Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway.  We discussed three different events
on Saturday this week that would be worth attending.  The first is the
auction of Sidney Locke's railroad items, including VGN RWY, in Victoria,
VA at 1801 Main Street.  Auction begins at 9:30 AM.  The second is the
annual train show in Bluefield, WV put on by the Pocahontas Chapter NRHS
this Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday its 9 AM to 5 PM and Sunday, Noon to 5
PM at the Bluefield Youth Center, 1780 Stadium Drive, next to Bluefield
College's Mitchell Stadium in Bluefield.  The third is an open house of the
Norfolk and Western (and Virginian) Historical Society on Saturday from 3
PM to 5 PM at their Jim Gillum Archives, 2101 Salem Ave. Roanoke, VA.  They
will serve pizza and drinks and have videos, archive displays, and members
will give personal guided tours of this facility.  Try to get to one of
these if you can.



Attending with us last night was Jerry Christley, son of VGN Engineer Pete
Christley.  Jerry retired from NS Motive Power Department and is currently
traveling to Utah to be with one of his sons and for medical treatment.
The Brethren remembered his Dad Pete, who was quite the colorful fellow.
Jerry now has 27 grand children and lives in the Poages Mill area of
Roanoke County where our own Wis Sowder is the "Mayor".



For Show and Tell, I took the December 2013 "Trains" magazine.  This issue
is mainly about the Norfolk Southern's "Rat Hole" District in Kentucky and
Tennessee.  Page 5 has a photo of two Conrail E44 (former VGN EL-C)
electrics in 1978 in PA.  The Brethren were touched by page 15.  The famous
fall photo of an NS train coming through the beautiful trees near
Pittsburgh was shown.  This full page ad and photo was dedicated in memory
of NS Dispatcher Rich Borkowski who took the photo.  Rich died September
17, 2013 and the ad was from his friends at Norfolk Southern.



The Jewel from the Past is from September 13, 2007:  "'Slick' Inge
commented on the cab supply situation that I mentioned last week.  He said
at Elmore there was a cab supply man who kept all of the cabooses supplied
and the job was filled from the Clerk's seniority list.  He fondly
remembered one cab supply man, Glen Fortner and yellow fussees as well as
red ones, and added lantern oil to my list.  Landon said when the Brakemen
supplied cabs, they got extra pay".  Russell McDaniel also commented about
the cab supply man and remembered after the merger in 1959 he was surprised
that it was a standard, regular job on the "W" side.



Felix Price, who was a Power Director at the VGN Narrows Power Plant was a
Virginia State Trooper before he hired on the VGN.  He told the Brethren
about several chases and hot Fords he had as a Trooper.  "Of course this
was in the forties when the Troopers and bootleggers had all the best cars".



Then there's this from Gordon Hamilton:  Phunny Sayings:  How does Moses
make his tea? Hebrews it!  I used to be a banker then I lost interest.  I
tried to catch some fog, but I mist.  They told me I had type-A blood, but
was a Type-O.  And my favorite:  England has no kidney bank, but it does
have a Liverpool.



Time to pull the pin on this one!



Departing Now from V248,



Skip Salmon



CDXCVI
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