Cass Scenic Railroad

Monday Oct. the 9th turned into an off day as I decided to ride the Cass Scenic Railroad 11 miles up the mountain from Cass to Bald Knob. Not a bad way to spend time with my grandparents as I was away most of the prior two days riding, and this would be one of my last days to spend some quality time with them prior to my 2ish month adventure. The train ride starts in the old logging company town of Cass, WV. I'm not going to give you a history lesson, if you're interested in the logging boom in West Virginia you can Google it yourself, or even better visit Pocahontas County on your own one day (I'd recommend early to mid October). Anyway without further ado here are some pictures of the old company town of Cass.

The ride up the mountain is provided by a Shay locomotive pulling open air passenger cars. The Shay is a steam powered engine with the heat provided by West Virginia's other famous natural resource; coal. Was a bit smoky at times behind the engine, and had some ash land in my eyes a few times. Otherwise a pleasant means of locomotion (see what I did there?).

Train pulling out of the station at Cass. You have two options for riding the train: the first a two hour trip to Whittaker Station or a 4 hour trip to Bald Knob the third highest peak in West Virginia. The train isn't backwards. It pushes you up the mountain, and then controls the descent in front coming down.

Shay number 6, the last one ever built in the early 1940's,  pushing us up the mountain.

The rail line switchbacks a couple of times going up the early part of the mountain requiring sidings as the turns are too tight. In other words the train is no longer pushing us from behind at this point, but is rather now in front pulling us.

Most of the land on the lower slopes is privately owned, but still heavily forested. This is the road to the Shalimar "Horse Resort." Sounds like a good idea for a horse lovers vacation. Keep the post hole digging trail crappers on private land and off public multi-use trails.

Train back to pushing us up towards Whittaker Station.

Pulling into Whittaker Station, around 3,700' in elevation.

Train at Whittaker Station, and the following two pictures are from the station as well.

Peak color as we climb the mountain.

Into the coniferous Red Spruce forest. These trees are what the logging companies built the railway up the mountain to harvest. Only another 120 years and the trees will be full grown. Sorry I don't have any better pictures of this section of the line.

 

Bald Knob, 4,800' above sea level, and end of the line.

The following pictures are the from the viewing platform at the top of the mountain. As you can see the weather is starting to move in, a prelude to three days of rain through the middle of this week.

The white disc popping up from behind the ridge in the middle of this picture is the largest moveable radio telescope in the world located in Green Banks, WV. This telescope is the reason why Pocahontas County is a National Quiet Zone, no cell phone service in the county.

The logging town of Spruce was located on a rail spur in this valley. Only way to reach this town when it existed was by rail as no road were ever built into it. Trivia: The coldest temperature ever recorded in WV, -47 degrees, was recorded in Spruce. Snowshoe resort is on one of the mountain tops surrounding this ghost town.

Brakemen doing their job controlling our speed descending the mountain.

Heading down the mountain.

Close ups of the iron horse that pulled us up and down the mountain.

Old company store, built in 1907 if I remember correctly.

That's it for now. Rained out through the middle of the week and no pictures of today's ramble through Mammoth Cave, my camera doesn't take pictures well in low light. Next stop Land Between the Lakes.