"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Dec 17 08:59:38 EST 2009


Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with nine of the Brethren
and Friends of the Virginian Railway. I showed the Brethren a Thank You
Letter from the Roanoke Chapter NRHS for their generous donation to the
Virginian Station Project in memory of Elbert Miller.

I told the Brethren that Louis Newton recently told me about a Virginian
Railway Section Foreman, east of Roanoke, finishing his shift on November
30, 1959, going home and passing away. This was just minutes before the VGN
passed away and became part of the N&W. None of the Brethren knew of the
story. Anybody out there know anything about this?

A photo was passed around of a brand new CSX Chevy high rail pickup (only
400 miles on the odometer) that was crushed by blown over trees while the
maintainer was repairing a rail joint bond wire somewhere near Parkersburg,
WV. Landon Gregory speculated that it would have caused a derailment if the
incident had happened in front of a moving train. This prompted Scotty to
tell of a VGN yard conductor, Charlie Thacker, who was cutting down a tree
for firewood and it fell on top of his truck. He said Charlie got a lot of
kidding about "cutting up the firewood BEFORE he put it in his pickup".

This somehow caused the Brethren to talk about the consumption of spirits
while working on the VGN. Landon recalled one trainman who was always
eating an orange and feeling good. Seems that he would squeeze the juice
out of an orange replace it with Vodka. Another crew were always drinking
Coca Colas. Their secret was to empty out half of the cola and replace it
with booze. Landon also recalled deadheading a train and it stopped just
past a road crossing at Suffolk. Conveniently, the ABC store was just
across the street. Conductor C. V. Ezelle had a system worked out on
Saturdays when the ABC store closed at 2PM in Victoria. If he felt he his
local couldn't make it to Victoria by 2, he would call Agent Finch at
Alberta and give him a code that cause Finch to purchase 2 "Virginia
Gentlemen" to board at Alberta. Landon said that one of the "gentlemen"
would be wiped out by the time the train got to Victoria.

I showed the Brethren a clip from Monday's "Roanoke Times" from "100 years
Ago Today": "A freight train left Roanoke this morning over the Virginian
Railroad with one hundred and twenty loaded cars. It was a record-breaker".

Also passed around was the latest issue (Nov./Dec.) of "Biz/NS". One
highlight in it is the NS Police security role in the G-20 meeting recently
held in Pittsburgh, with representatives from all over the world. Raymond
East commented that this is really a long way "from the VGN special agent
who could not track an elephant in the snow". Also passed around was my
report on last Saturday's Candy Cane Shifter at the 9th Street Roanoke
Chapter NRHS. We safely gave rides to 188 men, women and children from as
far away as Waynesboro, Huddleston, Martinsville and Abington. About noon,
the NS crew delivered the Chapter's 0-6-0 tank engine EJ Lavino #34 from
VMT to the end of our siding. The Chapter is trading the #34 for the N&W
Mike #1118. After the 8th run of the "Shifter" about 4:30 PM, the #34 was
coupled to the N&W caboose. Our resourceful mechanical department staff
"fired up" the EJ Lavino #34. With oily rags smoldering in the firebox, she
crossed 9th Street on the rear of the Christmas train. The "whishing" sound
of the tank engine's exhaust of cylinders, along with the smoke pouring out
her stack, caused the waiting motorists to think she was pushing the train
under steam power...

I handed out NS pins donated to the Brethren by Bill Honeycutt. Also given
out was the new VGN "Friends of the Virginian Railway" "Takin' Twenty" 2010
calendar.

I shared with the Brethren the following that Rail Photographer "Wizzy"
Strom passed on to me: "If time is a train rollin' down the track, every
minute is a box car that don't come back!".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

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