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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy 
Birthday card for one of our "regulars" who never worked for the VGN or 
N&W: Bill Spencer. Bill retired from the US Postal Service in 1981 and 
was dining at the Country Cookin' several years ago when he heard the 
Brethren talk about the VGN. He decided to "get a little closer to the 
conversation" and began to meet with us regularly on Wednesdays, and now 
has his "regular seat". Bill was 85 last night.

I showed the Brethren an email from Delbert Whitlow about the 
possibility of the closing of many post offices in former VGN timetable 
locations such as Slab Fork, McCoy, Glen Lyn, Covel, Glen Rogers, 
Kelleysville and many others. "The next thing you'll hear is that these 
communities have been lost to history, their names eventually disappear 
from the maps". The conversation changes to a question asked by one of 
the Brethren: "What is the largest retailer in the world"? Almost all 
responded WalMart. "Correct, do you know what is the one item in their 
stores they sell the most"? After several guesses such as cereal, 
coffee, electronics, TP, the answer was given: bananas! Of course this 
caused several to start humming a famous Jimmy Durante tune "Yes, we 
have no bananas".

The Jewel from the Past is from May 19, 2005: "Our first timer, Frank 
Breedlove, VGN brakeman, said once a fellow from somewhere in West 
Virginia was transferred to Sewells Point and was assigned the hoot owl 
shift. He was a VGN brakeman and was told to ride the front of a 'cut of 
15 hoppers' and set them off. Frank remembered about 20 minutes later, 
the fellow returned in the dark and said 'Cut me off 15 more. The last 
bunch went into the river'".

Passed around were three current publications for the Brethren to 
peruse: Fall 2011 "Classic Trains", September 2011 "Trains" and N&W (and 
VGN) Historical Society Magazine "The Arrow" for July-September 2011. 
The "Trains" has photos of Norfolk Southern stack trains on the front 
and back covers. Oddly enough, both trains have NS GE Dash 9-40CW #9969 
as the lead unit. What are the odds of this happening?. The "Containers 
through the coal fields" is an excellent article about how NS 
transformed the tunnel-riddled "Pokey" into a new double-stack line. The 
"Arrow" has two VGN articles, Jim Brewer's "VGN AE in O Scale Review" 
and Gordon Hamilton's "The Virginian Rebuilds a Bridge" on Loop Creek 
between Robson and Deepwater, with a dozen color photos. Also in this 
"Arrow" is my "Tales of the Iron Road, Part 5: Miracle at Cold Water" 
about a crossing accident on the last day of the 1978 Strike.

I got a lot of feedback about the Louis Newton color DVD with the last 
(westbound) train under the wires on the old VGN. I am working on 
getting a narration by Mr. Newton to go with it, since there is 
currently no sound. One rare sight I did not mention last week on the 
DVD, is an N&W passenger train being pulled by the rented RF&P E units 
(marked Norfolk & Western) that were used until the N&W "Redbirds" 
diesels were delivered. Also the VGN electric train is seen leaving 
Salem going through Slate Hill Tunnel and passing an EL-2b at, I 
believe, Fagg.

Congratulations to Aubrey Wiley for receiving the prestigious N&W (and 
VGN) Historical Society "H. Reid Memorial Award" at their 2011 
Convention this year, for his recent book and calendars of the VGN RWY.

The ebay report this time includes these recently sold VGN items: Slide 
of EL-C #135 in 1958 at Mullens for $31.01; VGN Date nails for $16.61; 
Negative of VGN 2-6-6-2 #906 in Princeton in 1960 for $38.87 and a Slide 
of EL-C #139 in Mullens in 1957 for $83.78.

Then there's this: Bubba and Johnny Ray were sittin' on the front porch 
drinking beer when a large truck hauling rolls and rolls of sod went by. 
"I'm gonna do that when I win the lottery," said Bubba. "Do what?" asked 
Johnny Ray. "Send my grass out to be mowed."

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXXIX

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