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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the honor of "Takin' Twenty" with ten of the Brethren and
Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending with us was Tony Sowder, the
son of VGN Clerk Wis Sowder.  Tony is a Deputy Sheriff in the City of
Roanoke.  We also discussed the upcoming delivery soon of the third member
of the Steam Trinity, the N&W Y6a 2-8-8-2 #2156.  I told the Brethren that
the Roanoke Chapter NRHS tool car (now assigned to J-Class #611) has been
dispatched to St. Louis to help bring her home.  The Brethren agreed,
almost in unison, that when she gets to the VMT, the drivers should be
welded to the rails!  Look for pictures soon of the 2156, 1218 and 611
"together again".



 For Frank and you Squareheads, I spoke to VGN Electric Guru Greely Wyatt
about the VGN ever running four of these side rod clankers at a time.
Plans were originally to use four as a pusher set on Clarks Gap but "we
found out three would do the job just fine".  "Don't recall ever running
four together on the VGN line".  Greely added that once he was starting up
one of the Squareheads (starting station was in the middle with a window).
"I hit the button to the starter ( for phase converter) and was watching
the gauges and operated the pneumatic switch to raise the pantograph and
got no voltage so I let go.  I then touched a cable connection before the
phase converter stopped rolling and my knees started knocking together...it
wouldn't let me go until it stopped".  Note.  Greely never got into the
11,000 line voltage and was not injured.


 The Jewel from the Past is from July 24, 2008:  "Landon Gregory remembered
several times where, as Operator, he instructed VGN road crews to exceed
the hours of service rules (Hog Laws).  According to the Book of Rules,
this is OK when they were blocking public crossings and/or could put a
train safely into a siding to clear for approaching trains.  You learn
something every day...


 For Show and Tell I took the June "Trains" magazine.  Page 60 has an
article about the "611 Back in steam!". Our own Eddie Mooneyham is shown
working on getting her ready.  Page 24 starts a large article (6 pages)
about "Thoroughbred's New Keystone".  This relates to NS and Chicago.  I
also showed the Brethren a photo of the latest state set (Georgia) of
Mother(GP33ECO #4717) and Slug(RP-M4C #648) painted in the wavy green state
scheme.


 Greg Harrod, I will check at the N&W (and VGN) Archives today for a
seniority lists for your J. Arthur and other stuff for next week's report.


 Then there's this:  I was in the Texas Rose bar last night, sitting at the
bar waiting for a beer, when a dog-ugly, big old heifer came up behind me,
and slapped me on the butt.  She said, "Hey sexy, how about giving me your
number."  I looked at her and said, "Have you got a pen?"  She said, "I
sure do."  I said, "Well, you better get back into it before the farmer
notices you're missing."  My dental surgery is on Monday.


 Time to pull the pin on this one!


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DLXII




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