October 23, 2022
Cass Mountain Railroad * Bald Knob Excursion
Eight train rides in ten days – you see why nobody would want to travel with me? Truth be told, I never asked anyone. When it comes to travel, I’ve found over the years that a lot of the stuff I like to do – be it three weeks flying an
85000 mile mileage run to spending five days on a luxury all-First Class around the world trip in pursuit of passing through
my five millionth mile threshold in style are not things most normal people would consider a quality travel experience.
Then again, in terms of where I’ve gone, what I’ve done and how long I’ve stayed there, some of the trips I’ve taken would be amenable to most anybody. In those cases, the problem has been one of two things. One – I’m gone too long, such as my trip
across Russia by rail and then on to Fiji with the other issue being that I’m not well off enough to be sugar daddy-ing anybody along with me. That, and the fact that I’m also prone to impulsivity. But we’ve already discussed this. In any event, while it’s great fun to travel and share new adventures with friends, I’m hardly isolated on trips like this. I meet all kinds of people. But I also really enjoy time to myself. As such, I don’t mind one bit doing these longer trips alone.
* * * ~ X ~ * * *
Thankfully I was able to sleep in until 8:30ish because today started out with a short but scenic 60 mile drive down to the little town of Cass, West Virginia. There I’ll be boarding a steam train for the 22 mile, four and a half hour round trip to the top of Bald Knob. The train climbs 2,390 feet to the top of Bald Knob (4842 feet), said to be the third highest point in West Virginia. Let’s head over to the station and climb onboard!
Cass Mountain Railroad
Photo courtesy of the Cass Mountain Railroad
Cass Mountain Railroad
Photo courtesy of the Cass Mountain Railroad
One major attraction of the Cass Mountain Railroad for rail fans the world over is the Shay locomotives that the railroad operates on these runs. The Shays are geared steam locomotives that – to quote from Wikipedia – “
use gearing, usually reduction gearing, in the drive train, as opposed to the common directly driven design. This gearing is part of the machinery within the locomotive and should not be confused with the pinion that propels a rack locomotive along the rack between the rails.”
There were three main manufacturers of geared steam locomotives, each slightly different from one another. Again, to quote Wikipedia, “
The Shay locomotive features an offset boiler with a multiple-cylinder engine affixed to it on the opposite side, driving a longitudinal shaft geared to the axles via bevel gears.”
Uh… okay…
Alas, there are no First Class parlor cars on this train. All of the open air coaches appear to be 1920s vintage with long wooden benches running the length of the interior. That could be a bit problematic for me since sitting on hard surfaces for extended periods can become pretty uncomfortable over time. Eh – no worries. Just get up and stand once in a while! All the better to get the style of pictures I like, too.
And the journey begins
Smoky departure from Cass
So then, it’s an eleven mile journey up the slopes of Back Allegheny Mountain. That name sounds a bit odd, so I looked it up. According to the wvexplorer.com website, “
Back-Allegheny Mountain is the first principal ridge west of Allegheny Mountain in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia” The route is heavily forested through all but the very top of the mountain where there’s a big open area devoid of trees – the bald spot known as Bald Knob.
Promotional materials about this train ride describe the views from atop Bald Knob as “breathtaking”. For some, I suppose, but for me the real attraction was the diversity of the forest. Over the course of the trip I got to chatting with a local gentleman who’d lived his entire life in West Virginia. He pointed out that the lower forests were made up predominantly of birch, maple, oak and hickory but that the upper reaches of the mountain were mainly Red Spruce.
Red spruce! Who knew? I grew in Colorado where the Blue Spruce is the state tree. Where I now live in Alaska, the boreal forests of the Interior have a lot of Black and White Spruce. I wonder what other colors there are? A little research reveals that the Blue ;Spruce is sometimes referred to as the Green Spruce while the Eastern Spruce is sometimes referred to as the Yellow Spruce.
But I digress! Once again. Amazing how the mind wanders as one gets older… Let’s check out some pictures from the ride up -
We’ll be heading up those rails shortly
The excitement builds…
Standard pose as we rolled through the forests
Midway Point Station
The colors began to change as we climbed higher
Love those curves!
As we continued to climb, the air temperature began to get cooler. I was glad I’d brought my down vest along, but frankly I would’ve liked a full on jacket by the time we reached the summit. Speaking of which, let’s head on up there!
Time to water the engine
Our destination looms ahead
Viewing Platform at the top of Cass Mountain
We spent about twenty minutes up on top of the mountain before re-boarding the train for the long descent back down to Cass.
Our train awaits for the return trip
Colorful West Virginia Forests
A pair of Shays at Cass, WV
This was a nice ride, mainly due to the beauty of the forests along the way. The company that operates this train – Mountain Rail WV – also operates another train out of Elkins called the
New Tygart Flyer. Of particular appeal to me was that this train offers First Class, the trip is almost five hours in length and there’s a luncheon served onboard. Even after all the trains I’ve ridden of late, I would gladly have booked this one for tomorrow if I could have. I mean, I’m like a kid in an amusement park and these are all great rides! Alas, the
New Tygart Flyer didn’t operate Monday through Thursday. Fair enough. I’ll just have to come back next year. Or the year after.
It was getting on 5:00pm and I had a 120 mile drive ahead of me. Destination: That nice Best Western hotel over in LaVale, MD. From there, I’d have about a four hour drive tomorrow to get back to Philadelphia where I’d turn in the rental car and relocate to Atlanta, Georgia. Awaiting me over in North Carolina were two more train rides down in the Great Smoky Mountains.
October 24, 2022
Southwest Airlines * Philadelphia, PA to Atlanta, GA * 450p-700p * Economy Class * 737-700
You may recall it was only ten days ago that I was in Utica and caused some damage to my rental car while parking. It’s a good thing I got an early start out of LaVale this morning because the paperwork upon turning the car in at PHL took quite a while. Then there was the traffic that the shuttle bus encountered trying to get to the terminal. Then there was the gate – the farthest possible gate from the check-in counter. I could’ve used that wheelchair assistance today!
As I write this, Southwest Airlines is just emerging from what has to have been its worst week ever due to the Christmas week winter storm that affected about one third of the nation. Thousands of cancelled flights, lost luggage, the Secretary of Transportation calling them out on the news, and of course distraught passengers saying they’ll never fly Southwest again.
While it sounds like some of the problems encountered were of definitely of Southwest’s doing, it’s also worth acknowledging that this storm was one of the worst in U.S. history. Then factor in the Christmas holidays and people stuck away from their loved ones and every gets magnified.
From my experience, Southwest has always been a reliable and quality airline. I’ve always liked how straight forward they are – they don’t nickel and dime you with fees for a bunch of extraneous BS, they don’t charge for baggage, their boarding process makes sense for an all Economy Class airline and their seats are comfortable with decent legroom. I look forward to the stench of this debacle blowing off Southwest sooner than later, and I also look forward to contributing to their recovery with my next ticket purchase.