Cass Scenic Railroad
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain - the title of a popular Appalachian tune seems appropriate for this scene... The train is coming from the Leatherbark Creek and the Cass Shop to the station to pickup the passengers for the ride up to Wittaker Station and beyond to the top of Bald Knob.
Two of the caboose wagons. One can rent these and be taken to either Wittaker Station or Bald Knob and left amongs the beauty of the West Virginia countryside until the prearranged pickup date. Our trip this date was to pickup a caboose with its passengers that had been overnighting on Bald Knob for a couple of days.
Today or yesteryear? One can loose track of time in these mountains...
Two of the Cass Shay steam logging locomotives are required to push the cars with passengers up the 11% grade to Wittaker Station and Bald Knob.
Arriving at Wittaker Station, the trains stop for a break. Wittaker Station is a logging camp.
The trip this day was with strong overcast skies and periodic light rain, thought the weather was warm. At the higher altitudes, the light rain was more pronounced.
The 162 ton Shay #6 entered service for Western Maryland coal in Elkins, West Virginia on May 14, 1945 and she was the last Shay ever built. Retired into a Baltimore & Ohio Museum in Baltimore, MD after only four years of service, the #6 was aquired by Cass in 1981 and now makes the challenging runs to Wittaker Station and Bald Knob.
A caboose rented for a peaceful stay atop Bald Knob for the past several days is scheduled to be picked up by our train this date for return to Cass. With no roads up to this point, the only interruption to a stay up here in a caboose and/or tents is a daily visit by the Cass train.
Depsite the strong overcast, the vista is stunning. To the left in the distance is a small white speck which is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.
A viewing deck at the end of the rails on Bald Knob provides for a stunning vista.
Ahh....yes.....did I mention that we were in the mountains of West Virginia?
