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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the
Virginian Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  As usual we had a
large crowd in our area and we talked of the day's news and events.


 For Show and Tell I took the March 2017 "Trains" magazine.  This issue was
mostly about the "troubled industry".  Page 15 "The 'forgettable' year for
railroading" told of the loss of freight traffic by the six major lines.
Fortunately Norfolk Southern lost the LEAST with a 2.8% loss.  To compare,
CSX had 5.7% in 2016.  Pages 26-27 has a great shot of NS empty hopper
train at Glen Lyn, VA.  The  inside rear cover has a shot of NS yard at
Decatur, IL and page 48 has NS intermodal #201 coming out of the south
portal of the Montgomery, VA tunnel.  A lot of discussion in this issue is
about our friend Wick Moorman's first days on the job as president and CEO
of Amtrak.  So far he has gone from 16 senior managers to 6.  Is he
"draining the swamp " at the passenger giant?


 The Jewel from the Past is from July 30, 2009:  " Glen McLain, retired VGN
Clerk and designated joke man brought a great photo of a VGN tender used
with the AGs.  It had 7 axles (one 4-axle truck and one three-axle truck).
These tenders carried 25,500 gallons of water ( about 90 tons) and 25 tons
of coal.  This was about the same load as a G4 can handle!  This prompted
Ruf Wingfield to tell about "14,428".  This was the maximum tonnage that
two Fairbanks-Morse diesel locomotives could pull out of Roanoke going
east.  However, the AG class 2-6-6-6 steam locomotives were limited to 175
loaded hoppers, "regardless of tonnage".  He also said Tidewater coal was
not weighed in Roanoke but at Sewalls Point.  He said  "commercial
non-Tidewater" coal was weighed in Princeton until 1940 and in Roanoke
after 1940.  Ruf said that VGN Conductor Joe Booth once stated that with
one of those 175 car coal trains and one AG, "if a sparrow lit on the cab,
we would stall."


 From last week I got several answers for use on the VGN RWY of a siren.
All got the crane use in major shops but no one could come up with the
second use:  The VGN had a 1957 Pontiac Station wagon that was used for
track inspection by officials and was designated "VGN Motor #1".  It
sported a siren to blow at the crossings, I suppose.  Question for this
week from the General Storekeepers form:  What was a Singer Sewing machine
regularly used for on the VGN?  First correct answer gets a photo of the NS
Heritage unit 1069.


 Don't forget that this Saturday from 10 AM until 5 PM we will be giving
rides on former N&W passenger coach at the VMT "Train Lover's Day".
Unfortunately our SW1 will not have her blue card by Saturday so we will
use Alco T-6 #41 as power.  Come join us if you can.


 Then there's this:  A couple walked into a cheap looking restaurant.  As
they were about to sit down they noticed there were crumbs on the seats.
After cleaning up the seats and wiping down the table they sat down. A
waitress came over and asked them what they wanted.  "I'll just take a
coffee" said the man.  "Me too" said the lady "and make sure the cup is
clean".  The waitress returned with their drinks.  "OK" she said placing
down their cups "now, which one of you wanted the clean cup?"


 Time to pull the pin on this one!


 Departing Now from V248,


 Skip Salmon


 DCXXXIX
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