I awoke at the Best Western Summerville Lake Inn and after breakfast, worked on the stories a little before it was time to check out. I drove West Virginia 39 East to West Virginia 55 East then at Richwood, the power company had the highway shut down so I had to take a detour through town but found something that I otherwise would not have seen.
Chesapeake and Ohio Richwood station built in 1900. Back on the highway, I continued east to US 219, which I took north to Snowshoe then made a very quick trip on West Virginia 66 to Cass, picking up my ticket with 15 minutes to spare. By the way, I did not kill Bambi and her mother on the way there.
Brief History of CassThe town of Cass was always centered around the lumber companies that inhabited the valley and operated the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Mill. The mill operations were enormous during its heyday period of 1908 to 1922. It ran two 11 hour shifts six days a week, cutting 125,000 board feet of lumber each shift, an impressive 1.5 million feet of lumber a week. The Cass mill also had a drying kilns using 11 miles of steam pipe to dry 360,000 board feet of lumber with each run. The adjoining planning mill was three stories tall, measuring 96 by 224 feet. Massive elevators carried up to 5,000 feet of lumber to separate floors and machines. Some of the flooring machines took 15 men to operate them. There were two resaws that could accommodate boards up to 35 feet. The large surfacing machines finished all four sides of a board in one operations. Roy Clarkson in Tumult estimated that in 40 years the Cass mill and the mill in Spruce turned more than 2.14 billion feet of timber into pulp or lumber.
The town of Cass was named after Joseph K. Cass. Each morning, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad dispatched a 44-car pulpwood train for the paper mill at Covington. At the peak, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Mill employed between 2,500 and 3,000 men. In an average week, six to ten carloads of food and supplies travelled over the railroad to the twelve logging camps.
At the turn of the century, lumberman were eyeing the large tracts of timber on Cheat Mountain, west of Cass. They decided to route the timber east through a gap in the mountains and down the steep grade to the Mill at Cass. An interchange with the C&O Railroad would be at Cass with a route down the Greenbrier and Elk River to the C&O mainline. In 1900 Samuel Slaymaker, a timber broker, set up a construction camp at the mouth of Leatherbark Creek {the present site of the Cass shops today}. His men built the line up the grade following the Leatherbark Creek and gained altitude by constructing two switchbacks. The tracks were laid around a promontory and then upgrade winding along the ridge to where the rails reached the gap in the mountains. Here, a camp named Old Spruce was established.
In 1904, one-and-a-quarter miles of track was laid from Old Spruce to Spruce where a new town on the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River was built. At an elevation of 3,853 feet, Spruce was the highest town in the eastern United States. From Spruce, the tracks ran 35 miles south into the Elk River Basin to the town of Bergoo and 65 miles north along the Shavers Fork. Spruce became the hub of the rail empire. The mainlines ending up being 82 miles long and at the height of operations about 140 miles of track including the branches were used. The logging railroad built about 250 miles of more tracks. The Greenbrier & Elk River in 1909 became the Greenbrier, Elk & Valley Railroad and in 1910, became the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk Railroad.
In 1910 this railroad became a common carrier. In 1926, a merger of the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk Railroad and Western Maryland Railroad which wanted to tap the rich coal reserves of the region. On March 3, 1927 saw an agreement reached and the Western Maryland purchased 74 miles of the railroad between Cheat Junction and Bergoo. Shays were used to pull the coal trains until the line was rebuilt to accommodate the massive Western Maryland 2-8-0's. Up to ten locomotives were used to pull coal trains up the steep grade. In 1925, the town of Spruce began to die when the peeling mill closed. In the 1930's, the town became an isolated helper station on the Western Maryland.
With the coming of the diesels, all locomotives serving Cass were transferred to Laurel Bank and Spruce became a ghost town. Mower Lumber Company acquired the Cass operations in 1942 to cut second growth timber on Cheat and Back Allegheny Mountains. Rails were relaid into old logging areas and huge steam skidding machines were rigged on hillsides and knobs, bringing saw logs for the mills on rail lines. But the second growth timber could not feed the mighty mills for long. By the 1950's, the mill was working a single shift. The big four-truck shays languished on sidings while tired three-truck shays 1, 4 and 5 were assigned to the hill. With Edwin Mower's death in late 1955, the family members were unable to keep the operations going. The rail-haul logging operations and bandsaw mill ceased operations on July 1, 1960. A scrap dealer, the Midwest Raleigh Corporation was subcontracted to dismantle the railroad.
In late September 1960, a rail fan, Russel Baum of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, initiated an effort to save the railroad. Baum reasoned that the shays and old logging track could become a big tourist attraction. A small group of local businessman formed the Cass Planning Commission and State legislators were approached. Skeptical officials initially declined to participate. But when the state legislature's prestigious Joint Committee on Government and Finance took an inspection trip over the former Mower Lumber "Railroad to the Sky" to Bald Knob, the bureaucratic wheels were set in motion. During the State Legislature's regular sessions in early 1961, an appropriation was approved and the governor of West Virginia signed a bill bringing Cass into the West Virginia State Park System.
The Midwest Raleigh Corporation received $125,000 for the seven miles of mainline from Cass to Spruce and four miles from Old Spruce to Bald Knob. Also included were three locomotives, ten flat cars, four camp cars, three motor cars and other equipment. It was not until 1963 that Shays 1 and 4 were put back into service and safety railing and benches were installed on a few flat cars. Trains went about halfway up Back Allegheny Mountain above the switchbacks to a pleasant pasture now known as Whittaker Station. At that point, there was not enough money yet to fix the tracks to Bald Knob. In 1968, the line to Bald Knob was restored. Since 1985 the West Virginia Department of Commerce has proceeded with its plans to restore the town of Cass.
The Trip to Bald Knob
The train as I walked to the ticket office, picked up my ticket and then walked to see what engine was on the rear of our train.
Today we would be pushed up to Bald Knob by Cass Railway three truck Shay truck 11, ex. moved to Campo in 1983, exx. Pacific Southwest Railway Museum at San Diego, California 1967, exxx. transferred Feather River Railway Company 3 at Feather Falls, California in 1939, exxxx. Feather River Pine Mills 3 1927, nee Hutchinson Lumber Company 3 at Oroville, California built by Lima in 1923.
The train was Shay 11, Cars 1, 2, 5, 8 and 9. I chose a seat in Car 9 and the rear end of the bench.
The view as we started the trip.
Passing the remains of the fire-damaged Cass Mill.
Chesapeake and Ohio water tower rebuilt in 1933.
The Cass steam shop.
Cass Scenic Heisler 6, ex. Meadow River Lumber Company 6 1939, nee Bostonia Coal and Clay Products 20 built by Heisler Locomotive Works in 1929. Unusually, it was built as a saturated steam engine well into the superheated era.
Cass Scenic three-truck Shay 5, nee Greenbrier and Elk River Railroad 5 built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1905. It is 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 (180,000 lbs) 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. 5 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. Since then, it has undergone various shoppings and been in and out of service as needed.
Western Maryland three-truck Shay 6 built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1945 and was the last shay outshopped by them. It is also the second largest shay ever built and the largest still in existence. It was 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 Cass Scenic Railroad. 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.
Passenger cars for the Whittaker Run.
Cass Scenic Railroad 65 ton switcher 21 built by General Electric in 1943.
Up the mountain we went.
The first crossing of Leatherbark Creek.
Leatherbark Creek.
The second crossing of Leatherbark Creek.
Back Mountain Road crossing.
The engine starts up the four percent grade.
Views up the grade to the Gum Road crossing.
The Gum Road crossing.
The journey up to the Lower Switchback.
Views at the Lower Switchback.
The track below that we came up on.
We proceeded to Gum Curve.
The view from Gum Curve.
Curving out of Gum Curve.
A look back towards Gum Curve.
The engine pulling hard above the Logging Road.
The Limestone Cut.
Views at the Upper Switchback.
Views on the 7.4 percent grade below Whittaker.
Shay 11 was pushing hard up that grade.
Two views from that 7.4 percent grade.
Our train about to arrive at Whittaker.
Cass Scenic Railroad caboose 51, ex. Meadow River Lumber 3 1956, nee Chesapeake and Ohio 90658 built by the railroad in 1924. For the most part, the cabooses we see today can be rented out for stays either at Whittaker or Bald Knob.
Whittaker.
Shay 11 pushing the train into Whittaker Station, where we had twenty-five minutes to look around. I purchased a hot dog at the concession stand before explorinr.
Log cars and hopper plus the Fire Lookout Tower.
Cass Scenic Railroad caboose, ex. Georgia Pacific Corporation, exx. W.M. Ritter Lumber Company, exxx. Elk River Coal and Lumber, nee Baltimore and Ohio built by the railroad betwen 1878 and 1900. It arrived in 1964 and was restored and used on railfan charter runs in 1965 and 1966, also off-line use to the Mountain State Forest Festival and Strawberry Festival during those years. This caboose was moved to the Whittaker site in 1993.
The camp car manufactured from a 40-foot wood flatcar built for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company by American Car & Foundry sometime between 1912 and 1920 (fleet number unknown). It continued to serve the Cass mill until Mower Lumber Company's closure in 1960 then was conveyed to the State by Midwest Raleigh Incorporated. Eventually, it was stored on the river dead line until fashioned into a camp unit by John Smith prior to the 1989 season. He copied the design of former Mower camp car 419 (which had been modified circa 1970 with a side door) under assumption the door was standard and was moved to Camp One display site in 1993.
Standard flat car and crane, builder, construction date and original owner unknown. It was bought second-hand by Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company of Richwood, Nicholas County for its logging fleet then acquired by Elk River Coal & Lumber Company and conveyed to its subsidiary Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad in 1957 and became 106. It was donated by BC&G's successor parent, Clinchfield Coal Co. Division of Pittston Coal Company in 1970 and converted into Cass Scenic Railroad platform car 106 for the 1972 season; retired due to frame rusting and placed on the river dead line. Excursion top canopy removed after selection for Camp No. 1 and moved to the site in 1993.
This skidder was built by Meadow River Lumber's Rainelle shop using older Lidgerwood skidder engines and winches and completed in 1945. Numbered 1, it was mounted on a 55-foot car frame, the mast (tower, spar) fabrication (standing 96 feet from its base in operating condition) and cable capability (over 3,300 feet) made it one of the largest high-lead skidders ever used in the East. The purpose of the rebuild was related to handling tree-length logs; service ended sometime in 1966 (it was the last operating steam skidder in the East); brought to Rainelle in early 1968 and stored on a siding across the mill pond from MRL's bandsaw plant. Shipped to Cass as part of the donated equipment 1972 and is one of only two Lidgerwood skidders extant domestically.
Views from the Whittaker Platform.
The flat car again.
Cass Scenic Railroad ballast car 5268, ex. Conrail 52680, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 70 ton coal hopper built by the railroad in 1958. It was donated to the railroad by Conrail in 1998 and was initially used for repair of the West Virginia Central (Spruce to Beaver Creek).
Log cars.
Whittaker scenes.
Cass Shay 11.
