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

Thu Nov 13 10:18:33 EST 2014

I like the Confederate DXXXXI numerals better.....
Skip
---- NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote: 

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Shouldn’t 541 be DXLI?

EdKing

From: NW Mailing List 
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2014 7:35 AM
To: NW Mailing List 
Subject: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

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  "Down by the N&W Depot" by Ken and Tim Hensley has many previously unpublished photos, drawings and details of the Norfolk and Western stations and  its predecessors (some VGN) stations through 1964.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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SKIP SALMON