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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Apr 29 08:37:24 EDT 2010


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with 10 of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. Attending the session with us was
Phil McFarland, long time volunteer at the Virginia Museum of
Transportation, who laughed at our corny jokes and added several of his
own personal rail experiences to the Brethren.

One highlight of discussion was yesterday's news announcement that
Norfolk Southern has earned $257 million, or 68 cents per share, the
first quarter of 2010. This is a 45% increase over the first quarter of
2009, despite a 60% increase in fuel prices.

I showed the Brethren an email from Gary Price who works in the NS
Maintenance of Way Department. Gary says that the Old Virginian Railway
Route is now referred to at Norfolk Southern as the "Eastern/Western
Region V-Line". Wonder what old H. H. Rogers would think of this?

For "Show and Tell" I passed around three Virginian artifacts recently
donated to our Archives by my friend John McDaniel. The first is a VGN
RWY Contract with a Grist Mill at Eggleston, VA. It stipulates that "all
buildings must be painted and kept in neat condition by the party of the
second part; neither red nor yellow paint is to be used; the red
interfering with the danger signals and yellow being the Railway
Company's standard color". The second was a letter on VGN stationary
from W. B. Goldblatt, Comptroller to all VGN employees, 12/31/36, about
"The Tax Act accompanying the Railway retirement Act of 1935 purports to
require that there be a deducted 3-1/2% from the wages of each employee
up to $300 per month". The third is an Interstate Commerce Commission
application by the VGN to issue bonds dated October 14, 1948. The
unusual item in this application is the Notorized Seal "The Virginian
Railway Company Incorporated Virginia 1904".

The Jewel from the Past is like one in my cousin Gary Wood's 1951 Elgin
Raymond 21 jewel, 24K case, given to him in 1973 by his Dad, Wilburn
Wood, N&W carman, from June 24, 2004: "'Slick' Inge described a
derailment at Lafayette that was quite unusual. The train came in two
and a tank car actually derailed and went into the Roanoke River. When
the crew inspected the train (that had gone into Emergency) it was dark
and they did not see the tank car in the river. They saw no damage and
reconnected the train, charged the air, made a brake test and proceeded
to the Roanoke Yard. Only then, did the conductor come up one car short.
The next day the tank car was discovered 'wild and wet'".

I told the Brethren about the Roanoke Chapter NRHS sponsoring and
helping with a bus/train trip for about 150 Thaxton Elementary School
students on Tuesday. This trip was an award for the students reading
progress, and allowed them to "Take a Ride on the Reading Train", the
Amtrak from Lynchburg to Charlottesville.

Also passed around were the almost two complete pages from last Sunday's
"Roanoke Times" about the progress of work on the "lost engines of
Roanoke" (3 former N&W 4-8-0- M2 steam locomotives that were stored at
Virginia Scrap Iron since 1950) by Kevin Kittredge. This article also
included ten color photos. It explained work on the 1134 being done by
the Roanoke Chapter NRHS and Will Harris, Goshen lumber man who made all
of the moves. This locomotive is destined for the Railroad Museum of VA
in Portsmouth. The 1151 (Roanoke Shops built) is at the VMT where they
will make restorations, and the 1118 is being restored by, and belongs
to, the Roanoke Chapter NRHS. Leading the 1118 restoration, Gary Wood,
feels that one day this one will "come alive and run on steam". The
Brethren are excited that this much progress has been made so far and
suggested that we recommend Kevin Kittredge for the "pullet surprise".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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