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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Sep 9 08:21:41 EDT 2010




Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with seven of the
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. I passed on to the
Brethren that I got a response about last week's report from Robert
"Little Abner" Glass, VGN clerk. He reported that he was the "treasurer
of the first VGN Federal Credit Union in Roanoke". Since Landon Gregory
was a member of this credit union in Norfolk, does anyone out there know
if this service was available on the west end of the VGN?

I spoke to the Brethren again about any experiences they remember about
the Fairbanks Morse H24-66 Trainmasters for Frank from Cleveland. W. W.
Scott recalled the steep ladders that had to be used to get on board
one. He said that after the merger when switching with one of the slugs
made from a Trainmaster, a brakeman was killed while riding on the steps
when the Clarence was too tight on an entrance into an occupied track.
Landon Gregory remembered as dispatcher, that the "VGN road crews loved
them". I worked on most of these in Roanoke Shops when they were still
running after the merger and when we made remote-powered slugs out of
them. Each of these slugs required approximately 35 cubic yards of
concrete for ballast. Seems that every one of the concrete truck drivers
asked the same question: "you want the concrete IN that engine?"

There was a lot of discussion about the special train that NS is making
up of double stacks to officially open the Heartland Corridor Project
this afternoon, at Cowan Tunnel at the Radford Arsenal. Mr. Wick Moorman
will be kicking off this event. For you VGN fans, it will be directly
across the New River from Whitethorne.

The ebay report this time includes these VGN items: 1956 Norfolk
Division Timetable for $56.57; "Virginian in Color" for $33.61 ("bargain
of the day");Several slides of VGN: #907 for $10.50; FM #33 for $12.87;
and "Dixie" for $13.49.

The Jewel from the Past is from September 9, 2004: "It seems that the
policy on the VGN was to tolerate hobos. 'Slick' Inge remembered once
seeing one riding between the tender and baggage car of a passenger
train. At Slab Fork Bridge 'Slick' was making a cut at 4 AM, when
someone said 'Boss, ain't this car goin' to Page?' He also said that
many times he would see whole families riding. The deputies would get $3
and the Justice of the Peace would get $3 for each hobo taken off
trains, so there were a lot of confrontations".

Yesterday I spoke to Raymond East, VGN hogger, who is home sick. He was
impressed when I told him about NS purchasing some more Progress Rail
PR43C diesel locomotives. Progressive Rail (bought out EMD)uses
Caterpillar engines in these 4300 horsepower locos. Raymond really liked
the arrangement of power used on these beauties. When the power is first
applied, the 700 hp C-18 engine is used in notches one through three.
When the throttle is moved to notch #4, the 700 hp engine is taken off
line and the 3600 hp C175 is "turned loose". When more power is needed
and notches 7 & 8 are used, the 700 hp engine is added back to the mix
for the rated 4300 hp.

Passed around was the Monday's "Roanoke Times" "100 years ago today"
article which had three "snippets" involving the two Roanoke rail lines
in 1910: (1) "Intoxicated by free feeding of corn mash from the tanks of
refuse at the Casper distillery, a horse, fell yesterday near the hack
stand at the crossing of Jefferson street and the N&W tracks, and lay in
a drunken stupor some time". (2) "The Mill Mountain Incline Company
received yesterday six beautiful Angora goats from the Norfolk & Western
farm at Ivor, VA. The object in securing the goats is to clear the
undergrowth on the mountain. They will eat anything there but rocks".
And my favorite(3)"A train crew on the Virginian Railway saw the Mill
Mountain searchlight against the sky while forty miles east of Roanoke
last night" (the crew would have been near Leesville).

I encouraged the Brethren and now I am asking you: Please fly the US
Flag this Saturday to remember those who were killed nine years ago when
our enemies flew two planes into the Twin Towers in New York City, one
into the Pentagon, and were rebuked in PA. Remember, YOU AND I WERE ALSO
ATTACKED, September 11, 2001!

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

__._,_.___
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20100909/a3261363/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the NW-Mailing-List mailing list