"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 Harry Bundy. Harry was an operator for the original 
Norfolk Southern Railway at Tidewater Junction and a personal friend of 
H. Reid. He and H traveled the VGN together and Harry assisted him with 
photographs and finding stories for his famous book. Harry retired from 
the new NS and "Takes Twenty" with us when he can make it through during 
the "Orange Avenue 500".

Attending for the first time was Jerry Christly, son of Pete Christly, 
VGN car knocker. Wis Sowder remembered hearing Pete tell of one night on 
the hoot owl, finding an open door on a box car in the VGN Yard in 
Roanoke. Raisens were falling out the door. During the night, the yard 
crews would "frequent" this car for a quick snack. Only when the sun 
came up did they discover all the worms in the raisens.

The Jewel from the Past is from May 23, 2005: "We talked about Harry 
Bundy's news clipping from 'The Portsmouth Star' giving an account of a 
wreck at Algreen in what was then called Norfolk County, VA. A westbound 
VGN freight ran into a Portsmouth bound Seaboard Airline freight. It 
happened June 17, 1947, when engineer S. H. Kirby, of Victoria, failed 
to stop in time. Landon Gregory and others discussed train wrecks in 
general, and it was concluded that almost always, the dispatcher or 
operator, was blamed for some part of the cause of the wreck, because 
their account of what happened was out numbered by the crew's, five to one".

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was a 1963 post merger 
Constitution for Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers given 
to me by Tom Marshall at last week's N&W (and VGN) Historical Society 
Archives work session. I told the Brethren about several other things 
found at that work session: Looking for information on VGN flat cars, I 
found some interesting facts about the construction of the Station in 
Roanoke. The Roanoke Passenger Station was outfitted with 19 cuspidors 
in the waiting rooms but only three in the Baggage and Express side (not 
much chawing allowed) and 8 "umbrella" shade trees and 2 maple shade 
trees (16 feet tall and 5" at the trunk) were planted.

 >From last week's report about the extra blue flag holder on FM 
Trainmasters and EL-C electrics, I got feedback from several stating 
they could not see them in VGN photos. I looked at the data base and 
searched photos at the Archives and discovered that the extra flag 
holders for blue flags were mounted on the pilot on the engineer side on 
both ends and NOT on the top of the carbody where the others are.

Passed around was a great Travis Dewitz photo showing a deer looking at 
the camera on a main line while the headlights of an approaching train 
is approaching. To see this photo go to:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=368021

The ebay report this time includes the sale of a VGN tall globe only 
etched "VGN Ry" for $87.00; Slide of 4-6-2 #212 for $24.59; Slide of 
EL-2b at Merrimac for $36.00, and a 1935 VGN Stock Certificate for $29.00.

I told the Brethren about getting a letter from VDOT announcing that the 
Virginian Station Project in Roanoke has been awarded another $249,000 
from the Enhancement Program. Bids will be opened next Thursday for 
environmental work to remove asbestos and lead paint which will open the 
gate for construction bidding.

Then there's this: A Missouri farmer in his pickup drove to a neighbor's 
and knocked at the door. A boy about 9, open the door; "Is your Dad 
home?" No sir, he isn't; he went to town". "Well, is your Mother here?" 
"No sir, she went to town with Dad". "How about your brother, Howard? Is 
he here?" "No sir, He went with Mom and Dad". The rancher stood there 
for a few minutes, shifting from one foot to the other and mumbling to 
himself. "Is there anything I can do for you? I know where all the tools 
are, if you want to borrow one, or I can give Dad a message". Well, said 
the rancher, uncomfortably, "I really wanted to talk to your Dad. It's 
about your brother Howard getting my daughter, Suzie, pregnant". The boy 
thought for a moment. "You would have to talk to Dad about that. I know 
he charges $500 for the bull and $50 for the boar hog, but I don't know 
how much he charges for Howard." ;

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXXVI

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