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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Aug 19 08:28:41 EDT 2010




Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. For "Show and Tell" I
showed the Brethren a Brian J. Hadley photo off railphotos.net of what
happens to a coal hopper when too much horsepower is applied at the
wrong time. To see this photo go to:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=334596

Yesterday on my way to "Takin' Twenty" I visited Rufus Wingfield who is
at home suffering from pneumonia. He was feeling OK enough to review the
photo of South Yard, taken from the Franklin Road Bridge showing all of
the various yard tracks in the VGN Roanoke Yard, that we have discussed
before. He had given me the track designations and I wanted to verify if
I had the numbered tracks labeled correctly. I have posted this photo on
this site in the photo section under "Skip's Photos". The following is
the identity of each numbered track in the photo. A1:VGN Main Line
(farther est track on the left); 1-8:Yard Storage Tracks; 9:Running
Track; 10:Outgoing Engine Track; 11:Outgoing Motor Barn Track; 12:East
#3 Track; (note there was no East #4) 13:East #5 Track; 14:East #6
Track; 15:East #7 Track; 16:Ingoing Motor Barn Track; 17:Coal Tipple
Track; 18:Ingoing Engine Track; 19: Shop Track #1; 20:Shop Track #2;
21:Shop Track #3; 22:Shop Track #4; 23:Shop Track #5; 24:Shop Track #6;
25:Coach Track and 26:Baker Track for unloading automobiles.

I told the Brethren about recently visiting the Farmer's Market in Salem
and buying some peaches from VGN clerk Wis Sowder. He also had a very
large tub of sweet green grapes on display. I picked one to give it a
"taste test" when a nice lady told Wis "I'll take the whole tub". Seem
that she was making wine and these VGN raised "Niagra" beauties were her
favorite type, for this year's vintage.

Last week at the N&W(and VGN) Historical Society Archives Work Day, VGN
and N&W Accountant Horace McPherson made a visit. Seems that Horace was
the donor of most of the Society's Virginian Annual Reports...he told us
that he actually edited the last one in 1958. He said that the now
famous EL-2B posing at Eggleston had to be re-cleaned after coming
through a nearby tunnel. He also said that the ballast in the photo was
carefully raked and manicured for the shot. I sat down with Mr.
McPherson and taped about 45 minutes of an interview. Horace rode the
last VGN#3 from Norfolk to Victoria and the last VGN#4 from Victoria
back to Norfolk. He told several stories about working in the VGN
Accounting Department in the Union Station in Norfolk, and working his
way up to Assistant Vice President in the N&W Accounting Department in
Roanoke. My favorite sentence from the interview: "The Virginian was so
tight that if you needed a new one of those VGN eraser-less pencils, you
had to turn in the 'nub' of an old one to get it". This interview will
become part of the data stream in the restored VGN Station in Roanoke,
when it is completed.

The Jewel from the Past is from August 19, 2004: "A discussion of the
'best' locomotives on the VGN created these statements: Rufus
Wingfield's champion was 'those 500s(BA 2-8-4)that really 'walked the
dog' on trains #71 and #72. Jimmy Whittaker liked the big AG 900's best.
Walter Grigg said that the 'EL-2Bs belonged to me and I treated them
like they were mine'. Walter told of going from his home in Jarratt to
Alberta (Seaboard Coast Line diesel territory) once in the early 40s
'just to see what a diesel locomotive actually looked like'".

There was a discussion about an article in Wednesday's "Roanoke Times"
"Group supports tax cut for railroads". This was about an $8 Million
dollar tax credit to "bolster freight railroads". The "BlueGreen
Alliance said increased investment in freight railroads will create
needed new jobs, conserve oil through a reduction in truck traffic and
in turn reduce air pollution". "Scotty" said that the only green
projects he ever saw in South Yard were "the bananas in those ice cars".

"Gibby" Davis told the group about visiting Victoria this week and
looking for his Mother's "white house" just beyond where the old VGN
Roundhouse was located. He could not find any information but several of
the Brethren suggested that when we go there for the Virginian
Gathering, the last Saturday in October, Greg Elam will probably know
exactly where the house was located. "Gibby" also told of hearing about
a fellow stopping at a store north of Princeton once, and asking the
elderly gentlemen who were sitting outside "How far is it to Mullens
from here?". One of the 'weathered' gentlemen answered "Well if you
continue in the same direction, it is about 24,982 miles; but if you
will turn around and go down that road over there, it's about 18 miles..."

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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