jewel from the Past is from May 27, 2004: "Also it was common for 
workers to work until death on the Virginian. Abe Carnell from Victoria, 
conductor, worked until his late 80s. He died on his caboose going from 
Roanoke to Victoria. His brakeman, 'Botsy' Johnson, said that on the 
trip he died, Abe stated 'they're after my seniority'. Keith Sowder said 
that he observed Abe in the yard in Norfolk pulling up his pant leg to 
pull his leg over the rails when crossing them".

I passed around an article from Monday's "Roanoke Times" with a photo 
caption that read: "The impression prevails among Jefferson street 
property owners that this thoroughfare is destined to become the great 
business thoroughfare of Roanoke, with the Norfolk & Western on one end 
and the Virginian at the other". Also form "75 years ago today": "One of 
the largest mammals ever captured, the famous whale of San Clemente, is 
now on exhibit in a specially constructed railway car at the Virginian 
station".

A lot of the conversation was about the Rail Days event in Appomattox 
last week end. Last Friday, Roanoke Chapter NRHS member and Norfolk 
Southern engineer, Percy Wilkins was engineer on a train made up of 
Chapter GP30 #522, N&W tool car #1407, N&W caboose #518409 and "just in 
case" NS GP38 #5079. I showed the Brethren several photos of this train 
on her way to Appomattox. On Saturday and Sunday I sold Virginian items 
on the tool car, met many former VGN employees and answered lots of 
questions about our beloved fallen flag. One small boy, when he noticed 
a set of 5-chime horns off an Alco diesel locomotive, commented to his 
Dad "look at those horns Dad". His father responded, "they are really 
something, Nathan". Both of them were amazed when I showed them the name 
"Nathan" on the horns. Our engineer entertained a lot of the younger 
visitors by letting them ring the large brass steam locomotive bell on 
display. He told all of them that he was named after two famous engines 
that most children of today are familiar: Percy and Thomas the Tank 
engine. The Lynchburg "News and Advance" estimated that over 20,000 
attended the two day event. Percy Thomas Wilkins was able to engineer 
our train safely back to Roanoke on Sunday night.

We or course discussed the rescue of the miners in Chile, even as we 
were having supper. This led to a discussion by Wis Sowder and Ken 
McLain about unloading coal at Sewells Point. Ken had the job of 
ordering the hoppers from the yard to "blend" the coal for incoming 
ships. Wis and Ken remembered that a lot of the ships were from Japan. 
Ken said that most of them had two names and the second part of the name 
was "Maru or something similar". He said that a Japanese ship named the 
"Maru" once made a very perilous journey, so they named all of their 
coal ships after that one.

One of the last visitors to the tool car on Sunday in Appomattox was a 
Russian rail engineer and his interpreter. I asked what type of 
locomotive did he operate. When the answer was "electric", I immediately 
started talking about the Virginian electrics. Nothing seemed to be 
getting through until I mentioned the word "pantograph". His eyes began 
to sparkle and I now have a new Russian rail friend!

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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