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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the honor of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We talked about the upcoming annual
reunion of former Virginian Railway employees in Victoria, VA at the Uptown
Coffee Cafe, on the 31st of this month.  We plan to have a delegation
representing the Roanoke area attending.


 A lot of the talk of the night was about the Norfolk Southern news release
this week regarding the upcoming deadline for implementing the Positive
Train Control (PTC) System, nationwide.  NS stated that "effective 12-1-15 NS
will no longer accept loads of Poisonous-Inhalant-Hazard commodities and by
1-1-16 passenger and commuter trains operated by Amtrak, Virginia Railway
Express and Metra."  Actually they expressed that "they will be prohibited
by law from operating on NS after 12-31-15". It was agreed that this is a
ploy to get Congress to extend the deadline for PTC. James Squires, NS CEO
said "NS is committed to getting this right".  One of the Brethren
commented " this is a long way from flagging and train orders..."


 For Show and Tell I took the Oct-Nov-Dec N&W (and VGN) Historical Society
magazine "The Arrow".  This issue covered "Enlarging Honaker Tunnel" and
had very little VGN stuff.


 The ebay report this time includes the following:  Two Marx model red
2-bay hoppers for $132.49; one 10 cent stamp with holes marked "V RY" for
$3.47; and two VGN match books  (one regular and one black and orange) .
The black and orange has "Dispatch with Dependability via Deepwater Bridge
or Deepwater WV with a Pittsburgh , PA address and phone #AT-0418 for $5.69.


 We signed Happy Birthday cards for Jeff Sanders and Dewey Houck.  Jeff is
President of the Roanoke Chapter NRHS and a Friend of the Virginian and
will be 69 tomorrow.  Dewey started his career on the VGN RWY as a Surveyor
and told the Brethren stories of traveling the VGN as a Surveyor and some
hazardous duties at Sewells Point, preparing for dredging.  Dewey will
be 81this
Saturday.


 Gordon Hamilton told the Brethren about his trip to Mullins last week for
an N&W HS Board meeting and staying for the Virginian Gathering at the
State Park nearby.  He especially enjoyed his tour on Saturday of nearby
VGN sites with our great friend and VGN Historian Tom Marshall.  Gordon
agreed with the Brethren that Tom should write a book.......


 The Jewel from the Past is from November 6, 2008:  "Our resident golfer,
Engineer, William Scott, joined us a little late and it was obvious that he
came straight from the golf course with the outfit he was wearing.  Glen
McLain told Scotty 'those pants are so loud, they look like someone shot a
couch, skinned it and made them out of its hide'".


 Time to pull the pin on this one!


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DLXXIX


=============
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20151022/b9c821ef/attachment.html>