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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night on a very rainy "flood warning" night, I had the pleasure of
"Takin' Twenty" with five of the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian
Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday for Harry Bundy. Harry was a good
friend of H. Reid, who wrote the "bible" on the Virginian Railway, and
traveled with him many times photographing the old Virginian. Harry is now
very active in the N&W(and VGN) Historical Society and occasionally, when
he can make it through the challenging "Orange Ave 500" to get there,
"takes twenty" with us. Since Harry was a good friend of H. Reid, I feel it
would be fitting that we refer to him from this time forward as H. Bundy. H
turns 75 this Sunday.

I told the Brethren about an incident that happened last week, just before
the big rain storm dropped about 5 inches of water. My bride and censor,
Judi, is one who will NOT tolerate ants. She recently saw a TV ad that sold
a book about home remedies for various situations. One was that if you put
a chalk line in front of where ants were entering an area, they would not
cross it. Friday I observed her in our back yard patio area drawing chalk
lines around almost everything. It looked like an episode of CSI after the
bodies had been taken away. Of course this did not work and I was
dispatched to Lowe's to get the biggest and baddest container of ant spray
they had. Of course the rains came and washed all of that away and I'm off
to Lowe's today for another supply....

The Jewel from the Past is from May 24, 2007: "'Abner' Glass told about the
night of the famous wreck in Phenix on December 2, 1957 when the bridge
fell. He was working as a clerk on the grave yard shift at South Yard when
the operator at JK told him all company communications with Victoria were
out. Glass phoned Princeton and talked with dispatcher Coleman, who said
that there had been a wreck at Phenix. Glass then told of having to
re-route trains to the N&W. He said 'It took two FM units on the lead and
two pushing to get the same train to Victoria on the N&W that normally
could get there with just two pullin'".

I told the Brethren about the big (private) photo shoot at VMT this weekend
that will feature the J 611 and A 1218 with period (1950s) actors and
vehicles. More on this later.

Thanks for all of the response from last week's report about the Lone
Ranger movie. Ernie Hubble, son of Roundhouse Foreman "Red" Hubble said he
worked at the Merita bakery in Roanoke for several years and met his wife
there. He said "I never saw Tonto there but Silver did live in the basement
when he was not at the grocery stores". Several recalled thinking for a
while that the famous masked man was the "LONG Ranger". I was able to go
see the new movie. I enjoyed the train scenes (you won't believe one shot
of a brakeman trying to turn a 'sidewinder' hand brake with no brake
stick). The train wrecks are worth the ticket price and you will see a
steam engine side rod do something amazing. My impression now after viewing
the film is it is entertaining like a "Tom And Jerry" cartoon. I put this
movie in the same category as the new Sherlock Holmes movies....taking one
of my childhood heroes and making a movie about them using steroids...

In the theme of the Lone Ranger movie, there's this: The Lone Ranger went
into a bar for a beer. Just as he took the first sip, a cowboy came in and
asked "Whose big white horse is that outside?" The Lone Ranger says "mine,
what about it"? "He's about to fall over from the heat". The Lone Ranger
goes outside, and Silver is having a problem. He gets a bucket of water and
throws it over him and gives more water to drink. He then turns to Tonto
and instructs him to 'run around Silver to keep the air moving while I
finish my beer'. While the Lone Ranger is finishing his beer, another
cowboy enters the bar and asks "Who's white horse is that outside?" The
Lone Ranger, now a little agitated, responds "Now what's wrong?". The
cowboy responds: "Nothing, you just left your INJUN running!"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDLXXIX

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