"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 them my photo of
last Sunday of the Norfolk Southern Steam Excursion from Winston-Salem,
NC to Roanoke at the Starkey, VA crossing. Landon Gregory was a car host
on the rear car and explained why the train was late to Boones, Mill:
"they were 'nursing' a heated bearing". The old Southern 2-8-0 #630 lead
the train on her way to the Star City. Tickets for this trip were sold
to the public and this weekend, NS will run the same train for active NS
employees, on Saturday and Sunday. Both days, morning and afternoon
trains will travel to Walton,VA and return. There will be many photo
opportunities on the Christiansburg District this weekend for you steam
lovers. I will work the Sunday trains.

Also passed around were photos of the latest painted EMD SD 70ACe
Norfolk Southern Heritage locomotives: #1070 Wabash; #1071 Jersey
Central; #1072 Illinois Central; #1073 Penn Central and #1074 Lackawana.
All of the Heritage units will be in Spencer at the North Carolina
Museum of Transportation next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. This is for
the celebration anniversary of 30 years for NS and 236 years for our Nation.

The Jewel from the Past is from February 23, 2006: "I finally found out
how 'Slick' Inge got his nickname. Seems while playing football at
Victoria High School, Inge was put in on a third and goal play as a
halfback. Using the single wing formation, the center mistook the small
framed Inge for the tailback and centered the ball to him. It was a
'busted' play, but Inge said 'a hole opened up and I just took the ball
into the end zone'. Fans there that night in the 30s said it was 'the
slickest thing they had ever seen' and now you know ...the rest of how
'Slick' Inge got his nickname.

The ebay report this time includes the following Virginian Railway items
sold: 1943 Operating Rule Book for $76.00; Wiley and Wallace "The VGN
Railway Handbook" for $28.06; Slide of #134 at Princeton in 1958 for
$47.00; Slide of #113 at Mullens in 1957 for $46.00 and a copy of H.
Reid's "The Virginian Railway" for $55.99.

Also passed around was the May-June "NS-BIZ" which highlights the use of
old steam and early diesel brass and bronze bells now used as Safety
Awards to Shops who excel in their Safety efforts. The bells are stored
and made into presentation awards in Roanoke Shops.

I told the Brethren about the progress at the Virginian Station
Restoration and about the Roanoke Chapter NRHS receiving a grant for the
project this year for $93,000. Phase I is on schedule to be completed
next month and work on Phase II, the interior, parking and grounds is
progressing.

For Show and Tell, I took my latest Virginian Railway find: a
Maintenance of Way VGN brown water jug marked "VIRGINIAN". A good friend
of mine sold it to me last Saturday. He purchased it in Princeton. I
also told the Brethren about discovering several missing VGN AFEs about
C-1 cabooses and extentions of sidings, that will be added to the N&W
(and VGN) Historical Society Archives at the next work session. My good
friend John McDaniel is making them available to me for copying.

Landon Gregory gave the group a report on the N&W (and VGN) Historical
Society Convention in Lynchburg last week. He told of Aubrey Wiley's
Saturday night presentation about the VGN and of our good friend Louis
Newton receiving the Society's "Precision Transportation Award".

Then there's this: After a two year long study, the National Science
Foundation announced the following results on corporate America's
recreation preferences: The sport of choice for unemployed or
incarcerated people is Basketball. The sport of choice for maintenance
level employees it Bowling. The sport of choice for front line workers
is Football. The sport of choice for supervisors is Baseball. The sport
of choice for middle management is Tennis and the sport of choice for
corporate officers is Golf. Conclusion: The higher you are in the
corporate structure, the smaller your balls become!.

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDXXVI

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