Train Rides

n an age where rugged wilderness country, unspoiled scenery, and steam locomotives are but tearful memories, the Cass Scenic Railroad provides unique appeal. Shiny black "Shay" steam locomotives still go into deep forests, recreating for citizens of the 1970's what was commonplace in 1905. Youngsters, many of whom have never seen an "Iron Horse," literally jump for joy; and adults find it easy to remember the bygone era of steam engines on American Railroads; as billowing clouds of black sulfurous-smelling coal smoke, a clear and melodic whistle, and the hiss of clean white steam announce the departure of the train.

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure

he clickity-clack of steel wheels on steel rails counts the distance as the train swings out of the Greenbrier River Valley and onto the steep, winding tracks that saw sixty years of continuous use hauling more than one billion board feet of lumber to market (plus an equal volume of pulpwood.) The Cass Scenic Railroad is no amusement park! Powerful engines, designed especially for this work, must move the cars up grades where the average climb is four to five feet up for each hundred feet forward. At one time before the train reaches its mountain-top terminal the grade will reach an astonishing rise of twelve feet up for each hundred feet of travel.

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure

long Leatherbark Creek, the rails cling tenaciously to steep banks. Then, after passing through one of the few remaining switchbacks anywhere in the United States, the train rushes into an open meadow -- breaking out of the dense hardwood forests into a panorama of beauty that has every passenger reaching for his camera. Through a second switchback, the train reverses direction and struggles up a 10% grade into Whittaker.

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure

hittaker Station, surrounded by green meadows and fine views, offers a cool, shady picnic grove with tables where excursionists may rest and enjoy the scenery. The stop has drinking water, rest rooms, and snack stand. Some trains terminate here - returning to the Cass Depot after a fifteen minute stop-over. For most passengers, Whittaker is a pleasant pause on their ride into America's last eastern wilderness.

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure

eaving the open slopes and hardwood forests, the Shay pushes hard to move the old lumber flatcars-turned passenger coaches back onto stiff grades into a changing forest that now contains a predominance of evergreens. Panoramas of the lofty Appalachians become more beautiful as the train climbs higher and higher.

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure

Old Spruce. A three-mile line cut sharply to the left up to the head of Shavers Fork, logged in 1901-05. In 1945-50, Mower Lumber went back with 13 miles of track and 20 skidder sets. The present track going off to the left actually follows the route of the main logging line that connected to trackage going into the Cheat and Elk River drainages at the long-abandoned mill town of Spruce. Northward, the track follows the Cheat River to Elkins. This trackage was abandoned by the CSX railroad in the 1990s and was purchased by the West Virginia State Railroad Authority. Their contractor, the West Virginia Central Railroad, now runs excursion trips out of Elkins and Cheat Bridge along this very scenic route.

The track from this point to Bald Knob was actually just a logging spur and was never the main line. It was constructed to allow the last trees to be removed and was some of the last track remaining when railroad logging operations creased in 1960.

Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association

Oats Creek water tank is on an 8% grade. The train stops here to take on water. There were few water towers constructed on logging railroads; Shay locomotives can use a steam siphon to draw water from any convenient source. The water from Oats Creek is diverted into an old boiler shell so the engines can draw water here.

Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association

assengers suddenly realize they are entering a completely different world, mainly because of the change in trees, flowers, and atmosphere. By climbing the 2,390 feet from Cass (2452 feet) to Bald Knob (4842 feet), passengers have made the equivalent to an 800-mile trip to Canada in climate because of the higher altitude. Here are found spruce trees, snowshoe hares, moss and lichens, and other plants and animals typical of the far north. Naturalists term the high country a "bit of Canada gone astray."

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure

Change in forest type. Notice the forest has changed from mixed hardwoods to red spruce. Red spruce covered most the higher elevations in this area prior to logging, but the trees have been slow to recover since they like cold, wet, shady areas. The hardwood trees that initially grew after logging have provided sufficient shade for the red spruce to regain a foothold. In another hundred years or so the mountaintop may again be a climax red spruce forest.

Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association

t Bald Knob Terminal — the second highest spot in West Virginia — the train takes a well deserved rest while passengers visit the rustic trackside overlook. Dwarfed by distance and beauty, this is one of the most awesome, overwhelming spectacles in the East. In the faint distance is the giant 300-foot radio telescope and landing strip of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank. A remarkable contrast between the wilderness at Bald Knob and today's space-age facilities!

Visitors to Bald Knob may also enjoy an unparalleled visit with nature by walking through the nearby hundred-acre stand of virgin spruce trees. Their towering canopy seems to reach to the very heavens, as the quiet stillness is broken only by the rustling of wind through the green mantle overhead. Nearby Bald Knob Fire Tower is the only other man-made structure in nearly 100 square miles -- a true wilderness.

1970 Cass Scenic Railroad brochure