Vol. 14 April, 2006 No. 4

Vol. 14 April, 2006 No. 4 Smoking PLEASE! Kurt Reisweber presents the April program for the Blue Ridge Chapter, NRHS, an all-steam program featuring excursions in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and even into Georgia. Shown here is N&W 611 on a westbound train at Pearisburg, VA, taken in October, 1982. Come to the April meeting of the Blue Ridge Chapter, NRHS. 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, 2006, at Charley s Restaurant located at the Graves Mill Rd. exit off the Lynchburg Expressway. You ll not want to miss this great show! 1

Blue Ridge Chapter National Railway Historical Society Minutes of Meeting on March 8, 2006 President Rick Johnson opened the meeting at 7:35 pm and welcomed 29 members and 8 guests in the meeting room of Charley s Restaurant in Lynchburg. Rick mentioned that Kurt Reisweber s father was ill. Acting secretary Lloyd Lipscomb read the February minutes, which were approved as corrected. The Treasurer s report for March followed and was accepted. Rick announced that programs were still needed for the June, July, August, October and December meetings. Under old business the digital projector was discussed and several members pointed out that it would require a new white screen. Rick reported that he had discussed the equipment with Lynchburg Camera and that Bill Puckett wanted to bid on the projector when we had decided what we needed. Brian Crosier mentioned that he could get a good price from Lee Hartman also. Rick announced that Tom Ledford was writing the annual activity report for National and that a good photographs would be needed. There was no new business. Webmaster Ralph Hawkins reported 265 hits on our page from 165 different people including a visitor from Germany. The page is now indexed on Google and comes up first when you search for Blue Ridge Chapter. We re still waiting on National to update our links. There are 19 photos on the page and we are currently using 12.5MB so there is room for more. Vice-president Charlie Long reported that the extended deadline for dues was March 31 and that all dues received to date had been forwarded to National. There were still 12 members who had not renewed and 5 family memberships outstanding. There was no National Director s report. Rail Day chairman Norris Deyerle reported that the date has been set for August 12, 2006 and the event will be held at the Boonsboro Ruritan Club, hours tentatively set for 10 am to 4 pm. Vendor information is going out this week. We are renting the hall for two days to allow for setup and the rent is $400.00, versus last year s, which was $1,200.00. There will be rooms available for clinics and the committee feels this is the best location we have ever had for Rail Day! Rick thanked Charles Saunders for his help in getting the news letter out. Garland Harper was unable to attend the meeting. Rick reported that everyone is now getting the newsletter by e- mail and many were still receiving one in the mail. It would save some postage if anyone who did not need both would let Garland know. Skip Hansberry won the 50/50 and donated the winnings back to the chapter. Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm. Rick Johnson Dash-2 presented a program of recent photos taken on the NS former N&W and Virginian lines between Roanoke and Bluefield. Tom Ledford, Secretary 2

National Director s Page By Norris Deyerle I wish our entire chapter could have attended the gathering of fans, friends and former I employees of the Virginian Railway in Roanoke, Va. The gathering was called the Friends of the Virginian Railway at Milepost 2006. The O. Winston Link Museum was the event headquarters from March 31 st to April 2 nd, 2006. Blue Ridge Chapter members that I saw in attendance were Vice President Charlie Long, Roanoke Chapter President and Blue Ridge Chapter member Ken Miller, Robin Shavers, Baxter Parris, and Kurt Reisweber. Kurt presented an awesome slide show on Friday night. Kurt s show featured slides from various photographers of Virginian steam, electrics and diesels. The event, sponsored by our friends of the Roanoke Chapter, NRHS was a weekend gathering to remember. It was very well organized and we all had a blast! My two favorite events were Kurt s slide show and the Virginian Roundtable discussions by former Virginian employees. My favorite speaker during the Roundtable recollections was over ninety years old! Don t forget that the Virginian Railway hasn t been around for over 46 years! They all had some great stories. One of the stories told by a retired Virginian electrician was how the electric locos regenerated electricity for each other. He told us about how electric locos generated excess electricity when they were coming down the mountains. This excess electricity was used to power the other electric locos up the mountains! This cut electricity costs since all of the power didn t have to be generated by the Virginian power plant. When the Norfolk and Western Railway purchased the Virginian the catenary wires were removed from service. The end of the Virginian electrics was a slap in the face to the employees of a great railroad. The Virginian employees were and still are a very proud group. During Kurt s slide show I noticed how clean and well serviced the locos were until the demise of the railroad. This showed me that the pride felt in keeping their yellow and blacks clean and running well was just as important as the bottom line financially. Several of them told about how well the railroad was run. One even made the statement that the only true railroad was the Virginian. I knew what he meant. It seems strange that in today s world we are looking for a way to cut fuel costs and even search for alternative fuels. Those men had the answer over a half of a century ago! On behalf of the attendees and myself, I would like to thank the members of the Roanoke Chapter, especially Skip Salmon, Ken Miller and Jeff Sanders for all of the work that they put into making the Friends of the Virginian Railway at Milepost 2006 a great success. I m already looking forward to next year! For a more detailed story on the gathering please read Skip Salmon s write up elsewhere in this newsletter. I need to add a little extra information to Skip s write up. I don t know a lot about trains but I am a little more qualified to talk about automobile history. Our last Deyerle Family Reunion took place in and around the Salem-Lafayette, Va. area. I was confused about the presence of a Hudson automobile dealership sign in the small community of Lafayette. I stopped a long time Lafayette resident walking down the street and asked him about the Hudson dealership sign. He smiled and told me that the man that owns the building is an antique automobile/memorabilia collector. The man purchased the sign and put it on his garage. I still photographed it. It was the only Hudson dealership that I had ever seen. Ha! The purpose of the gathering was to raise money for the restoration of the former Virginian passenger station in Roanoke. The event flyer stated that in January 2001, forty-five years to the day of the last Virginian passenger trains, the former Virginian passenger station was nearly destroyed by fire. The building was donated to the Roanoke Chapter, NRHS, by Norfolk Southern in 2005. The mission of the Roanoke Chapter along with other friends is to restore the 1909-vintage structure to its original appearance. This will take a lot of money and a tremendous amount of time and work. The Roanoke Chapter will need a lot of money to finish this restoration. Phase one of the project is the replacement of the roof. This is critical since the old roof collapsed during the fire. The roof replacement alone is estimated to be almost $600,000. The entire project is estimated to cost over $1.5 million! 3

I have offered the free use of a table to the Roanoke Chapter at Lynchburg Rail Day 2006. The table will be used to promote the Virginian Station restoration project. Donations for the project will be accepted at Lynchburg Rail Day 2006. Of course if you would like to make a donation prior to that please contact me. There s a promotion going on at this time. If you make a donation to the Virginian Station Fund of at least fifty dollars you will receive a limited printing of the soft cover book titled the Virginian Railway Chronicles, Volume One. Volume One will have a major feature on the boiler explosion of the Virginian 800 steam locomotive at Stewartsville, Va. I am very interested in this story. I found out a while back that the engineer killed in the boiler explosion was the grandfather of a good friend of mine, Linda Brown. She showed me a copy of the newspaper article about the accident. She had photos of her grandfather that she also got from her father. Linda wasn t even born when this tragedy occurred. Volume One will also feature other interesting information on the Virginian. Please mail your donation of at least fifty dollars to: Roanoke Chapter NRHS Station Fund, P.O. Box 13222, Roanoke, Va. 24032-1322. I hope that the members of the Blue Ridge Chapter will approve a donation from our chapter to get the ball rolling. That will be discussed at future Blue Ridge Chapter monthly meetings. The Virginian Station Fund will enable a very worthwhile project to become a reality. Our friends of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad Club asked me to invite you to their next train show. It s one of my favorite shows. It s very similar to our annual Lynchburg Rail Day train show. The show date is Sunday May 7 th, 2006 from10am - 4pm. Admission is $4.00, free for children 12 and under. Location is the Rockingham Fairgrounds, Harrisonburg, Va. Take exit 242 off Interstate 81 then drive north on Route 11 about 2 miles to the fairgrounds. Remember to mark your calendar for Saturday August 12 th, 2006. That s the date that we re having Lynchburg Rail Day 2006. If you ll notice, I borrowed the name Lynchburg Rail Day 2006 from both Ralph Hawkins and Tom Ledford. I got some emails from them referring to our train show as Lynchburg Rail Day. I like that. It ties our train show to the community that we live in. A friend of mine also pointed out that it may make information about the event easier to find during a search on the internet. I m really excited about this year s show. The location is awesome. Please log onto our BRC website to see what a great job Webmaster Ralph Hawkins has done promoting this event. John Tanner has mailed out the vendor registration forms, and it is reproduced in the newsletter, too. If you know of anyone that would like to purchase one or more six-foot tables please contact John or me. The cost per table is twenty-five dollars. The White Oak Chapter, NRHS in Oak Hill, West Virginia is having its annual Depot Days on August 26 th and 27 th, 2006. It s their chapter s annual fundraiser. All proceeds go towards the renovation and maintenance of the Virginian Railway Depot on Virginia Street and Central Avenue in Oak Hill. Vending tables are available. Contact the fine folks of the WOC, NRHS at whiteoaknrhs@yahoo.com for more information. I would like to thank BRC Secretary Tom Ledford for writing the BRC Annual Activity Report for 2005. Tom emailed the report to National. Webmaster Ralph Hawkins was working with National regarding a group photo to put with the report. Thanks, Ralph. See our BRC website for other railroad related events/links. Don t forget about the rare mileage train trip that our friends of the Winston-Salem Chapter, NRHS are having on Sunday, June 4, 2006. BRC Member Chuck Hladik told me yesterday that he has to return to a Richmond, Va. Hospital for more surgery. He ll be going down after Easter. Good luck Chuck! Please join your fellow BRC members at our regular monthly meeting on Wednesday April 12 th, 2006. Kurt Reisweber will be presenting an all-steam show. You won t want to miss it! See you there. Till then.mooooo 4

"Friends of the Virginian Railway" @ Mile-Post 2006 by Skip Salmon This past weekend will be one I will never forget! Seeing so many of the Virginian enthusiasts enjoying the old Fallen Flag as much as I did,and listening to the Brethren share their stories was about as much as a good VGN fan could stand. At one point, Author Lloyd Lewis was so overwhelmed that he could not speak upon rising to ask a question. I just wish that all of you could have been there. Our paid registration was 60, not counting the seven Brethren and guests that attended. Everyone received a Goody Bag and at least one Door Prize. All of the ladies attending were presented a special Christmas bulb from Bedford County. The silent auction was a success and overall a nice sum was raised toward the costs involved in restoring the precious Virginian Station in Roanoke. Friday night Kurt and Lloyd kept us informed and entertained. The Saturday Tour started at the Station with the Vice-Mayor of Roanoke, Bev Fitzpatrick, who is head of the Commonwealth Coach and Trolley Museum in Roanoke, as our bus driver. The tour proceeded to McCoy to visit the Monument dedicated to the slain miners of the area that mined anthracite coal that the VGN hauled. Stops on the Tour on Saturday included the old VGN Roundhouse, Freight Station, Yard area; Wasena at AG; Belt Line Crossing; Salem Connection; VN; Koppers Tie Treatment Plant; Wabun; Yateman's Bridge; Kumis; Lafayette; Ironto for box lunch; Slate Hill Tunnel; Ellett; Yellow Sulphur Resort; Merrimac; and Whitethorne. Jeff Sanders kept in touch with his NS friends and arranged a photo roll by of a coal train at the Salem Water Treatment Plant. We were able to view the "Hudson Dealership" in downtown Lafayette. At Ellett, Lloyd Lewis found out that on April Fool's Day, an old Virginian PA #213 would fit into a barn. We visited the VA TECH Smart Road at Ellett Valley, the tallest bridge in Virginia. At Yellow Sulphur, we were told that in the '30s, over 400 hobos were housed in the old Hotel. As if we had staged it, at Whitethorne, a coal train was in position at our arrival and after we debussed, it proceeded toward Merrimac with pusher in Run8. Saturday night the Brethren showed us as Lloyd said "the Virginian Railway". Aubrey Wiley showed off the new Virginian Railway Section Gang with two modules on display and the assembly of one during his presentation. The Sunday Tour started with the bus being turned on the turntable at Shaffers Crossing. As Manager Ed Mullens told us about a new slug set, a local TV crew shot some footage that was shown on the evening news with old black and white film of Virginian FMs pulling a train out of South Yard. Tom Salmon and the boys from N&W HS put on a grand display at the Archives. A stop at the Virginia Division Hump was very informative. The grand finale was something that may never be topped. At 9th Street, the local chapter of the NRHS rolled out a Virginia Train. Pulling it was N&W GP30 #522 that was purchased shortly after the merger with a Virginian Trust from ELC. The train included a VGN coal hopper, gondola, boxcar and caboose #322. Engineer Bill Mason pulled the train out to 9 th Street for an unforgetable end to what we hope will the beginning of many such Gatherings in the future. 5

RAIL DAY 2006 VENDOR REGISTRATION The Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society would like to announce the 28 th Annual Rail Day, Saturday, August 12, 2006 from 9:00 am 4:00 pm. This model train show is always well attended by veteran modelers as well as newcomers to our hobby. It definitely has a family atmosphere. Children 12 and under are always admitted at no charge when accompanied by a paying adult. Model layouts with operating trains are a real attraction for everyone young and old. Since we re holding Rail Day 2006 in a LARGER facility we will have clinics on building models and also slide/video presentations by our chapter members. Our Chapter also operates the onsite concession stand with freshly prepared lunch items and snacks at very affordable prices. We are holding this year s event in a NEW location! Rail Day 2006 will be held in the nicest facility that any Rail Day has ever been held in. It will be held at the air conditioned Boonsboro Ruritan Club on Coffee Road just off of Rt. 501 North in Lynchburg, Virginia. Our Blue Ridge Chapter website will have a map showing you how to get there from all directions. Log on to www.blueridgenrhs.org for the directions and Rail Day 2006 updates. There will be an ample amount of signs directing vendors and the public to the Boonsboro Ruritan Club on the day of the show. Plenty of free parking is available in our expanded parking area. Vendors can easily unload their goods next to the building. The building is handicapped accessible. Vendor Registration: We will have two sizes of tables available: 6 feet by 36 and 6 feet by 30 for $25.00 each. There s very limited availability on the 36 wide tables. The postmark date on your letter that you send your registration payment in will determine who gets the wider tables. Reserved table space must be paid for in full no later than Wednesday, July 12, 2006. Tables not paid for by this date will be made available to other vendors. No refunds for tables will be given after July 12, 2006. Prior to July 12, 2006 table refunds will be given for personal hardships. Early Bird Special Offer! Vendors that pay their table rental in full by Monday, April 17, 2006 will have their name or the name of their business included in our Rail Day 2006 flyer at no additional cost if they desire. Please make sure to completely fill out the attached form with the name of your business, your phone/fax number, email address and website info for us when you send in your payment. We will add this information to our Rail Day 2006 flyer at your request. This free advertisement will be included in the cost of your table registration. This is our way of thanking you for getting your payment in early. We distributed nearly 1000 flyers prior to last year s show! If your customers know that you re going to be set up at our show they can contact you ahead of time. You may be able to fill some orders before you even get to the show! Our chapter welcomes your participation. HAPPY SELLING! Vendor Set Up: The Boonsboro Ruritan Club will be open for vendor set up on Friday, August 11, 2006 from 3:00 pm 8:00 pm and on Saturday, August 12, 2006 from 7:30 am 8:30 am. We would like to have all vendors have their table setup finished by 8:30 am the day of the show. This will allow the public to have free movement through the aisles when the show begins. We ask that no vendor sales transactions occur until after 9:00 am on the day of the show. Vendors will be asked to park in specially designated areas to allow for customer parking in front of the building. We also request that no one begins breaking down your sales table until 4:00 pm the day of the show. Door admission will be charged till the close of the show at 4:00 pm. 6

28 th Annual Rail Day Vendor Registration Form Company Name: Contact Name: Address: State: Zip: Phone Number w/ Area Code: Fax Number w/ Area Code: E-mail Address: Website address: Early Bird Special Offer: If the entire table payment is received by Monday April 17, 2006, would you like your information above included in our Rail Day 2006 flyer? Please circle one: Yes / No Number of Tables: x $25.00 = Total amount due the Blue Ridge Chapter, NRHS. Electricity: Yes / No. No extra charge if available. First come, first serve basis. Special Needs or Requests: Please make checks payable to the Blue Ridge Chapter, NRHS. Mail your payment to the Blue Ridge Chapter, NRHS, P.O. Box 11731, Lynchburg, Virginia 24506-1731. If you have any questions please call our Table Registrar John Tanner at 434-316-9500 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday or email John at flytrains@mindspring.com. If you need extra assistance you can email our Show Coordinator Norris Deyerle at railcow@verizon.net or call 434-237-4912 between 8:00 pm and 9:30 pm nightly. Thanks in advance making Rail Day 2006 a success! The Blue Ridge Chapter has the same site secured for Rail Day 2007, Saturday August 11, 2007! Rail Day s 30 th anniversary is just around the bend! 7

CHAPTER OFFICERS AND STAFF President Rick Johnson, 104 Mowry Ln. Lynchburg, VA 24502 434-239-6159 notch8@aol.com rick@ccappc.com Vice President Charlie Long, 106 Pacos St., Lynchburg, VA 24502 434-239-3521 cwlongjr@mindspring.com Secretary Tom Ledford, 18 W. Princeton Cir. #18, Lynchburg, VA 24503 434-847-4025 tmus@verizon.net Treasurer John Tanner, 209 Pocahontas Dr., Forest, VA 24551-1235 434-525-1318 flytrains@mindspring.com National Director E. Norris Deyerle, Jr. 744 Chinook Pl., Lynchburg, VA 24502 434-237-4912 railcow@verizon.net Editor Garland R. Harper, 3920 Harbor St. Lynchburg, VA 24503 434-384-7210 GRHarper@aol.com Historian Rick Johnson, 104 Mowry Ln. Lynchburg, VA 24502 434-239-6159 notch8@aol.com rick@ccappc.com Webmaster Ralph Hawkins, 1209 Bedford Ave. Altavista, VA 24517-1205 434-369-6999 rehawkins@mindspring.com The BLUE RIDGE DISPATCHER is published by the Blue Ridge Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. Opinions expressed are those of the editor and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Blue Ridge Chapter or the National Railway Historical Society unless otherwise stated. Blue Ridge Chapter, NRHS P. O. Box 11731 Lynchburg, VA 24506-1731 www.blueridgenrhs.org 8

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