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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We talked about Monday's 
Open House at the NS Shaffer's Crossing Diesel Shop. The Roanoke Chapter 
NRHS safely gave 654 rides in 21 trips from the Diesel Shop west and 
back, on the Chapter's N&W caboose and Jeff Shelton's #514539 N&W 
caboose pulled by the Alco T-6 #41. The Open House was a great success 
with over 1000 attending. It was like a festival, complete with two 
brand new AC diesel locomotives on display (one EMD and one GE), door 
prizes, free food, rail vendors, games for the kids including milking a 
cow. I showed the Brethren a photo I took last Saturday morning when the 
T-6 and N&W caboose were moved out of the 9th Street Yard to Shaffer's 
Crossing. The photo shows them at the Silk Mill lead (serviced by the 
VGN) waiting at the derail for instructions from NS to come out on the 
old VGN. To see this photo go to:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=374032

Last night for "Show and Tell" I brought for the Brethren to see, one of 
the "crew kits" that I was given from the EMD SD70ACe 4300 HP locomotive 
on display at the Open House. This kit contains a toilet seat cover, 
paper towels, toilet paper, large plastic bag, custom lens wipe, 
grime-free antibacterial skin cleaner, 2 anti-microbial alcohol hand 
wipes and 2 giant moist towelettes. This is a far cry from what the VGN 
supplied their locomotive crews. Russell McDaniel told me that the VGN 
supplied a water bucket before diesels and a water cooler with cups 
after. Later paper towels were added.

Passed around was the October "Trains" magazine. Several articles were 
discussed including the faster fueling systems of diesels now. Current 
refueling is done at an average rate of 350 to 450 gallons per minute. 
The new SpillX System, similar to what is done with jet aircraft, 
refuels at an advertised rate of 600 gallons per minute. Also in this 
"Trains" are articles about positive train control, CSX success, and how 
Japanese craftsmen still hand-hammer the aluminum nose cones of their 
high speed locomotives. Also on page 64 is a question about N&W running 
road engines "long hood first".

The Jewel from the Past is from June 9, 2006: "I brought a copy of 
'Norfolk Southern World' of September/October 1983 that had an article 
'The EL-C will electrify Roanoke Museum crowds'. Kent Womack, former VGN 
engineer on the EL-Cs commented: 'The EL-
Cs were some of my favorite locomotives. They were like nice racehorses. 
You couldn't beat them for handling tonnage at faster speeds. I'm glad 
one of them has come back to Roanoke'". If only that could be said of 
the AGs, BAs, Pacifics, or Trainmasters!

The ebay report this time includes the sale of these VGN items: Negative 
of 4-6-2 Pacific in Roanoke May 1955 for $34.53; VGN RWY tall globe for 
$127.49; H. Reid book for $39.00; Photo of 2-8-2 #507 in Roanoke in 1957 
for $22.00; Oil Can with VGN tab for $168.17; Tall globe lantern marked 
"V RY" in bad condition for $271.66; and a VGN RWY "Special Agent" badge 
with "Wiley Adams" on it for $249.00.

Then there's this: Clarence lived across the Guyandotte River from 
Elwood and Louise. Clarence and Elwood had never met, but over the years 
developed a dislike for each other. They were yelling across the river 
at each other all the time. Elwood would yell to Clarence, "If I had a 
way to cross this river, I'd come over there and beat you up good!" 
Finally the state built a bridge across the river right there by their 
houses. Elwood's wife, Louise says "Now is your chance. Why don't you go 
over there and beat up on Clarence like you said you would?" Elwood 
started for the bridge, but saw a sign on the bridge and stopped to read 
it, then turned around and came back home. Louise asked "Why did you 
come back?" Elwood said "I think I changed my mind about beatin' up 
Clarence. You know, when I yell at him from across the river, he don't 
look so big. But they put a sign on that bridge that says "Clarence is 
10 feet 5 inches".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCLXXXIV

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