"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. We discussed the Groundbreaking for
the Passenger Station last week. I showed two photos given to me from the
event. One showed some of the Brethren who attended: Frank Breedlove,
Raymond East, Landon Gregory, Gordon Glenn and Bill Turner. The second was
of my reading the names of those Brethren who have taken the westbound
since the project started. Also shown was as article from the March 2012
"Blue Ridge Dispatcher" showing the "turning of dirt". Thanks to the
Lynchburg Chapter NRHS editor Garland Harper, and Rick Johnson, president,
for this, and for their support of the Station project.

Recently I was given a box of "Operation Lifesaver" baseball caps with an
NS logo on the back, and each of the Brethren was given some. For Show and
Tell, Wis Sowder brought a 1934 Roanoke telephone book. We checked out the
"Virginian Railway" and found these numbers: Freight Station: 1530;
Roundhouse: 1534; Ticket office: 4507; Yard Office 937. Salem Passenger
Station was 105. I took a "BAGGAGE" sign recently rescued from the debris
at the Virginian Station. This one will go well with the "NO SMOKING" sign
I bought several years ago, that also once abided on the Station walls. I
have posted a photo of this sign on "Skip's Photos" on this site, along
with the VGN standard drawing of signs.

I passed on to the Brethren what I found lately about the origin of
"KUMIS". At the N&W (and VGN) Historical Society Archives last week, I
checked all the Tidewater RWY deeds for property bought in the area and
found no mention of the name. One source told me since "kumis" is a
fermented mare's milk drink, popular in western Asia and Hungary, and since
there were some Hungarians who helped build the Tidewater Railway, there
might be a connection here. Last Saturday I visited the old big brick house
next to the siding at Kumis, and talked to the new owners. They bought the
house, which had been vacant for some time, in 2002 and have restored it.
On their Florida Room porch, they have displayed a board found during the
restoration with "Frank B. Thomas, Kumis, VA." written on it. Mr. Thomas is
the son of the man who sold the land to the Tidewater Railway. The new
owners have a horse farm there now appropriately named "Iron Horse Farm".
They said when they purchased the house, the realtor gave them a large
discount "because the house faces the railroad". I told them I have friends
who would pay extra because of that!. More on Kumis later.

The Jewel from the Past is from December 8, 2005: "I showed the Brethren a
photo I took recently at the Yellow Sulphur Resort near Christiansburg, VA.
When the VGN whistle stop station was removed at V276.3 (just east of the
Merrimac Tunnel), the "Yellow Sulphur" sign was relocated, and is now on
the Resort's Hotel, built in 1810. 'Slick' Inge recalled there was a family
who lived at Yellow Sulphur with a lot of kids. The kids would holler
'Cigarettes' at the passing crews. The Squareheads were going only 14 MPH
and the crews would throw off cigarettes and the rear end crews would pass
to see the teens 'puffing away'".

The ebay report of VGN items sold this time includes: VGN 6/1/43 Operating
Rule Book for $34.56; "Pocahontas Coal Carrier" by Richard Prince for
$82.00; Rare 1909 VGN Public Timetable for $108.29; VGN RWY Scales for
$49.00; VGN Timetable #17 May 20, 1934 for $62.17; 1955 Passenger Train
Slide for $66.65; and a 1956 VGN RWY Coal Mine Directory for $68.00.

To answer questions form Patrick Johnson, the VGN Squareheads did not have
toilets. Russell McDaniel said the crews "were on their own", and sometimes
answered Nature's call from the running board. Also the Squareheads did
have windshield wipers. I found VGN drawing 523-C showing the manually
operated wipers that wiped half of the window. Greely Wyatt said they were
just like those on a Ford Model-T.

Frank Breedlove told this one: Two boys discovered a large hole in the
ground beside the VGN tracks. After throwing several rocks in it, and not
hearing them hit bottom, they decided to throw in something bigger. They
spotted a crosstie in the bushes, and proceeded to throw it in.
Immediately, a goat jumped in after the crosstie. A farmer came by at that
time and asked the boys if they had seen his goat. They said "Yes, he
jumped into that hole over there". The farmer replied, "that couldn't have
been my goat, he is tied to a crosstie in the bushes somewhere around here".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDXI

__._,_.___
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20120315/2d5192e6/attachment.html>