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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with six of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  We sent a get well card to former
VGN Fireman and Yard Engineer Lynwood Gordon Glyn who is recovering from
surgery.


 For Show and Tell I took the Book "Ghost Trains, Images from America's
railroad heritage" by James P. Bell (ISBN-13: 978-0-7858-3083-2).  I had a
friend two weeks ago call me from Barns and Nobel and said he saw my
picture in this book, which is available also from Amazon.  On page 10, I
am handing up orders to the Fireman on N&W #1218 "under steam" (I was
running and the 1218 had fake steam and standing still) and boarding
passengers on former N&W coach 512.  This three day photo shoot was staged
by Peter Lerro and photographers were invited (for a fee) to take part in
the shots staged by the Virginia Museum of Transportation and the Roanoke
Chapter NRHS. One photographer from Japan was fascinated with my Hamilton
992B and took many photos of it.


 The ebay report this time includes the following VGN RWY items sold:  VGN
Annual Reports:  1948 for $20.50; 1950 for $3.94 and 1954 for $16.00; 1918
Annual pass went for $22.50 and a "VGN" marked Ansoma clock sold for
$199.99.


 This Saturday the pride of the N&W steam fleet, the J-class #611 returns
to her birthplace under steam and thousands will be on hand to welcome her
back home to Roanoke.  On Sunday, at the O. Winston Link Museum will have a
recreation of a famous N&W staged.  The J-class #611 will pose with her
also Roanoke-built cousin A-class #1218 and Y6-a class #2156 for photos.
This Big Three of the N&W steam prompted me to consider what might be the
Big Three of Virginian Railway power.  I asked for and got a tremendous
response from VGN fans with 13 different classes of power nominated for the
honor.  After the smoke, steam, diesel fumes, and electric arcs died down,
three emerged as the winners of the Virginian Big Three.  They are VGN
steam AG class #900-907 and electric El-2b 125-128 tied for the most votes
with the Fairbanks Morse Train Master H24-66 #50-74 rounding out the Big
Three.


 The Jewel from the Past is from August 21, 2008:  Raymond East and some
friends recently went fishing on Smith Mountain Lake and brought home a
'mess of bass'.  Raymond's wife, Margaret, was not too happy with the
smell, and used up all of her air fresheners before they got all the fish
into the kitchen.  Cornbread arrived about this time as was heard
commenting:  'Smells like a fish died and all of his friends sent flowers'".


 Then there's this:  For weeks, a six-year old lad kept telling his
first-grade teacher about the baby brother or sister that was expected at
his house.  One day, the mother allowed the boy to feel the movements of
the unborn child.  The six-year old was obviously impressed, but made no
comment.  Furthermore,he stopped telling his teacher about the impending
event.  The teacher finally sat the boy on her lap and said, "Tommy,
whatever has become of that baby brother or sister you were expecting at
home?"  Tommy burst into tears and confessed, "I think Mommy ate it".


 Time to pull the pin on this one!


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DLX
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