Haven't been to Cass/Durbin/Elkins region for some time now. I would definitely go back IF they every link these areas by rail again.

I have been told recently (unofficially at this point, but credible) that the C&O Cass-Durbin main line is planned for rehab, and will be the planned run for the 2-8-0. Year 2016 or 2017.

IF this portion is completed, then the only leg missing is the ex-WM trackage out of Durbin towards Cheat Bridge.

Which is why I had refrained from posting when the thread got bumped up a few weeks ago. The feeling that nothing has really let go is a real downer.

However since that time, I've been thinking about what has actually happened. Very little of it involves laying rail, or preparing grade.

- We have scratch built our own reservations to handle the multiple trips/ destination/ legs required for such a trip.

- We have acquired equipment necessary to make such a loop happen (still could use a few DLW coaches if any body has any available)

- We have acquired equipment necessary to start a steam program of a decent size

- We acquired an already active steam program (we didn't see that one coming)....

- Re kindle our relationship with the MSRLHA which should make for much more interesting rail fan events in the future. (not that MSRLHA association didn't already put on a good show, but the geography and equipment available to them just increased exponentially)

- Much environmental work has been done on the sections of track to be built and rebuilt.

- Some work actually started on the south end of the Durbin line this winter. This summer will show what the actual pace of work will be.

- With the inclusion of Cass we will effectively be operating one full half of the proposed loop this year. You will be able to buy a ticket in Elkins, ride to Spruce, change trains for Cass and spend the night in Cass. Return via the reverse route the next day.

It is a busy and exciting time around the DGVR at the moment. Come, Visit, and See it for your self!

Ben True

DGVR

I think it would eventually be an additional draw if you had a return bus option for anyone not wanting to spend the night in Cass who wants to return to Elkins the same day. Much like the return bus option for the Durango and Silverton. One can ride the train one way - either direction - and take a bus the other way. Saves about 90 minutes on the round trip (it would be a greater time savings if you didn't have to wait for train departure time from Silverton for the bus to leave). It even costs more than riding the train roundtrip - $14 more six years ago when I did it (had to get back to Denver that night), and people are willing to pay it. My bus was nearly full, and it was very early in the season. I could see it being a real option, especially if you saved the cost of the night in Cass and applied it to the bus fare. Just throwing that out there.

Paying extra to NOT ride the train.

Now there is a thought provoking idea.....

You can't be married to someone who doesn't like trains all that much.
For train fans married to non-train fans, that could be a godsend. My wife doesn't dislike trains as such, but is adamant that there is no need to ever ride a route you've already ridden before. In her mind, it makes no difference if you rode it last week or 40 years ago. You've done it once and there's no reason to repeat that. Ever.
Doing this on my White Pass & Yukon trip this spring, in fact (I made it clear I'll suffer her gripes because there's no way I'm going to Skakway and not riding the White Pass). The train goes further than the normal cruise ship round trip, and you bus back for another activity before heading back to the boat. More bang for the buck when you have limited time at a location.

Lee -

This brought up something similar. My daughter and her husband were riding with us and I stopped the car to take a photo of a train. My son-in-law was alright with that. But when I drove ahead and stopped and took another photo, he was incredulous! "You already got a photo of that train!" I'm glad that he is now my former son-in-law (and not just for that particular incident).

Les

I apologize if I came across rude. At least there was some news (equipment purchases). I know a friend of mine who kayaks the river often says the roadbed was destroyed in a lot of locations between Durbin and Cass from the flood that happened several years ago. Just another question: When the Cass to Durbin section is being rebuilt, does it look like there will have to be some relocating of track or just replace the washed out sections with fill and proper drainage to help prevent erosion? Or both?

Paul,

I apologize if I made it sound like your comments weren't appreciated. They are in fact. It was actually a realization to me as answer that to all the complaints (such as the ones P51 mentioned) that I have hear thru the years.

I never stop being amazed by the person who rides the caboose platform all the way from Durbin south to the end of track and then ask if we're going to go back a different way....

In fact the whole Loop Concept was promoted based on one pass thru the whole territory so you didn't have to see the same thing twice.

The bus idea had been talked about some but I don't think any body had the idea to charge extra for it. Generally it had been talked down because it would cost DGVR more to provide a bus. But charging more to pay for that bus makes it make sense.

As to the questions about how they are going to fix the Durbin route, I'll defer those to some one who knows. I am just in the mechanical and operating departments. Track and engineering work aren't something I'll get into.


Attempting not to say big news is coming....

Ben True

DGVR

Or, run a slow excursion train one way, and high speed rail back on the same track. Shays out, bullet trains back - possible nowhere else in the world.

dave

>Attempting not to say big news is coming

I can be patient when so far it's all been good!

The only thing I can think of with regard to the bus would be a bus loop so that you could make a steam trip in either direction and ride the bus either way. Hm, that's not very clear; if your steam trip runs from A to B and back via C, the bus can load passengers at A and hustle them to B, drop them off, catch the people who want to get off at B and take them back to the starting point via the part of the line they didn't see. You'd get maximum traffic on both train and bus that way.
We'd be up for the grand tour, but I can see where a lot of people wouldn't for one reason or another (wouldn't have done it when the kid was tiny, for instance.) Anything you can do to fill seats along the way would be a good thing.

By the way, I'm reading an old Goldenseal Magazine about a shootout in downtown Durbin. It's hard to believe town was ever that rowdfy, but it WAS a logging town, after all...

Seriously, there's a larger market for a shorter impulse buy and time commitment experience than for an all day survival trip. It is important to sell both kinds. I traveled to Cass the first time with family who did not want to take even the half day ride, so, I just visited the gift shop, took some pictures and went away.......business lost. It wasn't until decades later at the TRAIN conference there that i finally got to ride. You need some product that lasts for about an hour and preferably near a highway to bring in the people like the ones I went with.

dave

As ADM said, you have to WANT to go to Cass. There is no other reason to be down that way (well maybe Greenbank Observatory). As I said, if your proposed loop trip includes a stay in Cass, then substituting bus fare for the room in Cass would be a decent tradeoff. I'm guessing taking the bus back would, in fact, be cheaper than the night in Cass. Would you fill a 50 passenger bus everyday? Maybe not, especially early and late in the season, but make your breakeven point 25-30 and you should cover it most days. Also, I'm thinking, depending on your schedule, that it might be possible to have passengers on the bus the other way, with people starting in Cass from Elkins to ride the other way, since you'd have to deadhead the bus to Cass anyway.

As for what was left of the Greenbrier Subdivision after the 1985 flood, I walked it with a friend about three or four years later (with a camera), all the way from Cass to Durbin. If I recall, it took at least four hours and probably longer. Some of it was hardly touched, but the parts of the roadbed that hugged the river ended up in the river, and left the track hanging in the air. It will be a major fill job to bring a lot of it back. And finally, most here probably don't remember it, but for one Summer, I think '71 or '72, the old Steam Tours, Inc. ran excursions with RDG T-1 2102 regularly from Ronceverte to Durbin. I had a tape recording one of the guys in the Akron Railroad Club (Al Shade) made me of it arriving in Cass on the first trip, followed by a run-by with 2102. Between the three whistles on the '02 and Shay 5, it was a heck of a racket echoing off the valley! But, just imagine when you're riding behind the Climax on the DGRV, a T-Hog running on that track!

I don't have Google Earth on this thing. How long is the really badly damaged section?

The observatory! I completely forgot about that. The tour there is impressive and it's not hard to find--could easily be part of the bus route. Incidentally, they can't use microwaves at their science center cafe, so the food is really good and not heated-from-frozen. Last time we were there, we were surprised to find the science center has exhibits every bit as nice as COSI or Carnegie Science Center at a fraction of the cost, plus the tour.
https://public.nrao.edu/tours/visitgbt

Snowshoe is close enough that a short ride could be part of one of their summer getaway packages. You're right about the length, too; an hour to an hour and a half is about what a lot of families with young children or older people can handle. You'll all laugh, but one of the major factors is, of course, the proximity of bathrooms. (Young men who laugh at the small bladders of pregnant women and small children will find that karma begins to bite around age 60.)

Food is another thing; small children have small tanks and require frequent refueling. Many preschoolers tend to be best in morning and early afternoon and at their worst between about 2 and 4 PM, when they're too old to take a nap but need one. Being able to schedule a calm part of the ride at that time of day and the more exciting parts at other times can help a lot.

Off and on for like 7 or 8 miles (at least it seemed that far when I walked it). There is a section of the line that goes away from the river through what I think was an abandoned little settlement that was pretty much untouched. It has a name, but I don't recall it.