Sawmill at Cass West VA

[SAnVA]

If any of you ever get the chance to visit Cass Scenic Railroad at Cass West VA it is well worth a visit. We usually visit about once a year, very interesting history. The sawmill at Cass was once the largest double band sawmill in the world & in it's hey day from 1922-1935 they ran two 11 hr. shifts 6 days a week producing 125,000 bd. ft. of lumber per shift or one and a half million bd. ft. per week. They had drying kilns using 11 miles of steam pipe drying 360,000 bd. ft. of lumber per run. There was a 3 story planer mill 96X224 feet with elevators capable of hauling 5000 bd. ft. of lumber to the different floors. There is a lot of info about it on the internet, but the mills were destroyed by fires back in the 80's I think. They have several old Shay steam engines pulling old logging cars converted to passenger cars up the mountain on the old logging tracks. You can check it out by googling Cass Scenic Railroad, very interesting!

[ddcuning]

We have a set of DVDs of Railway Journeys that has a one hour segment on the Cass railroad. They don't talk much about the sawmill but spend a lot of time on the Shay engines and how they were used. It is very interesting.

Dave C

[T Welsh]

I have been there 3 times in the last 5 to 8 years riding in the mountains on my motorcycle. Very interesting place! I had no idea they had a mill, but now that you mention it, it makes sense. I will do a little research on it and check it out the next time we are in the area, We stay in Marlinton W.VA at the motor inn.Tim

[T Welsh]

SAnVA, I did a little research on the Cass RR and found that it was built by the W.VA. Pulp and Paper co! I thought it was a coal town(many in this region) This is a very interesting place, A snap shot of times gone by and like many company towns has its good stories and bad! I found a couple of photo,s when we where there a couple of years ago they we boarding the train and we stopped and talked to the engineer and conductor about the train and its history( we love anything with an engine and to ride down the road and come upon a steam engine ready to run up the line well you can see why we stopped)

  

  

  

  The next time we are in the area, I will stop and get off the bike and check the place out in depth now that I know it has a sawmill!!! ;D Tim

[SAnVA]

T Welsh, The sawmill is gone now, still some of the foundation maybe, in your third picture of the old depot and looking down the parking lot , the sawmill stood at the end of the parking lot and to the right next to the river. They have a museum there with a lot of pictures and relics from the past, I think they even have one of the bands from the sawmill in there. It is definitly worth stopping and checking out. I live about 2 hrs. from there and we also ride motorcycles out there , usually every summer, and I always stop and walk through the old ccompany store and if I'm lucky I'll time my trip so I can catch one of the trains either coming or going just so I can hear them blow the whistle, love to hear them steam whistles! There are a lot of good motorcycle routes in that area, maybe we will cross paths sometime, good luck!

[tractormanNwv]

The last time my wife and I road our Motorcycles up there I took quite a few pics, I'm pretty sure I have pics of the sawmill as it is today as we road past on the train, I know I have pics of the steam logging equipment setting back on the mountain with the original log cars and the O'l kitchen the men ate in, I remember seeing a sign on the kitchen wall....NO TALKING... in other words eat and get back to work. I have a hard time with the pics but I will do my best to share the pics.


Jim

[Ocklawahaboy]

This so now very high on my list of possible vacation stops this summer.  Have any of you taken the train ride?  We did a senic ride in verde canyon AZ which we loved and one from Bryson city NC which we hated.  The NC one was a bunch of junk yards and kudzu.  I'd hate to do another lame one but the history looks interesting. 

[tractormanNwv]

 

 

[tractormanNwv]

Well, theres the steam skidder....it's been a while so I'm having a little trouble remembering....

Jim

  

 

[tractormanNwv]

I have a video I took while going past the O'l mill on the way up to Whitaker Station "1/2 way up" , my camera at that time was'nt much but you can see a lot in the video "when in focus"
The steam skidder is setting at Whitaker Station along with the the dining house and logging cars.

  

 


Jim

[tractormanNwv]

The mill was destroyed by fire in the 80's due to vandals, the steam skidder I was told was used up into the 60's. There is 2 trains that go up the mountain, if you have the oppertunity go all the way to the top, Whitaker Station is a good ride but only half way up. There is a shop up in the holler where they maintain the shay locomotives. Down by the main station "big white building" there is a building that does a video of the O'l mill as well as having a scaled replica of the mill in it's working days. Very interesting once you get up there. There was talk at one time of some investors putting the mill back together as it was just to simply be a tourest attraction, not operatable.

Jim

  

  

  

 

[tractormanNwv]

Try a few more pics.....

  

  

 

[T Welsh]

tractormanNwv, Thanks for the photos! Next time through I will defiantly put the kick stand down and play tourist. Tim

[Al_Smith]

The Shay locomotives were built in Lima Ohio .I used to work there as a welder when it was Baldwin Lima Hamilton .It too is gone .

Some years back we deer hunted near the scenic railroad in Cass .

Matter off fact a historical society I belong to has a Shay on static display .It came with about 20 tons of spare parts which coincidently were sold to the Cass scenic railroad to help defray the cost of the old steamer .Nearly paid all the cost actually .http://www.remarkableohio.org/HistoricalMarker.aspx?historicalMarkerId=544&fileId=109400

[T Welsh]

AL, Its quit ironic that we have similar interests ;)! In my past I worked for Lukens National Historic District. The oldest continually operating steel mill in the US. The director was a rail fan, and came to me one day and said it would be something if we could find a steam engine of the type that used to work in the mill and make a static display on the grounds! Well I found one and we bought it,stripped it,steam cleaned it,sand blasted it and rebuilt it as a static display and painted it in the original colors and striping as the one in the old photo. I had my hands on the project from the beginning from shipping it,unloading it at my best friends auto body shop,cleaning,blasting,rebuilding,loading and then setting it on the 75' railroad tracks we built on the grounds!Very fun project.http://www.lukenshistoricdistrict.org/projectssteamengine.htm
This is one of the reasons I stopped at Cass RR in the first place! Tim   

[SAnVA]

I have rode the train to Whittaker Station ( short ride ) and also to the top ( long ride ) either trip is nice. Be prepared for sudden changes in weather, and take warm clothes along , it can get very cold on the mountain even in the summer months! The only downfall at all to the ride is the fact that it doesn't make a circle, you ride to the top and then you come back on the same track, but it is still a very enjoyable ride! Take a cooler and bottled water & snacks for the long ride and ride on the last car away from the engine ( cinders in the eyes ) ! I've also got bunches of pictures but not very good at putting them on line!

[SAnVA]

If any of you make the trip to Cass Scenic RR you are just a few miles from Green Bank WVA which is home to the worlds largest fully steerable radio satelite  dish , you can google that for more info NRAO Green Bank WVA , and there are also some excursion trains in Durbin, Elkins and Belington all within an hour of Cass, also in Elkins next to the train depot is the Mountain Music Theatre which is a music show similar to the shows at Branson Missouri , sorry to get off the sawmill topic, just thought some may be interested!

[schakey]

Thanks for the posting SAnVA,we are planning the train ride sometime this year with our Wv neighbor one day and the Potomac river ride in the same week.

[Al_Smith]

Very near that large dish is where we hunted deer .

[KyTreeFarmer]

You can see the dish from the top of the mountain on the Cass train ride. Looks small from there, but not so!
KTF

[SAnVA]

The largest dish is the size of a football field, hard to imagine, but a little over 300ft. The big one they had before this one collapsed several yrs. ago so they built this one!

[Al_Smith]

Where that dish is or perhaps was is a long sloping hill where it's perfect deer trails .One of the guys got a tad too close and was promptly told to leave  the area by security guards .

It was pretty country but I certainly would not rate it the best hunting I've ever seen .The deer were a tad small and though some might have sported antlers they were so small I couldn't see them if so .Well I suppose after you get used to Colorado muleys and big plump Ohio white tails they would seem small .

[woodhick]

Been several years since I was up there and rode the trains.  It was in the fall when the leaves were in full color.  They had 7 cars of passengers so it took two shay engines to pull train to top of mountain.  Beautiful day and a trip I will always remember.  Had both of my kids along and they were about 8 and 10 years old. (Now 22 and 20!).  Train stops at top of mountain for about a half hour for brak and pictures.  Wife took several pictures of kids on observation platform overlooking valley.  This was before digital camera days.  Afterwards my two kids were sitting along the edge of the clearing at the top looking out over the valley talking to each other.  Wife and I were quite aways behind them sitting at a picnic table.  Could not have been a better photo op. ever it was gorgeous and just wandered what the kids were saying to each other.  Asked wife to get a picture of them sitting there like that.  She teared up and said she was out of film.  Oh well I still have that image in my mind and always will.   Sorry to go on but it is a great trip and I do recommend the full trip to the top in the fall when leaves are in color.  And do take a coat temps will change 15-20 degrees or more from the bottom to the top.