WV ride, 9/5/20

[john fish]

Some not particularly good photos from today’s ride. I may edit text later. First, these are the shocks on my Jackal and they suck. Anyone know what they are?





I went through Rowlesburg, WV today. It must have been quite the railroad hub in days gone by.









Anyone know what that big yellow machine is?  It was on RR tracks.

There is a neat little WWII museum in the old school.















There was also an exhibit of model bridges. I love finding this stuff.





There was also an informal little cafe in the school— staffed by some archetypical small town ladies. I’ll be eating there next time.

Oh, and a tree with a sweater.





I didn’t know that Rowlesburg had Civil War history.





And a stop in Cool Springs to check out the attractions. The steamer seemed to be operated while standing.











Old, winding, pocked, route 50 was once The main road in Northern WV. Cool Springs must have been quite the hopping place back then.

[Lannis]

Never been to Rowlesburg (or if I did, I didn't pay any attention as I passed through) but I'll make a point to include it in my frequent WV crossings and stop and have a look now!

Thanks for the travelogue.

Lannis

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I was last there three years ago, visited the little station where the caboose is, but didn't even know the rail yard was there. Need to go back sometime soon.

Just guessing, the yellow machine looks like a ballast spreader.

[BillinPA]

Looks like a great day. As to the shocks they are the brand for the garbage can. Get some Ikons, reasonably priced, your spine will thank you.

[pebra]

Thanks, John!
You Obviously live in a beautiful area with interesting places!

[hauto]

Love WV,like to go down to Thomas,Davis area a lot.Will try to check it out.

[ohiorider]

Great pics!  I'll roll that into my next ride into Elkins, Frank, and Durbin.  Is US219 in fairly good condition?

Bob

[kirby1923]

"Anyone know what that big yellow machine is?  It was on RR tracks. "

That big yellow thing is a Shay gear locomotive used to pull logging cranes mounted on flat cars to pick up logs. That big vertical thing on its side is the steam piston, some of the big Shays had two.
Made for steep rails.

They still have on restored  at one of the big WV museums that still takes people up the mountain in open cars. For a railroad buff these are special.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

"Anyone know what that big yellow machine is?  It was on RR tracks. "

That big yellow thing is a Shay gear locomotive used to pull logging cranes mounted on flat cars to pick up logs. That big vertical thing on its side is the steam piston, some of the big Shays had two.
Made for steep rails.

They still have on restored  at one of the big WV museums that still takes people up the mountain in open cars. For a railroad buff these are special.

Most definitely <not> a Shay, Climax, Heisler or any locomotive for that matter. 

Shay:


 
Heisler:



Climax:




https://mountainrailwv.com/tour/cassscenicrailroad/

The yellow machine appears to be an older version Jordan Spreader: http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2017/11/mow-jordan-spreader.html Edit: Confirmed: scroll down and you'll see photos of the very machine John posted.

[kirby1923]

Ah!
It sorta looked like a Shay to me, I've seen several.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Ah!
It sorta looked like a Shay to me, I've seen several.

I've seen a few too.  I've been to Cass at least once a year since 1984. I'm currently building an HO scale Shay from a kit.

[kirby1923]

Been a while but I have ridden behind one at Cass, that is a great place to go w/lodging and the store is full of local and other "home" stuff like candy and unusual trinkets and remedy's. Bought a cast iron skillet there and I decided to mail it home as it was just too heavy to add to my riding kit.

Maybe the big yellow beast is some kind of a track maintence machine.

[ohiorider]

Heisler ..... just might be the Moto Guzzi of steam locomotives.

From Wikipedia .......
 
The Heisler locomotive has a 'Vee-Twin' style steam engine, one cylinder each side of the boiler, affixed to a centrally located longitudinal driveshaft, again geared to the wheels.

Bob

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Maybe the big yellow beast is some kind of a track maintence machine.

It is, see my post above: it's a Jordan Spreader.

[kirby1923]

I'd say that not too many people outside the WV ever even heard of a Shay locomotive much less a Jordan Spreader.

Guess we are lucky.

[john fish]

Great pics!  I'll roll that into my next ride into Elkins, Frank, and Durbin.  Is US219 in fairly good condition?

Bob

219 is OK.  Rt 72 to Rowlesburg is pretty beat up but it's a lovely ride along the river.  Rt 50 west of Cool Springs is horrible.  Rt 50 east of Cool Springs going up the mountain is spectacular and is a must do.  In fact, I did it today.  :)

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I'd say that not too many people outside the WV ever even heard of a Shay locomotive much less a Jordan Spreader.

Guess we are lucky.

Pacific Northwest as well. The Mt. Rainier Railroad has all three (Shay, Heisler and Climax) types of geared logging locomotives as well.
http://mtrainierrailroad.com/

[john fish]

Love WV,like to go down to Thomas,Davis area a lot.Will try to check it out.

I rolled through Thomas today. Pretty crowded so I didn’t stop. I like to take the St George expressway down to Thomas.













That house is in St George. It just seemed like a very lush day. Anything that stopped moving got “vined”.  :)

[john fish]

The leetle roads come next.





Technically speakin’, these is Moo Cows. I wonder what farmer types call them?







After riding through the dark forest, breaking out into sunshine and hill propellers is a bit startling.

[john fish]

Into Thomas then up to Oakland Maryland to the Candy Store. No pics of Thomas or Oakland but they are both deserving of visits.

I’ve seen “The littlest Church in the Lower 48” signs for years but this is the first time I’ve stopped. It’s very well kept.










complicated math equation copy and paste


Took rt 50 home. The Cheat river is luverly.





Stopped east of Cool Springs and noticed these roots.







Never stopped in this little town before. I forget the name but it does have some nice brickwork on the old bank.





And stopped briefly in Morgantown to take a photo of it’s favorite, and most famous, native son.

[john fish]

Have you train buffs been to Belington, WV?  Quite a bit of rolling stock left there.  Engines, cabooses, passenger cars. . .









There's a lot more than that down there. 

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Have you train buffs been to Belington, WV?  Quite a bit of rolling stock left there.  Engines, cabooses, passenger cars. . .









There's a lot more than that down there.

It's been years, but I have been there. That's the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley's yard and engine repair shop. The red primered hulk is one of only two remaining Western Maryland FA2s.

D&GV operates excursions out of Elkins (New Tygart Flyer), the Durbin Rocket in Durbin, WV and also runs everything at Cass now. They also have freight operations in the Elkins area and are somehow tied in with the Shenandoah Valley RR in Staunton, VA.

[john fish]

Thanks, Charlie.  We rode on The Tygart Flyer and weren't impressed.  Hate to say it but it was boring and the Wonder bread and bologna lunch buffet was underwhelming.  Cass, otoh, is awesome.  We haven't ridden it yet but I've been to the station many times and seen the steam engines making smoke.

And thanks for the info on the Jordan Spreader.  That thing is fascinating and kinda awesome.  That link is a must read.  Stolen pic from the link:

[Muzz]

I would have guessed the shocks were old Konis or perhaps Paoli (sp?).

I was going to say re that yellow machine that it looks like the compactor and leveler that they use on our tracks here.  Sounds very much like the job a Jordan Spreader would do as a guess.

[john fish]

Just a note for the train buffs.  I'm currently rereading one of my favorite books.  All Aboard With E.M. Frimbo.  Here's a bit from The New Yorker on Frimbo:


Riding the Rails with E. M. Frimbo
By Jon Michaud

May 11, 2012
Riding the Rails with E. M. Frimbo
 For decades, The New Yorker’s coverage of the railroads was centered around one man: E. M. Frimbo. Frimbo was the alter ego of longtime New Yorker writer and editor Rogers E. M. (Pospie) Whitaker, whose travels were chronicled in the Talk of the Town, mainly by Anthony Hiss and Brendan Gill. Whitaker, who helped found the magazine’s fact-checking department, spent nearly all of his weekends and vacations on train journeys. In “Here at The New Yorker,” Gill recalls that Whitaker’s office was flooded with “yellowing newspapers, magazines, and Penn Central timetables and other railroad memorabilia.” Gill called him “the foremost railroad buff in the country and perhaps the world.” A variation on that honorific was used as a subtitle to the 1974 book “All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo, World’s Greatest Railroad Buff,” written by Whitaker and Hiss.

Frimbo made his first appearance in The New Yorker in the issue of September 22, 1945. With the Second World War recently ended, railroad travel had been “loosened up.” Frimbo reported that the war had reduced his train travel from sixty-one thousand miles in 1941 to a mere forty-one thousand miles in 1944. “Most people think we’re nuts,” he said of his fellow railroad enthusiasts. “I don’t know why. If I rode around in a Buick all weekend, no one would say a word.”

Fourteen years elapsed before Frimbo’s next appearance in the Talk of the Town, but his preference for trains over automobiles had, if anything, only intensified:

It is only with the deepest reluctance that [Frimbo] ever consents to ride in an automobile or plane. He regards both of these Johnny-come-lately forms of transportation as the natural enemies of the railroads, and therefore his enemies. “The automobile has replaced the terrier as the all-American pet,” he told us.

Over the next two and a half decades, Frimbo made more than forty appearances in the magazine. Despite Frimbo’s dearest wish, the decline of the railroads in American life was inevitably a part of those pieces. A 1967 story described the final run of the Twentieth Century Limited between New York and Chicago; a story five years later reported on an auction of artifacts and memorabilia from the Penn Central. But all was not valedictory. Frimbo rode on new Amtrak trains and was tapped as a critic for movies and plays with railroad themes. In 1978, his lifetime of dedicated rail travel was marked with a surprise party in the dining car of the Coast Starlight as he crossed his two-and-one-half-millionth mile by train.

An expanded version of “All Aboard with E. M. Frimbo” was published in 1997. Mark Singer attended the release party, which was held in a private railcar in Penn Station. As Singer notes, Whitaker’s passion for trains continued even beyond the end of his life:

Included in Frimbo’s mileage total of 2,748,674.73 miles (Whitaker was a stickler for precision) was the journey his ashes made in July, 1981, two months after his death, en route to being scattered over a section of track in the Cumbres Pass, Colorado, at the highest point in the United States still traversed by narrow-gauge passenger railroad.


Well worth the read if you like RRs or history or good writing.  I like all of those things so I like this book.