Current Operations
Today, visitors ride on historic converted log cars (flatcars?), pushed along by a powerful geared logging locomotive. Traveling on 11 miles (18 km) of standard gauge track laid in 1901 by immigrant workers, the line traverses the steep grades of Back Allegheny Mountain.
The railroad owns eight Shay locomotives, one Heisler locomotive, and one Climax locomotive, which is being restored by volunteers of the Mountain State Railroad and Logging Historical Association. The Heisler and the Climax, both made in Pennsylvania, were competition to Shay's geared locomotive design.
Three trips are available: a two-hour round trip to Whittaker Station, a five-hour round trip to the abandoned site of the ghost town of Spruce(no current trains to Spruce for now) (once the coldest and highest town east of the Rockies), and a five-hour round trip to Bald Knob, the third highest point in the state.
Former company houses have been refurbished and are available for rent through Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. A small cabin on Bald Knob is also available for rent, and cabooses can be reserved for private use as well.
Town and shop tours are available daily to visitors who would like to learn more about the town and its lumber industry, and see how the rare geared locomotives are maintained by the Cass shop crew. A tour of a recreated logging camp is available at Whittaker.
Read more about this topic: Cass Scenic Railroad State Park
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or operations:
“Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)