Join me for a Day with a Shay

I’ve been a visitor to West Virginia’s Cass Scenic Railroad since my parents took me there as a teenager to try and mend a broken heart. I wasn’t down because a girl had dumped me. I was sad because my favorite short line had just closed down before my very eyes. The year was 1975, and the Shay-powered Graham County Railroad had just shut down. We made the trip to Cass a few weeks later where there were steep grades, switchbacks, and lots of Shays running around. It was just the thing I needed to move on. There would be another day.

Cass is a special place — the East Coast’s living logging railroad museum. The locomotives, the remote location, and the unbelievably sharp curves and grades in excess of 10 percent made me a fan right away. That is one reason I’m excited about Trains’ first ever photo charter event, on the Cass Scenic Railroad on June 3. On that day, we’ll take freshly restored Pacific Coast Shay No. 2, a log train, and a couple of cabooses up the mountain for a day of photos. We’ll have a small group of no more than 25 so the photos should be outstanding.

If you’ve never spent much time around geared steam locomotives, Cass is the place to be on the East Coast. Shays in particular with three cylinders, a crankshaft, and more gears, universal joints, and enough other moving equipment to hypnotize, are fascinating to watch and listen to. They sound like they’re going 60 mph when they’re crawling along at 6!

We’ve timed this event so that you can take in Norfolk & Western No. 611 at Manassas the next two days or go to the Sounds of Railroading conference at nearby Davis & Elkins College the same weekend. We’re helping to sponsor the railroad-themed music event. Details are here: http://www.dewv.edu/event/sounds-railroading-conference

To join us at Cass, go to this page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trains-magazine-cass-scenic-railroad-photo-charter-tickets-23109272456

We’ll see you on the mountain for a Day with a Shay!