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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the Brethren 
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. There was a new item on the menu at 
Country Cookin': "Wild Alaskan Salmon". Of course I had to try it, and of 
course I got a lot of comments about cannibalism.

In response from our discussion about time claims, someone offered an 
account of a VGN engineer who, upon entering the Pearly Gates, was greeted 
by Saint Peter himself, and told "you are the oldest railroad engineer here 
at 128". He replied, "I am only 74". Saint Peter replied..."we counted your 
time claims!"

For "Show and Tell" I took a Norfolk Southern switch lock found on the roof 
of the Virginian Station by a workman. I thought it would be interesting to 
compare this current one and its key to the old VGN brass heartshaped one 
used by "Cornbread", "Slick" and the others. I have posted a photo of the 
comparison on this site under "Skip's Photos" and you can click "new photo" 
at the top of this page to also see it. The major difference, besides one 
being brass and the other steel, is that the NS lock weights over a pound 
more than the VGN.

Sometime recently, and to my surprise, the value of CSX stock has started 
to exceed that of NS stock. Yesterday CSX closed at $68.71 and NS at 
$65.40. This prompted a discussion by the Brethren who own some of the latter.

The Jewel from the Past is from January 13, 2005: "Jimmy Whittaker said 
that after the war, there was a 'coal rush' and every empty hopper 
available was pressed into service. He remembers marking the N&W hoppers as 
'VGN' on the switch lists and sending them back to the mines. He also 
remembered Jesse Bellflower, an operator who would work any operator's 
position on the VGN at any time. When asked by the Chief Dispatcher for his 
current address, Jesse would respond 'trains 3 & 4'".

For any of you who do not already know, there is a 24 hour rail camera 
posted at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. It takes a 
current shot of trains going under the 2nd Street Bridge (Commerce St.) 
heading east down the Norfolk Division; north up the Shenandoah Division 
and south down the Winston-Salem District, and all westbound trains on the 
old N&W into Roanoke. To view this , go to: www.nwhs.org and click on "VRHR 
RailCAM".

Recently I had another encounter with my US Postal worker assigned to 
deliver and pick up mail at my mail box. After the last snow, as in the 
past, he left me a notice that I need to clear out a 30 foot long access to 
my mailbox. What ever happened to the postal creed: "Neither snow nor rain 
nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion 
of their appointed rounds". I looked it up...Wikipedia says "The US Postal 
Service has no official creed or motto". Scotty talked about gloomy cold 
windy nights when he was a brakeman on a local delivery crew and was 
required to wear rain suits to keep the wind at bay. He said before they 
had radios, a 4-man crew faithfully delivered long cuts of box cars. They 
had to ride on top of the cars to relay signals back to the locomotive. The 
man nearest the locomotive and engine was the "Jack Man" who gave signals 
to the engineer; there was the "Middle Man" and the "Field Man" who was on 
the last car. I say the "Jackman, "Middle Man" and "Field Man" were real 
"couriers who kept their appointed rounds".

Time top pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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