"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. Most of the conversation 
was about our road trip last Saturday to Mullens for the dedication of 
the VGN Ellett-style station as a visitor center, and named for our good 
friend Jack Feller. We saw a lot of old friends from the Virginian 
Nation and were able to present a donation from the Roanoke Chapter NRHS 
to Dewey Houck's Rural Appalachian Improvement League. Attending from 
our group were Greely Wyatt, Landon Gregory, Jeff Sanders and yours 
truly. I have posted several photos of the event on this site under 
"People". Frank, I'm working on your request, and Lloyd, the chinquapin 
crop is gone down here for this year.

Speaking of pictures, I passed a photo my good friend Casey Thompson, 
Norfolk Southern photographer, took last Sunday near Arcadia, VA of the 
NS 30th Anniversary Heritage Train. It consisted of the Roanoke Chapter 
NRHS GP30 #522, Conrail GP30 #2233 and Southern GP30 #2594 with 10 brand 
new Roanoke-built FreightCar America coal hoppers and Jeff Shelton's N&W 
Caboose. To see the outstanding photo go to:
http:/www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=378854

The Virginian connection to this photo is that at the time of the merger 
in 1959, VGN had set aside trust money to purchase more EL-C electrics. 
After the merger, N&W used this money to buy GP30s instead. I have 
posted the Heritage GP30s posing behind the Motive Power Building last 
Friday on this site under "Skip's Photos". Several of the Brethren 
worked in the Motive Power Building in Roanoke.

The Jewel from the Past is from July 21, 2005: "Keith Sowder came to the 
meeting minus his' choppers'. He said that Sunday, he got something 
under one plate and took them out, and wrapped them up in a a napkin. 
After some 'socializing', he cleaned up and the teeth got thrown away 
with some other napkins. He figured the 'one-armed bandit' trash truck 
picked them up on Monday. They were then carried to the transfer station 
east of Roanoke Shops and the next day NS Trash Train V60 carried them 
to the NS Bradshaw Spur, west of Layfayette and Ironto to the landfill. 
Keith said 'At least they took their last ride on the old Virginian'".

For "Show and Tell" I took a 12/1/1905 Deepwater Railway ticket stub 
that was given to me by good friend Jim Frank who gave it to me in 
Mullens last Saturday. Jim also showed all those attending a trunk full 
of Virginian artifacts including several rare VGN locks, keys, signs and 
rule books. Also shown was last Sunday's "Roanoke Times" Invitation for 
Bids for Phase I: Stabilization/Restoration of the Virginian Station in 
Roanoke". If all goes according to plan, we will pick a contractor for 
this job Tuesday, November 22, 2011...

During our ride last Saturday to Mullens, Greely Wyatt, who was 
electrical foreman, electric locomotive expert, champion beagle breeder 
and trainer, as well as City Councilman of Mullens in the 40s and 50s, 
told us many stories that I will pass on to you. Greely started his 
career in Mullens in 1945 as a call boy when he had to "roust" crew 
members during all types of weather. Here's one of his stories: Greely 
told us about a burley fellow he worked with on the VGN, who was known 
for his quick temper and radical responses to situations. Once on a 
Friday afternoon, he had to pick up a few items at the local grocery 
store. When he approach the check-out, the lines were long, except for 
the "10 items or less" line. He immediately got into that one. When it 
was his turn, the clerk quickly counted his groceries and told him "Sir, 
you'll have to move to one of the other lines, you have eleven items". 
This set him off and he immediately picked up a can of soup from his 
basket and "hurled" it back into the aisles. "COUNT'M AGAIN, he said...

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCXCI

__._,_.___
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20111027/caa21e93/attachment.html>