NT WV Gathering, May 7-10, 2015.

It's around 90-miles south from Davis to Cass. Several years ago, I rode the train up/down the mountain as part of the Tuesday lunch ride at an MSTA event. We had lunch at the very top of the mountain with an incredible view. Because of the steep grade, the train goes forward-backwards-forward, etc., to make it up the mountain and does the same coming down. The track is laid in a zig-zag pattern. Cars that once carried timber down the mountain have been enclosed to carry passengers but there is still a brakeman and brake in each car. I also recall that all the wheels on the locomotive were drive wheels and not just there to help carry the weight.

You can look up "Cass Railroad" if you're interested.
 
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DirtFlier said:
I also recall that all the wheels on the locomotive were drive wheels and not just there to help carry the weight.
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Shays have geared drive to all the wheels on the locomotive because steel wheels on steel rails don't have a high coefficient of friction. Driving all the wheels helps that. There's a Shay on the Georgetown Loop Railroad here in Colorado, too.
 
The Shay locomotive at Cass also had two containers filled with sand in front so the train engineer could drop sand directly onto each track as necessary to help gain traction when the rails were too slippery. I found the Shay locomotive similar in purpose/design to a tug boat - all engine and little else. It was fascinating.
 
I had never seen a worm type of drive on a train before. truly a workhorse of a locomotive. I was around for about 2 hrs, but did not ride the train up the mountain. a couple I met there while eating ice cream, later invited me to go with them to tour the back shop where the trains are repaired
 
Cass is great. I've been there multiple times. Not only are the locomotives Shay types, which have great running gear with pistons on the side of the loco, visible con rods and shafts out to the gears at the trucks, they also burn coal (unlike some steam RRs that have converted to oil or propane). Also, unlike most steam excursion trains where you ride in a closed passenger car far from the loco, at Cass you may have the option of sitting in an open car right in front of the engine (it both pushes and pulls you in the course of the run.) A few times we have ridden in the fall, the front of the engine about 20 feet away, feeling the heat of the boiler, hearing the engine working, watching the steam and coal smoke boiling up through the trees. They don't always run the open car, but when they do its really a blast!

It looks as if this year management of the operation has shifted from West Va State Parks to the Durbin and Greenbrier company. And so far, they have not posted dates for the 2015 operating season. I'll be watching to see if a ride to Cass would be an option for the early May West Va get together.
 
Road Runner has features on West Virginia this issue. Lets hope winter is gone by May, I beginning to think it will still be here.
 
[Also, unlike most steam excursion trains where you ride in a closed passenger car far from the loco, at Cass you may have the option of sitting in an open car right in front of the engine (it both pushes and pulls you in the course of the run.)..NoVa Chris]

When we rode the train, we were riding in a passenger car. On the way to the summit, the train goes forward, then backwards up the mountain so being "in front" is somewhat moot. It makes reversals several times and the track is laid in a zig-zag pattern with overruns of track long enough so the full length of the train can stop and change directions. You could call those overruns a short section of track that goes nowhere.
 
I don't pay attention to such articles. Motorcycling is a considered high-risk compared to driving a cage but so what? Getting out and enjoying the great outdoors is a part of life for me. If you really wanted to be safe you'd never leave home and die watching TV!
 
DirtFlier said:
I don't pay attention to such articles. Motorcycling is a considered high-risk compared to driving a cage but so what? Getting out and enjoying the great outdoors is a part of life for me. If you really wanted to be safe you'd never leave home and die watching TV!
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+1 Million my friend.
 
DirtFlier said:
I don't pay attention to such articles. Motorcycling is a considered high-risk compared to driving a cage but so what? Getting out and enjoying the great outdoors is a part of life for me. If you really wanted to be safe you'd never leave home and die watching TV!
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DirtFlier, that article is supposedly about how un-healthy, un-wealthy, un-happy, and how everyone wants to leave the state. Oh well.. They are not asking the motorcyclist, mountain biker, kayaker, hiker, camper, or outdoorsman type, LOL..
 
I am still planning on coming. And once I get that far, my mother is only 700 miles up the road in western Maine.
 
Just checked the Cass Scenic Railroad website. They don't start running trains until weekend of May 15. Lots of other great rides and stops for the NT gathering in West Virginia. But no choo-choo this trip.
 
[DirtFlier, that article is supposedly about how un-healthy, un-wealthy, un-happy, and how everyone wants to leave the state.]


The news media too often focuses on negativity in life so stories about good are often rare. Case in point, if high school football players are expelled for doing some wrong, it's on the front page; conversely a student who never missed a day in school for 4-years and has carried a B+ average, it is never mentioned.

I could complain about the sub-frigid temps and snow in OH but I was the one who asked for a transfer from So Cal to rural OH so it was my choice. Happiness is where you make it.

Chris - you can still ride over to Cass to view the trains and their visitor's center.
 
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NoVa Chris said:
Just checked the Cass Scenic Railroad website. They don't start running trains until weekend of May 15. Lots of other great rides and stops for the NT gathering in West Virginia. But no choo-choo this trip.
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Chris, we could still go down there to see the visitors Center and the trains. Its only about two hours and then head home. From Cass to my house is about four hours.
 
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