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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Mar 17 07:37:56 EDT 2016


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with four of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. I recalled sometime during the Carter
Administration, I think, there was a shortage of grain hoppers and the N&W
used coal hoppers to haul grain that shipped sent to Russia.  The hoppers
were cleaned and lined with plastic and the grain loaded.  Anybody out
there remember this?  Landon Gregory and Raymond East also recall hearing
about this.  We all wondered if they did this were the hoppers dumped like
coal at Lamberts Point?

The ebay report this time has includes three steel VGN RWY locks for
$64.75, $44.20 and $56.55.  An 18X24 art print of Blue Ridge 2-6-6-6 sold
for $80.00 and a Victoria 1915 post card for $32.05.

For Show and Tell I took a 1983 photo taken from the running board of the
VGN EL-C #135 during her dedication at the Roanoke Virginian Passenger
Station.  RRM's son-in-law sent me the photo.  Giving the keynote address
in a trench coat is our own Russell R. McDaniel, Master Mechanic at
Victoria at the merger. I have placed a copy of this photo on this site
under "Skip's Photos".  Can any of you identify any of the other people in
the photo?

The Jewel from the past, like those in an Hamilton 992, 21-jeweled
"Adjusted for Railroad Service" with a double sunk Montgomery dial, is from
January 15, 2009:  "At the N&W and VGN Archives Work Session while working
on VGN donated papers, I discovered that in 1928, the VGN Engineering
Department had an official position thet paid $195 per month and required a
knowledge of trigonometry, logarithms and track curvatures. It was part of
the Drafting Department and the official position was a "COMPUTER".  So the
VGN had computers long before Bill Gates...

One of the Brethren told us that "Dennis the Menace" turned 65 on Monday.
Raymond East commented that he hadn't aged a bit and wondered if he had
Obama-care?

I told the Brethren about work at the Passenger Station being on time to
finish Phase II.  We decided to use VGN RWY steam locomotive number board
numbers for our address and for the A and B needed for the two buildings,
we will use the "A" and "B" on the class plate drawing for the VGN BA's!

Then there's this:  A woman wakes during the night and finds her husband
not in bed.  She finds him in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and his head
on the table.  She sees him wipe a tear from his eye as she enters.  "Whats
the matter dear?" she asks.  He responds "Do you remember twenty years ago
when we were dating and you were only sixteen"?  She says  "Yes".  "Do you
remember when your father caught us in the back sat of my car making out?"
"Yes". "Do you remember when he shoved that shotgun in my face and said
"Either you marry my daughter or spend twenty years in jail?"  Yes, I do"
she said.  He wipes another tear from his cheek and says, "You know I would
have gotten out today."

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

DXCVIII
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