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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Feb 25 09:52:25 EST 2010


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eleven of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We signed a Happy Birthday
card for William E. "Bill" Turner, VGN conductor who worked on the "W"
before Korea and the VGN after. Bill is 78 today. I also told the Brethren
about the passing of VGN conductor Glendon Lawrence "Mike" Hutchinson, 85,
in Victoria this week. Rufus Wingfield, Wis Sowder, Raymond East and Glen
McLain remembered working with Mike. Ruf said that Mike's Dad, Clarence
Hutchinson, VGN engineer, was quite the "dresser" and he was frequently
seen leaving the Yard Office in a suit and tie after his Roanoke Run.

During the session I passed around several items for the Brethren to
peruse: During a recent work session at the Virginia Museum of
Transportation with their staff, to make suggestions for plans for future
changes at the Museum, Roanoke Chapter Member Rick Rader volunteered to
donate a single beam headlight similar to the 611's original light. Passed
last night was a photo of the single beam light installed in the 611 that
has received "mixed reviews" on web sites. Some really like the change
showing her as she ran on the N&W Passenger trains, but some like the dual
beam headlight required for excursion service. Also passed was a photo
showing that during the recent blizzard in Washington DC, when our federal
government came to a full stop, the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier manned their posts. I showed the Brethren a "Diamond Jubilee
1901-1984 Town of Victoria, VA" plate purchased last Saturday at the C&OHS
Rail Event and Landon Gregory showed about 24 N&W train orders that he
purchased in Clifton Forge after the Show. Several of the train orders were
signed by Landon himself, when he copied them as operator in Crewe in 1971.

In response to a question by Jeff Sanders, I asked the Brethren when they
thought the Virginian Freight House in Roanoke was taken out of service.
Ruf and Landon thought it was about 1957 when the VGN stopped the "less
than a car load" service. Landon recalled about 1956 while working in
Moneta, he observed a single box of shoes delivered to the Station Agent.

Someone remembered when all locomotives had footboards on the front, for
ground men to ride during switching. After several accidents, most roads
including the VGN and N&W, removed these footboards as a Safety precaution.
Ruf said that A. B. "Abbe" Harris was known as the "footboard yardmaster"
because he rode on the footboard of a locomotive most of his shifts. Landon
Gregory recalled seeing "Abbe" riding on the front of locomotives near JK
Tower where S. T. Haley was the "first trick" operator. Landon said that
Haley "never wasted any good water takin' a bath".

The Jewel from the Past is like one from Bill Honeycutt's 1909 factory
Elgin given to him by his engineer grandfather W. A. Honeycutt, who was
hired by the N&W in 1905 and worked on the Pocahontas Division, is from May
20, 2004: "Discussion revealed that the Narrows Power Plant furnished power
for the VGN Electric Locomotives as well as AC 60 cycle power for the
railway offices, yards and facilities all along the line. Therefore, if the
power was down for the Electric Locomotives, all lights and power would be
off for the offices and yards as well.

At the rail event in Clifton Forge Saturday, I also got enough 2010
Virginia State VDOT maps to provide each of the Brethren one.

In this Monday's "Roanoke Times" 100 years ago today: "It was reported in
financial circles today that the Pennsylvania railroad had acquired
sufficient of the stock of the Norfolk and Western Railway company to give
it absolute control of the road". This prompted much discussion by the
Brethren about how the "W" was operated and someone pointed out that the
dividends on the "W" stock kept the Pennsy going.

The ebay report this time includes: VGN date nails from Kenbridge $15.50;
1912 VGN pass for $42.00; 1928 VGN Electrification Booklet $43.00; Negative
for VGN #211 at Princeton in 1954 $36.00; 1961 H. Reid book $49.99; and a
1957 photo of VGN #132 at Matoaka $31.28.

Someone recently emailed me a photo of an elderly gentleman crossing a road
near a "SLOW-GEEZER CROSSING" sign. I couldn't resist showing this to the
Brethren. The first person said, "that looks just like Ruf Wingfield". The
next one said "No, it's "Slick" Inge". After passing it around, the vote
was 4 and 1/2 for Ruf and 4 and 1/2 for "Slick" (Raymond East said that
"the face looks like "Slick" but the body looks like Ruf"). With the score
tied Ronnie Victory arrived at the restaurant. We immediately asked him to
"break the tie". He looked at it and said, "it looks like Ruf but let me
put on my glasses". Then he exclaimed "Nope that's 'Slick' all right".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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