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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with ten of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday card for 
Dewey Houch. Dewey started his Rail career May 17, 1956 as a chain man on a 
surveyor gang that worked on the VGN from Deepwater to Sewells Point. He 
retired from Norfolk Southern in 1990 as Assistant Manager Material in 
Atlanta with 34 years service. Dewey continues to be a Friend of the 
Virginian Railway working to restore and save buildings and memories in the 
Mullens area. He turned 76 last Sunday.

I told the Brethren about a question sent in by Frank Bongiovanni of 
Cleveland relating to the location of the engine bell on Fairbanks-Morse 
VGN H16-44 diesel locomotives. The bell was located on the left side under 
the running board between the fuel tank and the #3 traction motor. The long 
hood end on these units was the "F" end, so the traction motors are 
numbered from the front 1-4. VGN diesel locomotive "guru" Greely Wyatt said 
that he thinks the bell was located in the same area for the H24-66 
Trainmasters as well.

Passed around was the latest Oct-Nov-Dec N&W (and VGN) Historical Society 
magazine "The Arrow" which features a "night shot" of the 1218 A and 611 J 
on the cover. This issue has a memorial by Bill McClure of August A. 
Thieme, Jr who passed away in May this year. I had the honor of giving Mr. 
Thieme, renowned photographer and rail historian, a tour of the Virginian 
Railway section of the N&W HS Archives this year. He told me that he loved 
to photograph on the VGN. Also passed around was the Sept-Oct issue of the 
Roanoke Chapter NRHS magazine "Turntable Times".

The Jewel from the Past is from November 11, 2004: "George Harmon worked 
the local into the Celenese Plant in Narrows. He remembered that the Celco 
tank cars carried acetone from the DuPont and Allied Chemical Plants in 
Charleston to Celco for making the fabric materials (including cigarette 
filters). He also remembered seeing a lot of Canadian National box cars 
carrying wood pulp for the process. He said that several times cars were 
rejected that contained woodchips instead of wood pulp. It was also 
discussed that Celco had a small Alco switcher in the plant for shifting 
cars.(The wires for VGN electrics went only so far into the plant) I 
remember sending an electrician out of Roanoke Shops to troubleshoot the 
locomotive in the '70s and we did major repairs in Roanoke to this Alco 
switcher".

I showed the Brethren a small pamphlet put out by N&W president Stuart 
Saunders December 10, 1958 to the N&W Stockholders. This brochure announced 
"last month, in a joint statement with The Virginian Railway Company, that 
studies are under way to determine the feasibility of a merger between the 
Norfolk and Western and the Virginian. The two roads complement each other 
in the West Virginia coal fields and, in large measure, duplicate each 
other for several hundred miles in Virginia". Less that a year, the merger 
was complete.

I told the Brethren about Aubrey Wiley's slide show this Friday night 
October 29, 7 PM, at the Virginia Museum of Transportation which introduces 
his new book "Virginian Railway Pictorial-Pictures and Stories". The 
hardback 144 page book contains an overview of VGN Rwy history including 
chapters about passenger train service, a detoured N&W class J steam engine 
and operation of a Shay locomotive on the VGN mainline. He will also be at 
VMT on Saturday to sign his book.

On Saturday the 30th, the Blue Ridge Special, NC NRHS Chapter excursion 
train, will arrive in Roanoke about noon and depart about 3 PM with riders 
from Spencer, NC. This is basically the same train that the Roanoke Chapter 
NRHS will use on November 6 for our trip to Danville and on November 7 to 
Bluefield.

Ernie Hubble told the Brethren last night about an upcoming rail "blast 
from the past" that will be shown on Direct TV, December 13 at 6 PM, on the 
RFD channel. This show highlights the 1957 Roanoke Rails NRHS convention 
trains and should bring back a lot of memories with N&W and Virginian footage!

Several of the Brethren talked about the first game of the 2010 World 
Series being on after last night's "Takin' Twenty". Ernie Hubble is quite a 
Giants fan and I had to tell him about a baseball that I had signed by 
Bobby Thompson at a Salem-Roanoke Valley Baseball Hall of Fame Banquet 
several years ago. Bobby was responsible for the famous "shot heard round 
the world" when he homered for the New York Giants in the bottom of the 
ninth to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for the pennant in 1951. Most of the 
Brethren like the Texas Rangers who defeated the Yankees for the American 
League pennant. Several recalled old Virginian men who followed the world 
series on the radio in the fifties. Consensus was that most of the old VGN 
baseball fans would also root for the Rangers who beat the Yankees who had 
"the best pitchers that money could buy!"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

__._,_.__