Cass Railfan Weekend 2010

[mSummers]

I had time at lunch today to process two shots from Railfan Weekend at Cass this past weekend:

Shay #5 pulling the log train through the cloud bank and up the 9% grade at the Bald Knob Emergency Water Stop:

A few locals have gathered at the Cass Depot while Heisler #6 simmers in front of the Depot on the C&O mainline:

More to come...

 

[HW]

you are the Ansel Adams of train photography

 

[prettypixie]

Very nice

 

[PolynesianMedic]

That second shot is simply stunning. ; I love it.

 

[Tim]

you are killing me with these train pix. ; all we have around here are a bunch of lame amtrak cars. ;

 

[mSummers]

Thanks everyone!

 

[mSummers]

you are killing me with these train pix. ; all we have around here are a bunch of lame amtrak cars. ;

Thanks Tim! ; Steam trains usually require some traveling to get to, but they're well worth the trip. ; I drive almost 2 hours to get to the WMSR, 3 Hours to the East Broad Top and 5 hours to Cass. ;

You might not be as far from a steam engine as you think. ; Steamtown in Scranton and the Strasburg Railroad are probably the closest steam railroads to you. ; The Reading and Northern also runs a couple of steam excursions out of Jim Thorpe, PA.

 

[Roger]

The closest steam for me is still in the shop. ; In Alabama.

 

[PolynesianMedic]

Strasburg is well worth the trip. ; I took my son there a few years ago for a Day Out with Thomas. ; It was a lot of fun. ; There were a limited amount of other trains that day and since the focus was on Thomas, we weren't looking around much. ; I would love to go back there and spend a day just checking out all of the other Steamies.

 

[Scottwdw]

Michael,

Were the "locals" part of the Railfan? ; If that building didn't have such modern windows, you'd swear you had been transported back in time. ; Looking forward to all the rest.

 

[Craig]

Michael, I love the second one. that is really really awesome!

 

[mSummers]

Strasburg is well worth the trip. ; I took my son there a few years ago for a Day Out with Thomas. ; It was a lot of fun. ; There were a limited amount of other trains that day and since the focus was on Thomas, we weren't looking around much. ; I would love to go back there and spend a day just checking out all of the other Steamies.

Strasburg is probably the best one of those three for small children. ; They have shorter train rides almost every day and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is right across the street. ; The Day Out With Thomas event is neat for little kids, but I try to avoid them. ; If you have time when you're there, try to do the shop tour. ; The take you through their maintenance buildings and show you the locomotives they are currently rebuilding for themselves and other railroads.

 

[mSummers]

Were the "locals" part of the Railfan? ; If that building didn't have such modern windows, you'd swear you had been transported back in time. ; Looking forward to all the rest.

The "locals" were some of the MSR&LHA[nb]Mountain State Railroad and Logging Historical Association[/nb] staff members and the guys who owned the old cars dressed in period clothing to enhance the scene. ;

The depot is a 1970's reproduction of the C&O depot that was on the site. ; Its actually a combination of the exterior ornamental details of the original C&O depot built on the enlarge footprint of the second C&O depot. ; The depot windows are built to match original windows on other C&O depots in the area. ; The large building behind the depot is the original Pocahontas Supply Company (Cass company store) which was built in 1902 and enlarged to its current size in the 1920's. ; As far as I know all of the windows in the company store are original.

 

[mSummers]

Thanks Craig!

 

[Scottwdw]

The "locals" were some of the MSR&LHA[nb]Mountain State Railroad and Logging Historical Association[/nb] staff members and the guys who owned the old cars dressed in period clothing to enhance the scene. ;

The depot is a 1970's reproduction of the C&O depot that was on the site. ; Its actually a combination of the exterior ornamental details of the original C&O depot built on the enlarge footprint of the second C&O depot. ; The depot windows are built to match original windows on other C&O depots in the area. ; The large building behind the depot is the original Pocahontas Supply Company (Cass company store) which was built in 1902 and enlarged to its current size in the 1920's. ; As far as I know all of the windows in the company store are original.

Wow...that building is well kept. ; Oh, and I forgot to mention you captured the scene perfectly.

 

[gary]

all of cass was pretty well maintained when i was there circa 1994, the town was a company town. literally, owned and built by the company, like mining towns the store only accepted company scrip, with goods priced at company prices, very few workers in that time period ever escaped from company debt. michael will correct if my memory is bad

 

[ddindy]

They're both beautiful shots. ; Was the Link-ish feel to the second one intentional? ; Regardless, it succeeded in spades!

 

[mSummers]

Thanks guys!

Was the Link-ish feel to the second one intentional?

Yes it was. ; Most railroad night photography sessions try to emulate the Link style. ; Some people complain about that and say that we should be trying to do something different, but I like the style and think it looks really good when properly executed, so I'm not complaining any.

 

[mSummers]

all of cass was pretty well maintained when i was there circa 1994, the town was a company town. literally, owned and built by the company, like mining towns the store only accepted company scrip, with goods priced at company prices, very few workers in that time period ever escaped from company debt. michael will correct if my memory is bad

Your memory is pretty good. ; I'll make one correction about the company store. ; The Pocahontas Supply Company was different than other company stores of that time in that it had privately owned competition within the town of Cass and across the river in the non-company owned town of East Cass. ; Having that competition so close forced them to be reasonable with their prices.

Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on several buildings. ; While they have maintained many of the buildings very well, including an large number of company houses that they rent out to park visitors, they don't have the budget to take care of all of them. ; In the past 3 years, they demolished the Cass Grade School because it was in danger of falling down and damaging the neighboring property. ; A company house fell down about a year ago and a couple more are in really bad shape. ; The CCC garage that housed Lefty's Barbershop either fell down or was demolished last fall. ; I was told that their annual operating budget, excluding salaries and benefits was well less than $100,000. ; With a budget that small, its a miracle that they have been able to keep the place in as good of a condition that they have considering they have the entire town and 6 operable steam locomotives plus all of the track to maintain. ;

 

[mSummers]

I have all of the pictures processed, so its time for the full trip report. ; I left the house very early Friday morning to drive to Cass. ; Since the sun was out and the light looked good, I decided to stop in Durbin, WV on my way to Cass to see if I could catch the Durbin Rocket (former M&KCo. #3), one of 3[nb]Soon to be 4. ; The MSR&LHA is working on restoring one to give to the Cass Scenic Railroad.[/nb] operable Climax type geared steam locomotives that is still operable. ; I lucked out and did a shot of her in good light before the clouds moved in:

I wanted to chase #3 along the Greenbrier River, but a washout and road work on the road that parallels the river prevented me from getting very far. ; I guess that gives me a reason to go back.

That afternoon in Cass, a train went up to Whittaker to dedicate the fire tower exhibit that they installed there. ; Unfortunately, a medical emergency on the train delayed our arrival at Whittaker. ; Once there, they went to back the train into one of the sidings and the rear truck of the first car over the switch picked the switch and ended any hopes of runbys that afternoon. ;

Friday evening, they had a night session at a bridge over the Leatherbark Creek. ; This is a really small location and they had about 3 times as many photographers show up as they planned for. ; I guessed wrong on where the good spot along the photo line was and ended up getting nothing usable from there. ;

Saturday morning we loaded the train and headed up the hill. ; In keeping with what has become a tradition at railfan weekend, it started to rain as we left the Depot. ; Shay #5 pulled the log train up the mountain. ; #5 is special because she was used by Mower Lumber at Cass before the lumber operation closed and Cass became a state park. ; Our first stop was Oats Run Water Stop to refill the tenders and do a couple of runbys:

Next up was the Bald Knob Emergency Waterstop which is one of my favorite spots on the line:

After lunch at Bald Knob, we started back down the mountain and did some runbys at the "S" Curve at Spruce:

Later that evening they did another night session, this time with Heisler #6 at the Depot. ; Two people brought in antique cars and several people dressed in period clothing to complete the scene: