"Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren"

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Jan 28 08:19:36 EST 2010


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Birthday card for
Virginian Brakeman and Conductor Ken McLain. Ken spent most of his time
with the VGN RWY at Sewalls Point, and after the merger in 1959, felt that
the N&W was not for him, so he went to work for GE. Ken is our "joke man"
and supplies written Internet jokes for the Brethren to enjoy at each
session. He and his wife own several properties and Ken spends most of his
time "looking after his rentals". "Mac" turned 83 on Monday.

Recently I got an email from John Walker, Jr. of Norfolk, VA whose father
"Johnny" Walker was a VGN machinist at Princeton. He was interested in
where to find a G-4 T-Shirt, and I told him about our shirt man, Dal Cook
of Lexington, NC. John grew up and went to school with our own Lloyd Lewis
and was in the same Scout Troop. John remembered "watching the Railway
Express workers unloading and loading stuff to and from the train to the
express building". None of the Brethren knew VGN Machinist "Johnny" Walker.

Passed around was the last two Roanoke Chapter NRHS newsletters, "Turntable
Times". The Nov-Dec issue highlighted a tribute to Elbert Miller who passed
away Thanksgiving and an article by Kenney Kirkman "N&W takes over VGN
Anniversary". The Jan-Feb issue has a photo of the old N&W station at Paint
Bank on the cover. Also passed was a Wharton Separk photo off railpictures
of an original Norfolk Southern train re-routed through Raleigh 10-14-73 on
the old Seaboard Coast Line.

There has been a lot of discussion on this and the N&W site recently about
"comsumption" and TB. Gibby Davis remembered when the TB Sanitarium was
built at Catawba, VA in 1952. Gibby said "I've got a shed built from the
lumber used for the concrete foundation at the Catawba Sanitarium". He
recalled the old Catawba Valley Line right- of-way which is now part of
State Route 311 which goes from Salem over the Catawba Mountain to the
Sanitarium. "For a long time, the N&W brought coal for the hospital to the
end of their spur at Thompson Memorial Drive and transferred it at their
tipple to trucks to take it over the mountain".

I brought my latest Antique Shop purchase for "Show and Tell". It is a
foundry pattern that was used to make Virginian Railway Trust Plates, two
at a time. I have posted a photo of this unique VGN artifact on this site
under "Skip's Photos". I wondered where the VGN actually made these plates.
I contacted Russell McDaniel who told me that the VGN did not have a
foundry in Princeton. Some of the Brethren suggested that they were
possibly made in the Walker Foundry in Roanoke. Anyone out there have any
information on where these Trust Plates may have been made, using my pattern?

The ebay report this time includes the following: 1945 VGN Timetable for
$27.05; 1913 VGN pass for $15.50; Slide of VGN Steam engine and an Atlantic
and Danville box car $22.72; Slide of EL-2B #127 went for
$29.99, and a 1948 VGN Annual Report sold at $23.49.

Wis Sowder brought old newspaper clippings showing two Roanoke County
Sheriff's Deputies being killed by moonshiners with photos of the corpses
still in the police car. The chase probably crossed the Virginian Railway
tracks at Jefferson or Franklin in Roanoke on their way to the "Wettest
County in the USA"...Franklin County, VA.

The "Jewel from the Past" like one in VGN Yardmaster Rufus Wingfield's 21
jewel Elgin, B. W. Raymond that he got for $35 and a pint of "Three
Feathers Whisky" is from April 1, 2004: VGN Clerk Jimmy Whittaker "told of
a Virginian employee using his wife's annual pass to transport her (in her
casket) from Roanoke to Princeton in a VGN box car". Russell "Slick" Inge,
VGN Trainmaster said "the Virginian Railway routinely carried caskets for
no charge".

Frank Breedlove, VGN Brakeman and Conductor always has colorful comments
for our waitress, Princess. He was discussing his order of Captain Morgan
shrimp when I asked a question that our friend Bob Cohen sent me recently:
What disease did the "cured" ham once have? Without any hesitation, Frank
replied "It must have been Swine Flu!"

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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