![]() (He said, even as preparing a six month update post on 2023.) ![]() And the summer sale always feels like the younger sibling of the winter sale, where we get year end numbers and the Steam Awards and all of that. I have opined in the past how the excitement of a mere sale has worn off over the years as it went from being a unique event to a standard routine. Wilson suggests folding the historical association into Friends of Cass may very well be the beginning of something important, and only time will tell.Or, another sale. Īfter 2015, for a variety of reasons, the group’s membership began to decline, falling from a high of 750 to about 400 today, which prompted the dissolution process to take place over the next few months. The locomotive operates today for the Cass Scenic Railroad. Grady Smith, former Cass Scenic hostler and a highschool shop teacher, took on leadership responsibilities and, over the next 14 years, he and a dedicated, ever-changing group of volunteers completed 80% to 85% of the job before turning it over to the Cass shop crew in 2015. Using donated materials and volunteer labor, the organization completed this new shop, later dedicated to Killoran, by summer 2001. Before the association could begin this gargantuan task, the state stipulated that the organization would have to build a dedicated restoration shop. The organization began what would prove to be its largest, most complicated and, ultimately, last big project in the late 1990s: the return of former Middle Fork Railroad three-truck Climax No. Today, that locomotive operates regularly as Cass Scenic Shay No. That same year, the association provided a down payment for a 90-ton Shay for sale at a San Diego museum arranged for tractor-trailer transport of the locomotive to Cass and then dispatched six volunteers to help four Cass Scenic Railroad employees pack and load the locomotive in San Diego. In 1998, the organization purchased the materials and provided volunteer labor to link the Cass Scenic Railroad with the state’s recently acquired CSX (Western Maryland Railway) Elkins subdivision at Spruce, allowing outside rail access to Cass. The project involved volunteers building 1,400 feet of new track, including three switches, and utilizing historic Mower and Meadow River heavy logging equipment that was otherwise just sitting in the yard at Cass.” Whittaker and Bald Knob train riders still have the opportunity to see and explore Camp No. 1, built between 19 and described by Sparks as “a bold step … to create a 1940s logging camp reconstruction having representative shanties, camp cars, log cars, log loader, and an aerial skidder. The group’s first big project was Whittaker Camp No. Killoran, Cass Scenic’s first superintendent, in 1982. Baum, was the person most responsible for West Virginia’s acquisition of Mower Lumber Co.’s Cass operation in the early 1960s.Īrguably one of the most productive and consequential volunteer railfan support organizations ever, the association accomplished much over its relatively short lifespan after being organized by the legendary photographer and historian John P. Its front and back covers were reproductions of two paintings by the late Richard Sparks, one of the association’s original officers, and the bulk of the issue consisted of photographs by the late Russell Baum, arranged in milepost order and colorized by Wilson, the editor. Included with the letter was a postcard, addressed to the organization, that allowed current members to vote on dissolution and indicate what should happen to their remaining dues, almost all of which would have been allocated to issues of The Log Train, the association’s journal.Īccompanying the letter and postcard was a copy of the final issue of The Log Train. 24 letter that the organization will become part another group, Friends of Cass - formerly a committee of the Mountain State organization - that will concentrate on preservation of the actual town of Cass, W.Va.įrom its formation, the historical association worked almost exclusively to preserve and enhance the railroad assets of the state-owned Cass Scenic Railroad, and that role became superfluous when a private company, Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad, took over Cass rail operations in 2015. The Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association, founded in 1982, which played a key role in support of the Cass Scenic Railroad, will conclude operations, its president has announced.Īssociation president Matt Wilson informed members in a Nov. The cover of the final issue of The Log Train, the magazine of the Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Society.ĬASS, W.Va.
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