Nice folks.

[DinwiddieProud]

I had the pleasure of meeting some nice people from out in the Roanoke area today. N & W 611 made the excursion from Lynchburg to Petersburg. Full train, about 18 cars full of folks. I hope they all had a great time in Old Town Petersburg. The ones I met sure seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Petersburg has a well deserved "rotten" reputation, but the Old Town area is like an oasis. GREAT places to eat, and tons of neat shops to walk through. And extremely safe. None of the troubles that plague the rest of the city.

I met one gentleman in particular that was really fun to talk with. He said he was from Shawsville. I wanted to talk to him about football, but with limited time, we just talked about the excitement of riding on 611. (I'm guessing his school would have been Eastern Montgomery?)

If any of you get the chance to take one of the trips on 611, don't miss the opportunity. What a fabulous machine. It is a real monument to the craftsmen from the Roanoke N & W shop that built so many wonderful trains over the years.

And 611 has a special place in my heart. Bleeding Navy's dad was actually behind the throttle a few times back in the 80's. Kinda of makes it personal for me.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

I had the pleasure of meeting some nice people from out in the Roanoke area today. N & W 611 made the excursion from Lynchburg to Petersburg. Full train, about 18 cars full of folks. I hope they all had a great time in Old Town Petersburg. The ones I met sure seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Petersburg has a well deserved "rotten" reputation, but the Old Town area is like an oasis. GREAT places to eat, and tons of neat shops to walk through. And extremely safe. None of the troubles that plague the rest of the city.

I met one gentleman in particular that was really fun to talk with. He said he was from Shawsville. I wanted to talk to him about football, but with limited time, we just talked about the excitement of riding on 611. (I'm guessing his school would have been Eastern Montgomery?)

If any of you get the chance to take one of the trips on 611, don't miss the opportunity. What a fabulous machine. It is a real monument to the craftsmen from the Roanoke N & W shop that built so many wonderful trains over the years.

And 611 has a special place in my heart. Bleeding Navy's dad was actually behind the throttle a few times back in the 80's. Kinda of makes it personal for me.

We do have a few nice ones out this way. Yes, Eastern Montgomery is the school for Shawsville. It replaced old Shawsville High when the new building was opened to serve the Shawsville-Elliston area around 2001. I think the Elliston folks wanted to feel more included/represented, which accounts for the "Eastern Montgomery" name of the new school. It is actually in Elliston, now that I think about it. Anyone who's driven on Route 11 in Montgomery County is familiar with the Elliston-Shawsville straightaway. This stretch is where one can find Fotheringay, an historic home dating to 1796, and where legend holds that the home's builder and first owner was buried standing up or (more likely) in a sitting position, so he could keep watch over his slaves in the fields from the Great Beyond.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2156155
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM1K4Q_Fotheringay_Elliston_Virginia
The face of the tomb on the hillside behind the house used to be quite visible from the road, but the current owners must have let it grow up, because I don't remember seeing it for several years. Another interesting tidbit about the place: several years ago, the historical marker in the median on Rte. 11 was ripped off. Apparently, there are no funds available to replace it:
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMC66_Fotheringay

I worked for several years with a guy who had been an old-school three-sport star at Shawsville - football/basketball/baseball. He was your stereotypical hell raisin' redneck, but a great guy, and a really good athlete. We played a lot of basketball together.

I haven't ridden on the 611 yet. I'm not a big "train guy", but I've heard those are nice, fun excursions. It seems I recently read that the excursions will soon be done for the year? I'd think fall would be an awesome time, and they could find tons of people interested in signing up. I also know that sucker is very expensive to maintain and operate.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Somewhere in the cobweb covered recesses of my mind is a distant memory of Fotheringay and the verticle burial legend. Thanks for the links. I'm a little puzzled by the description of "deteriorated stone"? You would not expect that in such a short period of time.

I'm not a big train guy either, but I am fascinated by the huge old steam locomotives of the past. Just marvels of craftsmanship in my eyes. (It passed my area heading to Petersburg again about 11:30 today.)

Is your old friend from Shawsville still around? Very few if any 3-sport stars in high school anymore. We have a few every year from the football team that participate in basketball after football season ends, but not much more than that. Occasionally a soccer player will "kick a touchdown". (Like Phyllis Diller, the young guys will have to Google that to find out what we are talking about.)

 

[mikesalem]

Somewhere in the cobweb covered recesses of my mind is a distant memory of Fotheringay and the verticle burial legend. Thanks for the links. I'm a little puzzled by the description of "deteriorated stone"? You would not expect that in such a short period of time.

I'm not a big train guy either, but I am fascinated by the huge old steam locomotives of the past. Just marvels of craftsmanship in my eyes. (It passed my area heading to Petersburg again about 11:30 today.)

Is your old friend from Shawsville still around? Very few if any 3-sport stars in high school anymore. We have a few every year from the football team that participate in basketball after football season ends, but not much more than that. Occasionally a soccer player will "kick a touchdown". (Like Phyllis Diller, the young guys will have to Google that to find out what we are talking about.)

You would probably like the Link Museum in Roanoke. He was famous for his wonderful pictures of the steam locomotives. Also there is the Va Museum of Transportation right down the road with old trains. As you know Roanoke was a Rail town (and still is to a certain degree) There are other museums nearby with the Taubman Museum of Art and Center in the Square. Of course if you like hot dogs you won't find better than the Texas Tavern or the Roanoke Weiner Stand in downtown. No trip downtown (for me) is complete without a visit to Milan's Tobacconist.

This advertisement brought to you by the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

You would probably like the Link Museum in Roanoke. He was famous for his wonderful pictures of the steam locomotives. Also there is the Va Museum of Transportation right down the road with old trains. As you know Roanoke was a Rail town (and still is to a certain degree) There are other museums nearby with the Taubman Museum of Art and Center in the Square. Of course if you like hot dogs you won't find better than the Texas Tavern or the Roanoke Weiner Stand in downtown. No trip downtown (for me) is complete without a visit to Milan's Tobacconist.

This advertisement brought to you by the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

Mike, there you go again. You've been watching WAY too much NASCAR.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

Somewhere in the cobweb covered recesses of my mind is a distant memory of Fotheringay and the verticle burial legend. Thanks for the links. I'm a little puzzled by the description of "deteriorated stone"? You would not expect that in such a short period of time.

I'm not a big train guy either, but I am fascinated by the huge old steam locomotives of the past. Just marvels of craftsmanship in my eyes. (It passed my area heading to Petersburg again about 11:30 today.)

Is your old friend from Shawsville still around? Very few if any 3-sport stars in high school anymore. We have a few every year from the football team that participate in basketball after football season ends, but not much more than that. Occasionally a soccer player will "kick a touchdown". (Like Phyllis Diller, the young guys will have to Google that to find out what we are talking about.)

It could have been that when Mr. Hancock was interred, they just sat him atop a pile of rocks, as opposed to a proper chair. That pile could account for what the people who visited in 1886 construed as "deteriorated stone." Just a guess.

The Shawsville guy and myself kept in pretty constant contact for several years after we last worked together (1990), but I haven't seen him for almost twenty years. One just loses touch with people, sadly. He lives in another town in Montgomery Co. now. Very tragically, he lost a son in a traffic accident a few years ago.

Yes, I suspect that outside of the smaller rural schools, the football/basketball/baseball player has all but vanished from the high school scene. My dad was one such three-sport stud in a small town in Pennsylvania in the mid-forties - 135 pound defensive end. I was up there two years ago. His old high school is now an elementary school. They played football and baseball on a field right off the main street, and the field is still there, seventy years later. They still use it for soccer games and other activities, as the very friendly and helpful AD of the current high school told me when I emailed him with questions.

I'd like to see that Old Town Petersburg - sounds worth the drive from here.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

You would probably like the Link Museum in Roanoke. He was famous for his wonderful pictures of the steam locomotives. Also there is the Va Museum of Transportation right down the road with old trains. As you know Roanoke was a Rail town (and still is to a certain degree) There are other museums nearby with the Taubman Museum of Art and Center in the Square. Of course if you like hot dogs you won't find better than the Texas Tavern or the Roanoke Weiner Stand in downtown. No trip downtown (for me) is complete without a visit to Milan's Tobacconist.

This advertisement brought to you by the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

Despite living here all my life, I still have yet to set foot in the Transportation Museum. I have no good excuse. The Taubman has an excellent exhibit of American Impressionist painters that runs for one more week.

That's the mark of a true Renaissance man - taking in oil paintings of flowers and such in the spring, yelling like a crazed maniac over a teeth-rattling hit in the fall.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

It could have been that when Mr. Hancock was interred, they just sat him atop a pile of rocks, as opposed to a proper chair. That pile could account for what the people who visited in 1886 construed as "deteriorated stone." Just a guess.

The Shawsville guy and myself kept in pretty constant contact for several years after we last worked together (1990), but I haven't seen him for almost twenty years. One just loses touch with people, sadly. He lives in another town in Montgomery Co. now. Very tragically, he had a son die in a traffic accident a few years ago.

Yes, I suspect that outside of the smaller rural schools, the football/basketball/baseball player has all but vanished from the high school scene. My dad was one such three-sport stud in a small town in Pennsylvania in the mid-forties - 135 pound defensive end. I was up there two years ago. His old high school is now an elementary school. They played football and baseball on a field right off the main street, and the field is still there, seventy years later. They still use it for soccer games and other activities, as the very friendly and helpful AD of the current high school told me when I emailed him with questions.

I'd like to see that Old Town Petersburg - sounds worth the drive from here.

Really sorry your friend lost a child. Not much in life worse than that. My parents experienced this with the loss of an 11 year old son when I was just an infant. The sorry is unimaginable, and never-ending.

Old Town is a pretty good destination. Certainly worth it if you like suttle history, as well as the notable attractions. If you ever plan to pass through, please let me know. I'm not a tour guide, but I do know the area extremely well. And this goes for any of you forum participants. I would be honored to share what I know about the history of Petersburg.

Meant as a knock, rather than a compliment, here are two idioms that illustrates most people's feelings about the progress the city leaders have made over the years.

1). Years ago, the Tourism Department, (as part of their half-hearted attempt to capitalize on tourism), erected a billboard at the exit for Petersburg on I-95 that read, "Turn right in 500 yards, turn back 500 years. Most of us believe that this was an understatement.

2). Petersburg was founded in the 1700's by a trapper/merchant by the name of Peter Jones. Legend has it that ole Peter was going up-river on the Appomattox, on a trapping expedition. Not trusting those he left in charge of Petersburg, he told everyone not to do anything until he returned. Peter was never heard from again, and Petersburg's leaders are still waiting for his return.

Incidentally, my personal favorite attraction in Petersburg is Old Blandford Church. It has a rich history, but more impressive are the original Tiffany stained glass widows. There is nothing I can say to explain the beauty. It has to be seen to be appreciated. By the way, our national Memorial Day Holiday has its genesis at this very church.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Despite living here all my life, I still have yet to set foot in the Transportation Museum. I have no good excuse. The Taubman has an excellent exhibit of American Impressionist painters that runs for one more week.

That's the mark of a true Renaissance man - taking in oil paintings of flowers and such in the spring, yelling like a crazed maniac over a teeth-rattling hit in the fall.

I get it. Listen to Canon in D on the way to a game, only to cheer brutal hits after I get there.

You would probably like the Link Museum in Roanoke. He was famous for his wonderful pictures of the steam locomotives. Also there is the Va Museum of Transportation right down the road with old trains. As you know Roanoke was a Rail town (and still is to a certain degree) There are other museums nearby with the Taubman Museum of Art and Center in the Square. Of course if you like hot dogs you won't find better than the Texas Tavern or the Roanoke Weiner Stand in downtown. No trip downtown (for me) is complete without a visit to Milan's Tobacconist.

This advertisement brought to you by the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

Mike, you had me at "hot dog"!

I did visit the big Railroad Museum in PA many many years ago. In Strasburg maybe? I'll get to the Transportation Museum in Roanoke one day. Would love to hook up with Bleeding Navy and his dad, and get a VIP tour.

 

[freeatlast2013]