Locomotive Shops

Maintaining and repairing steam motive power is a skilled, labor-intensive task. Shop activities at Cass run year-round, and no two days are the same. The off-season workforce totals 14, as the regulars are joined by engine crews and train conductors. The main facility, opened in 1976, features more than a dozen machine tools and two overhead cranes.

The Cass Shop's modernity stands out in stark contrast to the otherwise atmospheric climate. The first component of the logging era shop complex to go was the foundry; a 1957 blaze brought an end to producing cast-iron, brass and babbitt parts when more than 1,200 wooden casting patterns were lost. In July 1972, the beloved main structures were destroyed by an electrical fire. Roaming the floors, watching lathes and other machinery run (from clapping overhead leather belts) and examining five decades of accumulated clutter are cherished memories to many.

Philip V. Bagdon - Essential Cass: An Overview of Cass Scenic Railroad State Park - 1997