"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. I showed the Brethren the
latest issue of the N&W (and VGN) Historical Society "The Arrow"
magazine of April/May/June, 2012. On page 2 of the "Talk Among Friends",
the Brethren got a special chuckle out of Dave Stephenson's Archives
Workday Report: "Every month Skip Salmon leads a small, but devoted
group of Virginian fanatics into the back corner of the Archives, where
they exchange secret handshakes, mumble strange words about clanking
side rods and other esoteric stuff, and, to be sure, do great work". To
get instructions about the secret handshake and to hear the "strange
words", send your name and a $50 bill taped to the back of a 1956
Virginian Railway Annual Report, to my home address...By the way
"esoteric" means "covert and mysterious"...I looked it up!

We also talked about some publicity the Virginian Nation got on Monday
this week, when Kevin Kittredge posted a plea on his "Roanoke Times"
weekly column "What's on Your Mind" entitled "'Kumis' is an odd name for
Virginia". This article discussed my quest to find the origin of the VGN
siding name, and he asked his many (106,000 circulation) readers to respond.

The Jewel from the Past is from December 29, 2005: "There was a
discussion about how a bad order car was set out of a long VGN train,
with no radios in use. Some of the Brethren remembered the several trips
needed from the car to the front of the train, or to the top of a car
where the engine could be seen, to give a signal. 'Cornbread' Victory
recalled even opening an angle cock to make a stop during such an
operation".

For Show and Tell, I brought photos of the latest Norfolk Southern
Heritage units. Shown were the PRR tuscan red, Interstate RR and Lehigh
Valley. They seemed to like the Interstate RR the best of the three.
Also shown was the April 2012 "NRHS News" with an article by Charlie
Long about our own Aubrey "Junkman" Wiley on page 13. A photo of
Aubrey's Virginian Sheffield Model 41 VGN #103 Motor Car is shown with
him on board. To see his story of the restoration and its history go to,
and click on WileyRelicGarden: http://vgn109.blogspot.com

I got a lot of response from last week's mention of VGN 1951 purchase of
10 gallons of blue Glyptal paint. At our Armature Room in Roanoke Shops,
we used it, but preferred the red/brown version. Also I remember using a
lot of this shade repairing "flashed" Main Generators and Traction
Motors, as an Apprentice Electrician in the Roundhouse at Shaffer's
Crossing in the early 1960s. I told the Brethren about using some
repairing the VGN Trainmasters too. Also from last week, one of the most
unusual scenes from the VGN DVD that Gordon Hamilton showed us, was of a
VGN #4 passenger train moving in a siding following very close (less
than 50 yards) a west bound moving hopper train. Landon Gregory said
this was a somewhat common practice. "The Operator would give #4 a
Permissive Card in addition to a Clearance Card and Train Order.
Passenger Trains could follow a freight train within 5 minutes of it
leaving the station; Freight trains could follow passenger trains after
a 10 minute wait".

Our friend Jim Cosby sent us this one: A burglar broke into a house one
night. He shined his flashlight around looking for valuables when a
voice in the dark said "Jesus knows you're here". When he heard nothing
more, after a bit, he shook his head and continued. Just as he pulled
the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he
heard "Jesus is watching you". Freaked out, he shined his light around
frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner
of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. "Did you day
that?" he hissed at the parrot. "Yep" the parrot confessed; then
squawked, "I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you". The
burglar relaxed. "Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?" "Moses"
replied the bird. "Moses?" the burglar laughed. "What kind of people
would name a bird Moses?" "The same kind of people who would name a
Rottweiler Jesus!"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDXVII

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