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

[NW Mailing List]

Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eleven of the 
Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. We talked about the 
current unemployment rates and the fact that Norfolk Southern is now 
hiring new workers. NS' news releases indicate that they need 500 new 
employees in eight states by the end of 2011, to meet the growing demand 
for freight train service and to replace employees retiring in coming 
years. They are hiring conductors, machinists, signal maintainers, 
freight car repairmen, and track workers.

Passed around for the Brethren to peruse was the Fall, 2011 "NRHS 
Bulletin", mostly about western roads. Also passed around was Gordon 
Hamilton's most recent "Bluefield Daily Telegraph" article of 2-28-12 
about a young VGN brakeman being killed when his brake-stick broke, 
causing him to fall in front of a car while he was "dropping" cars in 
the yard at Princeton. I asked the Brethren if they had ever heard of a 
similar incident happening during their careers. William Scott said it 
must not have been a hickory brake-stick like the ones he used. He 
remembers actually "dropping one once and a box car ran up on it, only 
making some splinters, but it did not break".

My oldest son is a gunsmith and enjoys taking an old rusty, worn-out 
firearm and bringing it back to life. Recently he did just that to a 
Stevens 12-gage pump shot gun marked "Illinois Central". This prompted 
me to see if I could find a shot gun marked "Virginian". I did just that 
when my good friends H.B., and his wife Anne Bryant, from Sedley, VA 
visited the Virginia Museum of Transportation at the "Virginian Railway 
Day" recently. We were discussing VGN artifacts and the shot gun came 
up. H. B.'s double barrel has "VGN RY." stamped on the forearm and "VGN 
RY. CO." stamped just above the triggers, on the stock. I showed the 
Brethren photos of the Bryant double barrel and the actual "Illinois 
Central" riot shot gun in the parking lot of the restaurant. Anybody out 
there in the Virginian Nation know of any other guns marked "VGN RWY"?

The ebay report this time includes the following VGN items sold: GE 
Painting and Lettering Diagram for EL-Cs for $22.50; "Virginian Rails" 
by Reisweber for $32.87; "Virginian in Color" for $47.96; New Haven 
ex-VGN EL-C slide for $34.99; VGN Trust Plate for $60.00; and the "buy 
of the year" (I was "sniped" at the last minute) a VGN short globed 
(marked "VGN RY") lantern for $230.01.

On Tuesday this week I was visiting R. R. McDaniel at his home and 
Greely Wyatt came by. We had a great time discussing the "old days". 
Greely remembered as a lad, hauling produce from his farm home in 
Pineville, WV "over the mountain and up the hollers" selling at mining 
camps like Glen Rogers and Tams. He said that the coal at Tams was so 
black that "some of it was used in making indelible ink and that rumor 
had it Mr. Tams was such a taskmaster, he allowed no chairs for his 
clerks...they were to stand up, and work all day". Russell McDaniel 
commented on some of this during the meeting last night. He recalled at 
Glen Rogers, "smokeless coal briquettes were compressed from ground up 
coal and clay, to be used in home stoves and furnaces".

The Jewel from the Past is from August 11, 2005: "Jimmy Whittaker 
recalled once a yard brakeman was going from the top of one car to 
another, and fell into a coal hopper full of 'animal guts' to be 
delivered to a company on Tinker Creek in Roanoke, that made soap. Wis 
Sowder said that his cousin told him about seeing Buffalo Bill Cody's 
Wild West Show, when they visited Mahar Field across from the Virginian 
Yard. (Note: This may have been October, 1916 when the VGN took the 
train east, out of Roanoke after the N&W refused, because of condition 
of equipment, and it wrecked at VGN Mile Post 141 near Abilene; see H. 
Reid's book, pages 58-59 for the story). Keith Sowder said one of the 
Indian Chief's wives had requested a drink of water on the trip into 
Roanoke. The Chief obliged. When she asked the second time, he returned 
empty handed. When asked 'Why?', he responded 'White man sitting on 
spring'".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CCCXCVI

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