The former shops are set to be demolished this month. The former station (see attached photo) was demolished several years ago. During its brief stint as a tourist railroad, the local city and county governments were less than helpful (downright hostile in my opinion).

https://www.dominionpost.com/2018/09/02 ... emolition/

The water tower is original?

I don't know if another water tower ever existed or not, but this is the one left over from the steam era on the West Virginia Northern. The city of Kingwood disassembled it and someday hopes to reassemble it when the railyard has been converted to a city park. The two photos I took date from October, 1995,.

The WVN stands as a case study in how not to do community relations. The desire to expand the operation into downtown Kingwood to bring trains right up to the community center for a local festival in opposition to the town fathers was apparently the last straw. They didn't want it and they used the power at their disposal to ruin the railroad and put it out of business. I don't know what so poisoned the relationship with the town that it came to that, or if it was just a bunch of NIMBY's who had the power and managed to win. It was an interesting operation, and I enjoyed the few times I had the chance to participate in events there. It's too bad it couldn't have been solved to the mutual benefit of both the town and the Northern.

The group that attempted to create a tourist railroad out of the WVN were unfortunately from out-of-state and those sort of folks motives are always suspect in small-town politics.

It probably doesn't help that I'm midway through Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, a best-seller that attempts to frame and explain why rural hard-on-their-economic-luck folks, particularly in Appalachia, think and act the way they do even when it harms their best economic and cultural interests, but....... yeah, I could see that.

(For extra credit, extrapolate those lessons/hypotheses against the self-defeating attitudes of the residents of Smith and Tangier Islands in the Chesapeake Bay, two inhabited islands guaranteed to be wiped out eventually by erosion and rising sea levels......)

I can honestly say I was a part of “history”, so to speak. Very neat little railroad. I was in the last motor car run while my best friend rode the last train that same day. I don’t have the exact date off the top my head. For as small as the railroad was, it definitely had some neat features: a very tight wye track at the shops, a small switch back just past a very steep grade and an sw diesel with dynamic brakes. I would love to know what happened to the locomotives. Anyways, good memories.

At least one of the diesels from the WVN is at a company in Eighty Four Pennsylvania. Sorry, don't know the condition, or the plans for the engine.
The West Virginia Northern was quite a railroad, almost like Cass with diesel engines. Switchbacks, sharp curves, steep grades. As two 2-8-0's from the railroad survive, its disappointing the line was lifted before one could have somehow,someday returned to home rails.

brian b