"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Aug 13 08:19:44 EDT 2009


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin Twenty" with eight of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday Card for
Tom "Cornbread" Victory, VGN Conductor, who will be 86 this Sunday. We also
signed a Happy Anniversary card for Russell and Luella McDaniel who just
celebrated their 67th year of marriage. Mr. McDaniel was Master Mechanic at
Victoria when the VGN/N&W merger went into effect. He retired as Manager
Motive Power and Equipment with N&W and is a "regular" at "Takin Twenty".

Making the rounds was a photo I got from "railpictures" showing a female
Norfolk Southern Conductor of NS P20 at East Durham Yard on August first.
VGN Clerk Glen McLain said "that's something the Virginian certain ally
didn't have!" To see her photo go to:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=292782

I reported to the Brethren about last Saturday's Lynchburg Rail Day where
the old Virginian was remembered in many ways including slides, books, and
model trains. I represented Friends of the Virginian Railway and the
Roanoke Chapter NRHS at a table and was able to "meet and greet" a lot of
rail fans including five who regularly read this report.

One of the "Takin Twenty" readers I met was George Weber, editor of "The
Rail", outstanding newsletter of the Winston-Salem Chapter NRHS. He
recently followed a train from the old Southern on to the New Connection
(NS former VGN) at Hurt, VA and on to Roanoke. He asked me to check with
the Brethren about two questions: 1. Back in the days of the VGN and SOU,
what types of loads would the VGN or SOU run between Greensboro and
Roanoke? 2. Did each have trackage rights on the other? Rufus Wingfield,
yardmaster at Roanoke and Raymond East, VGN engineer who grew up in nearby
Altavista answered George's questions. Ruf said "that there was no sharing
of trackage rights". Raymond remembered that the Southern had a diesel
locomotive assigned to Hurt for transfers to the Virginian and Virginian
back. Wis Sowder, VGN Clerk who worked at Altavista remembered that the SOU
diesel "ran all night". They all spoke of SOU Conductor Frank Ingram who
was in charge of the transfers. Frank had an accident and worked with only
one arm. The Brethren remembered there were many coal hoppers (mostly
empty) transferred as well as cedar chests from the Lane Factory in
Altavista and Wis recalled some tank cars were transferred from SOU to VGN
for Lane Furniture. Of course there were also many box cars containing
various freight shipped on to Roanoke.

Also passed around was an item that I got at the work day last week at the
N&W (and VGN) Historical Society Archives. It is a photo of a German State
Railway container car. The 3 containers were transported to and from the
railroad siding by a specially constructed truck, which has a mechanical
arrangement for handling them. The photo was taken in 1951! I also found
some old Pullman Company drawings of Virginian passenger and club cars. The
passenger car had ladies bathroom (Saloon) on one end and men's Saloon on
the other. On the men's Saloon end, there was a 17' 6" smoking compartment
separated from the 43' 9" coach section with swinging doors. The club car
drawing showed an observation room with magazine racks and storage for 6
"camp chairs" and a 19' dining room with tables to seat 18. The kitchen had
a gas range, ice box, silver drawers, garbage chute (to ???), sinks, 3
gallon hot water tank, vegetable bins under sinks, and dish racks above the
refrigerator that was iced from the roof.

We talked about the upcoming October 3, annual Gathering of Virginian
Railway Veterans at Victoria. The Roanoke Chapter NRHS donated the #90500
former VGN G5 gondola that is now in the Rail Park in Victoria on
"Roundhouse Rails" and will be "spiffed up" for the October third, 100 year
celebration of the town of Victoria.

I showed the Brethren a sign in the N&W (and VGN) Archive bathrooms
("saloons?"): OUR AIM IS TO KEEP THIS BATHROOM CLEAN! GENTLEMEN YOUR AIM
WILL HELP. STAND CLOSER. IT'S SHORTER THAN YOU THINK! LADIES PLEASE REMAIN
SEATED FOR THE ENTIRE PERFORMANCE!

Really time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon




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