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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night, on the first Wednesday of 2016, I had the honor of "Takin'
Twenty" with six of the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  We
talked a lot about the recent announcement of the NS gift of the old Belt
Line to the Roanoke Rail group's "Roanoke Southern" for future excursion
rides.  It was announced to the public on Tuesday on local TV when Bev
Fitzpatrick, Director of the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Jeff
Sanders, President of the Roanoke Chapter NRHS, were interviewed.  The
Roanoke Southern will be formed as an LLC or similar identity as a third
party.  The idea is to have a weekend of Railroading fun which would
include visits to O. Winston Link, VMT, N&W Historical Society and Roanoke
Chapter NRHS providing operation of a train ride of about 5 miles over the
old Belt line along the Roanoke River from Franklin Road to near Bridge
Street.  A business plan was submitted to NS several years ago to get this
started and looks like it just may happen in the near future.


We also discussed the recent layoffs of Conductors in the Roanoke area
because of a "slow down in coal traffic".  Also several of the Brethren
mentioned seeing the large number of stored locomotives in the Roanoke
Yard, and hearing about the recent unusual activity in the Bluefield area
indicating a reduction of traffic in the coal fields....


For Show and Tell I took the February 2016 "Trains" magazine.  Page 4 has
Jim Wrinn, editor, telling "Why CP+NS doesn't add up".  He summed it up by
saying "The last time two major railroads merged with dissimilar cultures
we witnessed a collossal failure and collapse in Penn Central". Of course
this brought up the name Stuart Sauders and the Brethren booed!   Page 6
has "Can CP force a merger?"  Page 7 shows a map of the two lines together
and more reasons for merging, or not.  Page 14 has a photo "end of an era"
of Tripple Crown Roadrailer's last regular run into Harrisonburg, PA
on November
16, another bit of sad news.  The Brethren did get a chuckle out of a photo
on page 48 showing a Sperry Rail Services hi-rail ATV when I suggested that
this is the end result of what is today's Sheffield motor car!


Former Virginian Engineer Raymond East has made it through his major
surgery and rehab and was scheduled to go home yesterday.  Thanks for you
prayers.


Then there's this, a great Jewel from the Past:  Ken McLain told a story
about an Amish woman whose horse and buggy was pulled over by a police
officer one day.  He told her that he was not writing a ticket but giving a
warning about a broken reflector on the buggy.  "Oh I will let my husband
know just as soon as I get home," she replied.  "Very well.  Another thing,
Ma'am, I don't like the way that one rein loops across the horse's back and
around one of his testicles.  I consider that to be animal abuse.  Have
your husband take care of that immediately,' the cop instructed.  Later
that day, the woman told her husband about the encounter with the cop.
 "What exactly did he say, dear,' he asked.  "He said the reflector is
broken," she replied.  "No problem, I can fix that in two minutes.  What
else did he say?" he asked.  "I'm not sure...something about the emergency
brake."


Time to pull the pin on this one!


Departing Now from V248,


Skip Salmon


DLXXXIX
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