Picked up from the Casshews Facebook page: This was posted on April 9th..... Has anyone here heard or read anything on this matter?

ALL CASSHEWS: I hate to say, but all the rumors are 100% true about a potential changing of hands regarding the day-to-day operations of Cass Scenic Railroad. At this time, we don't stand to lose entirely the railroad, but instead we are VERY likely going to see it assume management by the hands of another state agency, the West Virginia State Rail Authority, which oversees literally every other tourist railroad operation in West Virginia. That is all fact. I'm going to assert a suggestion here though, that is likely also true but don't take my word for it: I believe that the take over will pertain to the day-to-day railroad operations only. I believe the town and park lands themselves will continue to be retained by the state park system (a little logic has been applied here: what would the State Rail Authority want with a bunch of century old company houses and other structures?). I will continue to update as other announcements or information are made. Please read the attached post by friend, employee, and Casshew member James Newhouse for more information!
Ladies, Gentlemen, and fellow railroad enthusiasts,

First of all, I would like to welcome you to "Save the Cass Railroad" and to personally thank each and everyone of you for your support.

As some of you may or may not know, our beloved Cass Scenic Railroad is in jeopardy. Details are still a little sketchy, as this seems to be happening with tight lips. For those that aren't aware of what is happening, I will try to give you some knowledge of the situation as best as I can.

Apparently the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, who runs our State Park System, is attempting to turn the operations of Cass Scenic Railroad over to another state agency known as the West Virginia Rail Authority. Once this would happen, West Virginia Rail Authority will sub-lease the railroad operations and all equipment to a private entity.

Cass Scenic Railroad as you know it would be forever changed. The railroad has made great strides in the 51 years the state has operated it. As you know, it started with three locomotives of which only Shay 4 was operational. Shay's 1 and 5 were in need of major repairs. Now we have up to six world class geared locomotives to run at any time with one more being restored by the Mountain State Railroad and Logging Historical Association. Cass Scenic Railroad has more geared steam locomotives than anywhere in the world and they are maintained by skilled persons who have been employed by the state for many years. You just don't go out and buy parts for a 1905 Shay! Furthermore, Cass has acquired and maintained a large fleet of equipment throughout the years and kept it in great shape.

The West Virginia State Park System has always provided the railroad employees with enough to maintain the railroad to run a regular schedule. If Cass Scenic Railroad is lost to a private entity, you can be assured to a limited running schedule and possibly just volunteers to maintain and run the locomotives and equipment. Locomotives and equipment will shortly fall into disrepair, you will see higher fares to ride the train (when it is running), no special activities, and most of all safety issues. I have first hand knowledge that the current Cass engineers and firemen among others will not be retained and/or will not stay if this comes to fruition. All those years of knowledge will go down the drain. You just don't put someone in a geared locomotive with passengers and send him/her up and down the steep grades of Cass Hill. It takes years upon years to know what it takes. These aren't toys. I personally witnessed the last round of boiler inspections on April 2, 2014.

Cass Scenic Railroad has always been a big initial expense for the state. The last figures I had a few years ago was that the state lost $3.00 per person that road the train, but in return profited $9.00 per person because they spent money there, at a local hotel, or neighboring state park. I was told a few days ago the loss is less and the profit is greater now. Remember, the state gets hotel/motel tax from you. Cass Scenic Railroad has always from the beginning been the most visited of any in the West Virginia State Park System. Ridership is seeing an increase again. If Cass Scenic Railroad is no longer a state park, the other surrounding state parks will suffer also and then also become in limbo. Think about that!

All of this is set to be voted(?) on May 1, 2014. New information will be posted as it is made available. I am planning to have email addresses and phone numbers of persons in the state government and State Park System available within the next few days.

If you enjoy the sweet smell of coal from a Shay, Heisler, and Climax locomotive, the lonely sound of a steam whistle in the beautiful West Virginia forest, or if you have some of the best memories of your life at Cass, please join in the fight to save it. All it takes is just a few minutes of your time to contact someone in government or the State Park System and let your concerns be known. If you are from out of state or from another country (we have many visitors from as far away as Germany and Japan), please feel free to call or email one of our state officials.

Just as our beloved geared steam locomotives have been "against the mountain" for years, we are too. We can save Cass Scenic Railroad. All it takes is a great group of people to work together and do it. IT WILL HAPPEN!!!

While visiting this page, please keep all comments clean and respectful. I wouldn't expect anything less. All derogatory posts will be deleted.

Once again, thank you in advance for your support and love of the Cass Scenic Railroad.

Yours truly,
James A. Newhouse

Anybody know how to get in touch with this Newhouse guy? I'm trying to do a story for Trains magazine.

If all else fails, why not just send him a Private Message from within the internal system!

Having seen far too many e-mail, social media, mailing, etc. campaigns of this type, this is a classic example of "panic-mongering" that, whether actually justified or not, fails my "smell test," and no doubt that of many others.

This is IN NO WAY, however, any indication that a) their allegations are wrong, or b) that the Cass Scenic RR is "safe" from major change.

How does it fail? Let's see:
1) Allegation of pending political action without any evidence or proof--no link to relevant articles, drafts of legislation, news coverage, etc.
2) questionable forecasts of "doom and gloom" dire consequences absent action: "If Cass Scenic Railroad is lost to a private entity, you can be assured to a limited running schedule and possibly just volunteers to maintain and run the locomotives and equipment. . . . All those years of knowledge will go down the drain." No, we can't be assured of that. Not at all. Look what happened when Xanterra bought out the Grand Canyon RR: they kept almost everything as is. Or the Texas State RR, about to release Magma Arizona into service in original livery. (Yes, I know, GCRY was private before. Just saying.) Further, look at some major "failings" of the California State RR Museum (the AT&SF diesel collection). States aren't always "the answer" either.
3) Appeal to immediate and urgent political lobbying, and dissemination of the message further. Check.
4) Rejection or elimination of contrarian viewpoints: "All derogatory posts will be deleted." If you can't stand up to constructive debate of an issue, then your premise must not have any good foundation.

Having said that, I have read a rumor being floated that the "private entity" being courted to assume this proposed "private operation" of Cass is the John Smith enterprise that currently operates the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley, the West Va. Central, etc., and that this is part of a long-term "grand scheme" to unify all of the "ring" of central West Va. rail tourism operations under one aegis/management. Now, putting as much stock in this rumor as I am supposed to in the "WV to divest Cass" rumor, how would the argument for or against privatization appear if this were, indeed, to be the case? I mean, this place is so far off the beaten path, who else are you gonna get? Iowa Pacific? Genessee & Wyoming? Strasburg? Xanterra?

https://www.facebook.com/SavetheCSRR

I have no idea where he got his info or how accurate it, but he's sure trying to "go viral" with this and blow it up all over the web!

That's why I asked the question. I've been unable to turn up anything to substantiate the claims. I can't find anything definitive if the WV Legislative is even in session next month.

I am semi-active with the Mountain State RR and Logging group, and have been told that this rumor of contract management is very real.

That said, I have heard nothing concerning details of what will, won't, might, could, or has happened.

My opinion based on my knowledge is that there may be a contracted management, but nobody knows what that picture looks like.

Reality often has little to nothing to do with a good panic-mongering rumor or protest movement, as any serious investigative journalist often discovers.

Once again: I'm NOT claiming any of the allegations about the Cass Scenic RR's future are false. I/we can't prove a negative. It's incumbent upon those alleging something such as a different future for the CSRR to prove their allegations.

Chalk this up to an irrational fear of the unknown. It could well be that a private model will reap additional benefits for Cass, lowering operating costs and increasing flexibility. We all know how government works, and if no bill has been introduced in the legislature then all you have is a rumor.

I agree, the only thing that's true at this point is the fact there appears to be a rumor and

to answer the original question in this thread, even if there is a change in the way the Cass is run, that doesn't mean that change is a 'threat'.... when in fact it may be a change for the 'better'

What's sad is so many people immediately jump to the conclusion that all such changes are for the worse when they don't have any information to base their conclusions on.

Bob H

Why are we surprised that the State of WV would look at an option to contract for services to manage the railroad? See also: EBT, Texas State Railroad, and Cumbres & Toltec.

Wesley

This is yet another example of how the internet can lend a false sense of credibility to things. Anyone can create a "Save the Fiddletown & Copperopolis" Facebook page. The sad part is that people just blindly accept what they read.

Something I find alarming is the odd phrasing in some of the English, not at all that of a native speaker, let alone a West Virginian.

All sorts of things might start with an email to an address 'said' to be for West Virginia legislators, but... not exactly.

And then, once the email addresses are obtained, comes the Nigerian-style request for 'assistance'...

Hopefully that is nothing more than paranoia, but I'd like to see an explanation for the odd English before I relax...

Poor quality of education today?

It is not that it's bad English, merely not idiomatic. Most of the weird stuff is in the introduction to Mr.Newhouse's post (I expect there were some closing remarks by that same poster, but they are not in the quoted material). Consider the following (snipped from just one paragraph) --

> I hate to say, but all the rumors are 100% true...
> about a potential changing of hands regarding the day-to-day operations...
> At this time, we don't stand to lose entirely the railroad ...
> instead we are VERY likely going to see it assume management by the hands of another state agency ...
> ... which oversees literally every other tourist railroad operation in West Virginia.
> That is all fact.
> I'm going to assert a suggestion here though, that is likely also true ...

Admittedly, to me there is a kind of 'uncanny valley' where faux-amis and other 'perturbations' of idiosyncratic English semantics are concerned. If anyone remembers the movie "The Russians Are Coming!" (x2)
they may remember the attempt "EEE-merzhensee! Evrybody to get from street!" Now, I'm thinking French rather than Russian for the Casshew example... but someone with better 'iggins skills might be able to pin it down more exactly, or zero in on the origins.