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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  Thanks to Jim Cosby for responding
to last week's report, with the following:  "Is this newsletter number 541
or 'DIXIE' (DXXXXI)  in disguise"?


 For Show and Tell I took the Winter 2014 "Classic Trains".  This issue has
photos of the N&W "Wabash Cannon Ball and "Bluebird" from 1965.  Also on
page 19 is an ad for a new book by one of the best "Friends of the
Virginian Railway", our own Ken Miller.  "Down by the N&W Depot" by Ken and
Tim Hensley has many previously unpublished photos, drawings and details of
the Norfolk and Western stations and  its predecessors (some VGN) stations
through 1964.  It is published by Pocahontas Productions.


 The Jewel from the Past, like those in a Hamilton GCT 4992B with 24 hour
(one revolution) black dial is from April 17, 2008:  "For some time now we
have been trying to figure out how the coal trains were routed from the N&W
over to the VGN during the time after president Wilson nationalized the
rails in 1918.  The loaded coal trains went down the VGN and empties came
back from Norfolk on the N&W during this time.  Last Thursday at the work
session of N&W (and VGN) Historical Society, a newly found track chart
answered this question.  The track now known as "Sleepy Hollow" that runs
from the west N&W Yard across Patterson Avenue and parallel to the old VGN
Main line to just west of the Norwich Bridge.  This track is now where
ballast is stored and loaded on to MW dump cars.  The map shows a
connection and switch from "Sleepy Hollow"  to the VGN near the Norwich
Bridge and this is where the N&W coal was transferred to the VGN.  Jimmy
Whittaker recalled this, and Rufus Wingfield, Yardmaster, from his hospital
bed, said he also remembered talk of such a connection"


 From last week's work session at the Archives, Eddie Mooneyham gave me a
Cape Cod NRHS  "Rail Dispatch" with a short bio of Henry Huttleston
Rogers.  "His family soon moved to Fairhaven, where he was a member of the
town's first high school graduating class in 1857.  He became a BRAKEMAN
and EXPRESS MAN on the Fairhaven Branch Railroad, where he worked for three
to four years, saving his earnings".  This led to his building of our
beloved VGN!  Also at the Archives I found a VGN "White Electric Hand
Lantern Payroll Deduction Order" form which authorized the VGN to "deduct
from the amount due me for services rendered the Company, for the _____half
of _____, as a deposit for one White Electric Hand Lantern, the sum of two
dollars, pursuant to agreement dated April 23, 1942, effective June 15,
1942 between the Virginian Railway Company and its Conductors, Trainmen and
Yardmen, represented by the Order of Railway Conductors and Brotherhood of
Railroad Trainmen."


 The ebay report this time includes sold:  #21 8/5/45  New River Timetable
for $66; #23 5/20/56 Norfolk Division Timetable for $50; 1912 Annual Report
for $9.95; Tall Globe Adlake "V.RY" lantern for $134.39 and a VGN cast iron
mechanical brake car plate for $49.99.


 Then there's this:  Three boys are in the school yard bragging about their
fathers.  The first boy says, "My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of
paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50 ".  The second boy says,
"That's nothing, My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls
it a song, they give him $100".  The third boy says, "I got you both beat.
My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and
it takes eight people to collect all the money!"


 Time to pull the pin on this one!


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DXXXXII




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