Sunday, July 30th - Cass Scenic Railroad

I went up to the final event of the Jamboree, a continental breakfast. MA slept in so I brought her some coffee & yogurt.

Today we left the coach (and Gypsy) at Snowshoe Mountain and drove over to Cass, WV. Cass was a logging company town in the early 1900's. When the logging operation shut down in 1960, some very astute individuals wanted to save the heritage of the town and the logging railroad. Thus was born the Cass Scenic Railroad, operated by the State of West Virginia.

The railroad is special because they used "Shay" locomotives. They were extremely powerful engines that were "articulated" so that they could operate on very uneven track and very tight turns. Even the wheels of the coal tender were "drivers" to get better traction. There are very few of these Shay's left, most right here in Cass. We took a two-hour trip on the excursion train up to Whittaker, a restored logging camp.

The brakeman in our car recommended a country restaurant about ten miles away so we took his advice and drove to Boyer, WV. He was right!