Cass (WV) Steam Railroad

[Story]

Saw this, chuckled at the name and new I'd have to post for the benefit of all.

A steam-powered train trip into West Virginia's past
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/20/travel/la-tr-cass-20100620

Visitors flock to "West Virginia's Williamsburg" for a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad. The grade can be steep —9% at some spots, with geared locomotives providing the power — but the scenery is spectacular, and the region's logging history is fascinating.

Reporting from Cass, W. Va. — At the old mill town of Cass, nestled deep in a remote holler of West Virginia, coal smoke and history hang in the air.

The smoke is from the geared steam locomotives that serve the Cass Scenic Railroad. Ideal for steep grades and marginal track, these Shays — named for Ephraim Shay, who designed the eccentric but effective locomotives — once toted logs from the woods to the lumber mill at Cass. Today, they haul visitors by the thousands up into those same woods.

See also
http://www.cassrailroad.com/

[GunClick Rick]

Cool!
Here's the one we ride

http://www.caladventures.com/yosemitemountainsugarpinerailroad.htm

[Delmonico]

Didn't get to ride it, but we chased it one cold Jan day about a 100 miles across SE Nebraska it was running about 75 mph in the first picture::











(Steam Train lovers will know it when they read the # on it.)

That locomotive weighs 317 tons with out the tender, 487 with.

[Forty Rod]

4-6-6-4 Challenger?

Had a bunch ran out here up until 1953(?) picking up produce and manufactured goods from the harbors and factories, and hauling it east, then coming back with grain and coal.

[Delmonico]

4-6-6-4 Challenger?

Yep, that was in 2004, I missed it when it went north of me  about 50 miles in 2008, one awsome piece of machinery.

[Trailrider]

Looks like the diamond pusher was sanding the flues!  They often do that for a runby as it is more impressive than when she's hooked-up and running at peak efficiency!   

[GunClick Rick]

WEEEEE HAAAW HOT DANG! LOOK ATTER GO!!! NICE PICS DEL

[Delmonico]

Looks like the diamond pusher was sanding the flues!  They often do that for a runby as it is more impressive than when she's hooked-up and running at peak efficiency!   

Nope, it was cold and the fuel oil was not buring good, that was about 30 miles after she started the run.  By Hastings it was running clean.

[GunClick Rick]

That's gotta be one of the best train pics i've seen..

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

The train kind of reminds me of the old Southern Pacific Cab Forward # 4294 ... I believe it was a 2-6-6-4, and was originally made as a traditional locomotive ... trouble was that the engineers were getting nearly asphyxiated in the snow caves of the Nothern Sierra. So the story says, the engineering people turned the train around and built a new cab forward housing for it ... the engineers said something like, 'Wow, we can finally see!' ... and the rest is history ... or so the story goes

[WaddWatsonEllis]

To my knowledge, the only 'Malley' (so called I was told because there as a French Locomotive engineer designing cab forwards named Mallet) is in the California Railroad Museum .... and here is some pics of my ex and their 'Malley'

[Forty Rod]

Cab forwards still look funny.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Forty Rod,

They do, but they were the third largest steam engine ever built (or so I am told ... I was also told that they will never get a diesel as powerful as a steamer ... that a lack of Non-destructive-Analysis and the need to stop every 200 miles for water is what killed them ... I was also told that Las Vegas was first built to be a watering spot for steam locomotives ... but that is what you hear when you listen to hearsay ...)

[Forty Rod]

It became a water stop when the rails finally got there, but they found a Mormon fort and resupply point there already.  It's about halfway between SLC and the greater LA area (Anaheim Landing, now known as Seal Beach) and on downward toward San Diego. 

It was settled in the mid-1850s along what they called "The Mormon Corridor" to help Brigham Young make Utah a more accessible place and to help spread commerce both ways.  Sure came in handy later on during the Civil War and further expansion west.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

ForyRod

Thanks ... I got all my information from a defintiely pro-steam docent .... and I felt like I was getting only 80% of the story ...

The Mormons huh?  Who da thunk that ther was any connection between SLC and Sin City. *G*

Having spent a lotta time there in the military, I always wondered how a city in the middle of a God-forsaken desert would get started .... now it looks like I have an answer ...

[Hangtown Frye]

The Cab Forwards weren't the largest of the Mallet's, that prize goes to the Union Pacific's "Big Boy's" which were 4-8-8-4's, mostly operating out of Ogden for the haul through the Rockies.  BIG is rather an understatement.  Lots of raw power, but all of the steam loco's took a LOT of maintenance, far more than the Diesels did.  And they could string a dozen Diesels together to get the same power as two Big Boys (or Cab Forwards) to get the same power, at half the manpower.  Railroads being into business to make money (unfortunately for railfans), they went the cheaper route.  The whole business of stopping every 200 or so miles for water didn't help either...

Old No. 4294 there in the Sacramento Railroad Museum used to be something of a playmate of mine. When I was little (and I mean really little) my Dad would bring my Brother and me to the SP station across the street from the present-day location of the Railroad Museum, and we'd climb all over that big monster. The valves were all busted or missing, and it was in a horrid shape, but it still had so much class that even as a 4-year-old I was inspired.  Gorgeous piece of machinery she is, a real tribute to American Industrial Might and Working Men of the first half of the 19th Century.  Were it that we could actually build such a thing today without the use of computers to make it work!

It's great to see her all spiffed up and under cover these days. She's the last of her breed, never to be seen again. BTW, the Engineers loved being able to breath while chugging through the snow-sheds of the Sierra, but did complain about the shortcomings in case of a head-on collision.  Something to be said in having several hundred tons of steel in front of you, rather than behind you when hitting something at speed...

Cheers!

Gordon

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Gordon/Hangtown,

I volunteer as a docent tor the Sacramento Museum, (right next door to the CA State Railroad Museum), and get free admittance to their musem if in uniform or Californio duds ... one of the things I have meant to do was to down and see the 'Malley', as well as the dining car with it's priceless collection of Railroad China, the Pullman Coach that is on casters to simulate traveling on rails ... if you are ever coming to Sacramento, this museum shoud be on your 'must see' list ...

The Malley used to be over the maintenance bay where a person could walk under the whole locomotive ... and see the two or three miles of hydraulic lines  ... plus driving wheels that are taller that I am ... and I am six feet  ....

Quite a site ... and quite a sight ....

[Hangtown Frye]

Been there many a time, Wadd!  I love that place, and all of the nifty stuff inside of it.  I used to drag my poor little girls to it regularly, so they're probably the only young women around these days who not only can (and do) shoot their own matchlocks, but have a pretty good idea of what makes a steam locomotive run.  We went there when the US Marshall's had their bicentennial display there some decades ago, and I think I still have their little star badges!  Anyway, it was a fun trip getting to see Jesse James' Schofield AND lots of steam locomotives at the same time!

BTW, were you aware that the first hold-up of a railroad train happened just over on the Yolo Causeway?  Around 1868 or so, as I recall now.  The perps were quickly tracked down and arrested, but thrown into a Federal pokey where they spread the word on their techniques far and wide... the information eventually coming to those out on the Plains and in the Kansas-Missouri area.  Interesting how things like that work...

Cheers!

Gordon

[Delmonico]

Forty Rod,

They do, but they were the third largest steam engine ever built (or so I am told ... I was also told that they will never get a diesel as powerful as a steamer ... that a lack of Non-destructive-Analysis and the need to stop every 200 miles for water is what killed them ... I was also told that Las Vegas was first built to be a watering spot for steam locomotives ... but that is what you hear when you listen to hearsay ...)

Steam engines just keep lugging, this picture is somewhere up in the Dakota's around 1910. 14 bottoms in virgin prairie, my farmer freinds tell me no modern tractor could do it.  This one is a 20 HP Case.  Howerever their modern big tractors could pull less bottoms on the plow and do the job much quicker and with just one operator:



Here is a similar one that belongs to some friends that runs, he's playing on the teeter totter with it.




I hitched a ride, but he needed to add some fuel first:



Tooling along:



The view from up top:



The sawmill in the background is powered by this one:

[Hangtown Frye]

Nothing cooler than Steam Engines!  Give us more!

Cheers!

Gordon