I returned to the rental car and turned up the heat to high to dry my bag, jacket and me. I drove south on US 250 and West Virginia 92 through Beverly and Huttonsville, then over a very snowy Cheat Mountain. Three inches of snow in late May? I drove down the grade and came to a set of railroad tracks on which the Cheat Mountain Salamander runs.
Looking both ways down the tracks.
The Shaver Fork of the Cheat River. It was then up and over another ridge to Durbin, where I found equipment of the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad.
Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad 20 ton switcher 105 "Little Le Roi", ex. Coe Rail Incorporated 105, nee United States Army 2089 built by Whitcomb in 1942.
Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad 45 ton switcher 45 built by General Electric built in 1943.
The train.
Unidentified cabooses.
Durbin and Greenbrier Valley open air car 204 rebuilt from a flat car.
Durbin Station and engine house for the 55 ton Climax 3.
Wabash caboose 2849 built by the railroad in 1952.
Wabash Railroad caboose 2794 built by the railroad in 1947.
Cheapeake and Ohio Durbin station built in 1900.
From here it was an easy thirty minute drive to Cass where I parked in the parking lot before walking to the shop building where there was a line of active steam locomotives.
Cass Scenic Heisler 6, ex. Meadow River Lumber Company 6, nee Bostonia Clay Products 20 built by Heisler Locomotive Works in 1929. It was retired in 1957 and was the last geared steam locomotive used by Meadow River Lumber.
Cass Railway three truck shay 2, ex. Cass Scenic Railroad 2 in 1970, exx. Railway Appliance Research Limited 114 at North Vancouver, British Columbia in 1964, exxx. Western Forest Industries 5 at Honeymoon Bay, British Columbia in 1946, exxxx. Lake Logging Company 5 at Cowichan Lake, British Columbia in 1943, exxxxx. Mayo Lumber Company 4 at Paldi, British Columbia, nee built for stock built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1928.
Built as a wood burner, this 3-truck Pacific Coast Shay was converted to burn oil before going to Mayo Lumber and then rebuilt to burn coal at Cass. It is the only known Shay to have used all three types of fuel. 2 ended its career switching cars on the Vancouver docks in 1970, making it one of the last commercially operated Shays in the world.
Cass Railway three truck shay 4, ex. Cass, Greenbrier, Cheat & Bald Knob Railroad 4 1961, exx. Midwest Raleigh Railroad 4 1960, exxx. sold to Mower Lumber Company 4 at Cass in 1943, exxxxx. Strouds Creek & Muddlety Railway 5 at Tioga, West Virginia in 1928, nee Birch Valley Lumber 5 built by Lima in 1928. It hauled its first excursion in June 1963 and powered the first off-line excursion to the Mountain State Forest Festival in Elkins in October 1964. It also hauled the Bald Knob Inaugural, when the extension to Bald Knob re-opened in May 1968.
Cass Scenic three-truck Shay 3, ex. Oregon Historical Society Portland, Oregon 1958, exx. Oregon Museum of Science and Industry 1957, exxx. Mount Emily Lumber Company 1 La Grande, Oregon, exxxx. Independence Logging Company 1 Independence, Oregon, nee Hofus Steel & Equipment Company (dealer) Seattle, Washington built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1923.
W.M. Carney Mill Company three truck 36, ex. State of West Virginia in 1994, exx. leased to Cass Scenic Railway 36, exxx. George Kadelak, exxxx. Bear Creek Scenic Railroad at Robbinsville, North Carolina for display in 1973, exxxxx. Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum at Chattanooga, Tennessesse 1967, tranferred to Southern Railway Company in 1966, exxxxxx. corporate sale to New River Railway Company 36 1966, exxxxxxx. lease to Brimestone & New River Railway Corporation 36 1965, exxxxxxxx. transferred to Brimestone Railroad Company 36 at New River, Tennessee 1942, exxxxxxxx. moved to Maben, West Virginia, nee W.M. Ritter Lumber Company 36 at Oxley, West Virginia built in Lima in 1920.
Cass Scenic 45 ton switcher 20 "Little Henry", nee United States Navy built by American Locomotive Company for General Electric. Its last assignment was at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. It was the first Cass Railroad shop goat, as well as the first diesel to be operated here.
Cass Railway three truck shay Meadow River 7 ex. sold to State of West Virginia Cass Scenic Railway 7 in 1964, exx sold to Meadow River Lumber Co. 7 at Rainelle, West Virginia in 1937, nee Raine Lumber Company 3 at Clover Lick, West Virginia, built by Lima in 1920.
United States Army 2-8-0 2630 built by Baldwin in 1943. Unlike most of its sister engines which were sent off to war, 2630 remained stateside for use in railroad operation and maintenance training at the U.S. Army Transportation School at Ft. Eustis, Virginia. Renumbered No.612 in 1954, the engine remained on active duty for the Ft. Eustis Military Railroad for years; the Army kept operating steam locomotives to ensure no knowledge would be lost in the event that military operations began in a country still running them. Occasional weekend tourist trips around Ft. Eustis became popular stops for American railfans.
The engine was finally retired in 1972 and donated to the state of West Virginia for potential use on the Durbin Branch, a state-owned line connecting to the famous Cass Scenic Railroad. Flood damage to the line ended these plans and No. 612 was stored outdoors for many years.
Cabooses.
It was a fantastic line of steam engines. I then entered the Cass shops.
Western Maryland Shay three truck shay 6, the last shay outshopped by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1945. It is also the second largest shay ever built and the largest still in existence. It was built for the Western Maryland Railway and shipped to Elkins in May 1945 to work on the railroad's coal mining Chaffee Branch, with a maximum grade in places of nine percent. 6 had a service life of only four years and was then stored at Vindex, Maryland Junction and then Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1953, it was donated to the B&O Railroad Museum, and ran under steam to Baltimore in August that year. The locomotive remained on static display in the B&O Museum roundhouse for the next twenty-six years. In 1981, an exchange was arranged with the museum for Cass Scenic 1.
The steam engine entered excursion service on 17th May 1981 on the former C&O Greenbrier Division to Durbin, but clearance restrictions and its 324,000 lb weight meant the locomotive was rarely used on the CSRR. Eventually, track upgrades permitted operation to Whittaker Station starting in June 1991. Then, rebuilding the mountain wye to circumvent the 36 degree mainline curve allowed the "Big Six" to run to Bald Knob. Subsequently, realigning the curve has permitted 6 to operate on the Bald Knob run without using the wye.
The rear of Shay 6.
Cass Scenic three-truck Shay 5, nee Greenbrier and Elk River 5 built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1905, this is the oldest surviving locomotive from the original Greenbrier & Elk River roster, and the second oldest Shay in continuous operation in the United States. Initially assigned to the Cass Hill, various assignments followed at Spruce and on Elk River but, because of its weight and the deteriorating railroad, it saw little work after 1953. It was last used at the sawmill as a steam source during the "Big Freeze" in March 1958.
The steam engine was eventually sold to the State of West Virginia in 1962 by the Midwest Raleigh Corporation. After considerable work to bring it back into service, it debuted on 5th May 1966 and worked for a number of years as helper on the Bald Knob run, then as lead engine from 1970 until 1972.
The rear of Shay 5. I walked through the car shop into the Climax shop.
Various machines.
Pictures of the Climax Project.
The Climax tender truck.
The tender frame.
The lathe. I returned to the car chop.
A passenger car. After a dinner of a couple of hot dogs, I went outside for explore in greater detail.
A waterfall outside the shop.
The Cass Railroad shops.
The Chesapeake and Ohio water tower rebuilt in 1933.
The water tower with the former sawmill behind.
The remains of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company sawmill.
On the former Chesapeake and Ohio line were two stored locomotives.
South Branch Railway MRS-1 26, nee United States Army 2105 built by American Locomotive Company in 1953.
South Branch Railway S-4 9010, ex. Baltimore and Ohio 9010, nee Baltimore and Ohio 470 built by American Locomotive Company in 1955.
The rebuilt Cass Station is an adaptation of a standard Chesapeake and Ohio design and is similar to the pre-1923 depot. The post-1923 building burned in 1975. I walked back to my rental car and drove the nine miles to the Snowshoe Mountain Inn for a two-night stay. I called home, wrote today's story and watched the Weather Channel {yes, the rain was ending!} before calling it a night.
