Weather-related delays have pushed back the repairs of a Morgan County rail line after 10 cars on a CSX Transportation train derailed Monday afternoon.
After 10 cars on a CSX Transportation train derailed in rural Morgan County Monday, emergency personnel restored one of two affected rail lines in less than a day.
Emergency officials said they have already removed the rail cars involved in the incident.
But recent snow in the Eastern Panhandle has pushed back repairs on the other affected rail line, according to Sheriee Bowman, CSX senior manager of media relations.
Originally, CSX expected to complete rail line repairs Wednesday afternoon. But Bowman wrote in an email that weather has played a role in delaying the rail repairs.
As a result, service has not yet been restored to the Morgan County portion of the railway affected by the derailment.
As of Thursday, “work will continue throughout the day until service is fully restored,” Bowman wrote.
She did not specify when CSX expects to fully complete the rail line repairs.
The Cass Christmas Train, West Virginia’s version of the Polar Express, chugs along the Greenbrier River at around five miles an hour. Big white plumes of steam interlace with black torrents of smoke and sink down to the river hovering just above the surface.
The Cass Christmas Train, West Virginia’s version of the Polar Express, chugs along the Greenbrier River at around five miles an hour. Big white plumes of steam interlace with black torrents of smoke and sink down to the river hovering just above the surface.
The train cart smelled like cinnamon and petrol. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Inside, the train cars are decorated with garland and ornaments. Families come prepared to this event with bags full of goodies and thermoses filled with hot chocolate. The families in the train cart sing along to Christmas songs, while elves pass out warm cookies and juice.
An orchestrated snowball fight broke out on the train after employees passed around fake snowballs. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Later there is a bake-off in town and a bingo night for the hundreds of weekend visitors to this little town — which has a year-round population of 30 people.
Expanding The Season To Christmas
This is all part of an effort to keep Cass open later in the year and keep a steady flow of tourism through the town, to generate revenue for preserving the town’s history.
The Train Station has been there for over 100 years. It now sells hot chocolate, snacks, and souvenirs. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
J.T. Arbogast has a long family heritage with this town. His great grandfather owned the grocery store that rivaled the paper mill’s company store. Now he works to keep this town alive year round.
“There wasn’t anything past the fall really. Once the leaves were done, the state shut things down,” Arbogast said. “So the houses and the town were pretty dark to come driving through here.”
Arbogast is the third generation of his family to keep Cass’s history alive. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The trains used to only be open for scenic rides in the summer and fall.
But then President of the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad Incorporated, John Smith, had the idea to start offering a Christmas train experience. Arbogast said this inspired him to start hosting events during the winter as well.
“We thought, well, if we’re going to be doing that, like… what’s a way that we can create an experience for people who are coming into town?” Arbogast said.
Cass’s History
The town of Cass is an old lumbering town. Every home has the exact same build, and all the town buildings are painted white. There are three rows of identical homes, a community center, a barber shop the size of a shed, the rail station, and a large house on the top of a hill where the mill owners lived. The town was founded in 1900, and the first houses were built a year later.
A single person barber shop sits along the river in the little town. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Tammy Shoemaker grew up around Cass, and now works as an information specialist for the Convention and Visitors Bureau at Snowshoe Mountain and Cass Scenic Railroad.
She says the town was founded by the Virginia Pulp and Paper Company- which is now the multibillion-dollar paper company, MeadWestvaco. They chose to set up in Cass because they needed Red Spruce to make paper. It grows several miles from Cass, in small circles in some highest country in the state, around 4500 feet in elevation.
The Red Spruce was carted down by train and processed at the sawmill in Cass. The whole operation went on like that for around 50 years and created a bustling economy for the area. At its peak, the town had more than 2,000 residents.
“Yeah, that was a busy town — and that’s not counting the woodhicks that lived up in the mountain,” Shoemaker said.
The mountain men responsible for timbering the wood only came down to Cass every six months. They would cash their paychecks, head across the river and party for a few days before heading back up the mountain.
Arbogast said sometimes older visitors will get emotional when they visit the town because it so closely resembles their childhood in a old industry town, that now no longer exists. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The Track Forward
All this history from the trains that went up and down the mountain, carrying timber and the occasional “woodhick” to the company store is preserved in Cass.
In 2018 Cass, and the scenic railroads around it became a state park. Superintendent Marshall Markley says it takes a lot of work and collaboration to keep this park going, but he says the park is unique.
“There are other historical parks, but there’s none quite like Cass,” Markley said. “Cass is probably the best example of a historic railroad logging town, in its most complete version. You notice that we have the railroad portion, of course, and the company houses, and the company store, the depot and all the supporting buildings, which, you know, in a lot of company towns, only a few pieces of that survive.”
This old church is now a Community Center in Cass where the cookie bake off was. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
All this history, and more, is preserved, which Arbogast says is an uncommon fate for little towns like Cass.
“Cass was destined to become what so many of these towns become, which is a memory. Right? Gone,” Arbogast said.
However, Cass remains fully intact. It takes constant repairs to the quickly built, aging homes, special engineering of the steam-powered trains, and a group of people who keep finding creative ways to push this town forward.
“We’re the only place in the country that has these three kinds of steam locomotives working. That’s worth celebrating,” Arbogast said. “The fact that these buildings, these houses, the history — that’s still here, that’s worth preserving and celebrating and figuring out the ways in which you honor that history but carry it forward in a new way for another generation.”
The old company story now has a buffet, a miniature Christmas train, and a photo opportunity with Santa. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Beginning in January the oldest logging locomotive in the world will be running, there are other holiday-themed trains like a Halloween train during October, and through the summer and fall there are scenic rides through the mountains.
This week, we head to the meadows and woods of West Virginia to catch the buzz on beekeeping. And, it’s been over six years since Kentucky artist Lacy Hale designed her iconic “No Hate in My Holler” screen print. Appalachians are still telling her how much they identify with its message. We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and explore some one-of-a-kind getaways in West Virginia.
This week, we head to the meadows and woods of West Virginia to catch the buzz on beekeeping.
And, it’s been over six years since Kentucky artist Lacy Hale designed her iconic “No Hate in My Holler” screen print. Appalachians are still telling her how much they identify with its message.
We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and explore some one-of-a-kind getaways in West Virginia.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef learns about beekeeping in Summers County, West Virginia at the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective.
Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
We visited among stands of black locust and tulip poplar trees for a report from Folkways Reporter Margaret Leef. She checks in with a community of West Virginia beekeepers.
Lacy Hale’s “No Hate in My Hollar”
Courtesy
In Pound, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, there’s a mural depicting an old woman smoking a pipe and holding a baby wrapped in a big bright quilt. The mural honors Nancy Mullins Shores, a beloved local midwife. It’s part of a growing body of work by artist Lacy Hale, who has been painting murals and turning out viral images from eastern Kentucky for years.
Host Mason Adams visited Hale and talked with her about the mural and “No Hate in My Holler,” a screen print she designed in 2017, in response to a Nazi rally.
Glamping It Up With Cass Railroad
Vickie Yohe, sitting by the fire outside a glamping dome near Alderson, West Virginia.
Credit: Randy Yohe/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Appalachia is full of odd, off-beat and cool places to rest for the night. West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Randy Yohe and his wife, Vickie, like to get out, travel and explore unusual places to stay.
Randy brought back a story from one of their trips to the Cass Railroad in West Virginia.
Armadillo On My Mind
A lot of times we hear about animals becoming endangered or disappearing, but there are species that are emerging or moving into Appalachia, like the armadillo, which is usually found in the southwest.
In the last few years, armadillos have been spotted in the mountains of western Virginia.
Mason Adams spoke with Seth Thompson, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, who took the first reports of armadillos in the state.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Tim Bing, Tyler Childers, Paul Loomis, and Chris Stapleton.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
Trains had to be stopped along a stretch in southern West Virginia as authorities tried to coax three cows off of railroad tracks.
The cows appeared on the tracks in the city of Bluefield on Monday evening, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.
Witness Angie Sharp said the cows came from a wooded area and made their way down a street into downtown Bluefield.
Bluefield police used a livestock trailer to try to corral the cows. The cows broke away at one point before being herded back toward the trailer. Onlookers snapped photos and videos of the cows from across the tracks near Bluefield State College.
Officers finally caught the cows after darkness fell, the newspaper reported.
Mercer County dispatchers said Norfolk Southern halted train traffic in the area while the chase was on.
The pedestrian footbridge remains closed, according to the National Park Service. However, all areas that were temporarily closed, such as John Brown’s Fort and The Point, have now reopened.
Visitors will be unable to cross between Harpers Ferry and C&O Canal via the towpath. Visitors are also unable to cross from Harpers Ferry to the Maryland Heights trail.
The footbridge is part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Hikers should check with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for updates about the trail.
The derailment affected access to parts of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Chesapeake & Ohio National Historical Park, and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
Original Post:
A freight train derailed as it crossed the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, sending two cars into the water and damaging a footbridge that is part of the Appalachian Trail.
CSX said in a statement that there were no injuries early Saturday morning when seven cars in total derailed. CSX said all the cars were empty and no hazardous materials were involved.
CSX said the cause of the derailment is under investigation and it will work swiftly to clean up and restore the area.
The National Park Service said the derailment closed access to some parts of Harpers Ferry National Historic Park and the Chesapeake & Ohio National Historic Park.
Photos released by the park service showed damaged to a footbridge that’s attached to the CSX bridge and is a part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The park service said that footbridge was closed indefinitely and referred hikers to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for updates.
Colorado-based OmniTRAX, a freight-only transportation company that links several railroads from coast to coast in the U.S., purchased the Winchester & Western Railroad for $105 million in September.
The railroad runs through part of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and the purchase is expected to improve West Virginia’s economy by attracting more businesses to the Eastern Panhandle.
The Winchester & Western Railroad has been around since 1916. It stretches from southern New Jersey, through Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, covering about 100 miles.
Winchester & Western Railroad employee and Berkeley County native Eddie McKee said the interchange at Corning Way in Martinsburg is critical to the operation of the Winchester & Western.
“This is just about the center of the railroad, and the majority of our customers is right in this area, within five miles,” McKee said.
Two of those customers are the Argos cement plant and Procter & Gamble, both in Martinsburg.
McKee thinks OmniTRAX will increase the customer-base for the Winchester & Western Railroad, reaching more industrial companies that will rely on their rail service.
“Basically, it’s another company that we didn’t have, like Procter & Gamble. I mean, Procter & Gamble come here, brand new, OmniTRAX is brand new to West Virginia. So, it’s a win-win for West Virginia. They have so many resources that it’s great,” he said.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Part of the Winchester & Western Railroad at Corning Way in Martinsburg.
OmniTRAX is headquartered in Denver and owns 23 railroads all over the U.S. and in parts of Canada. It also owns more than 500 short line and regional railroads. About 350 industrial customers like P&G, steel companies, and oil and natural gas companies use those railroads to ship their goods.
But the Winchester & Western Railroad is only their second line in the northeast.
“For OmniTRAX, it gets us a dot on the map in a market that we’ve been interested in for a very long time,” Ean Johnson, Vice President of Economic Development at OmniTRAX, said in an interview via Skype.
Johnson said a major benefit in purchasing Winchester & Western is the rail’s proximity to more than 100 million people within a day’s drive. He said that’s a huge draw for potential manufacturing companies looking for a new place to set up shop.
“It’s providing access to market, which then allows our customers to make those strategic decisions to locate their facilities,” he said.
And those facilities that look to locate near the Winchester & Western Railroad will help to diversify West Virginia’s economy, bringing more jobs to the Eastern Panhandle area, Johnson said.
“Oftentimes those jobs are well-paying manufacturing jobs that stick around communities for a very long time.”
The Winchester & Western Railroad is considered a short line, and it’s made up of two divisions. The first is the Virginia Division. It has 53 miles of track running through the Shenandoah Valley and moves about 12,500 carloads per year. The second is the New Jersey Division. It has 47 miles and moves 8,500 carloads per year.
The New Jersey Division interconnects with the Winchester & Western Railroad in Martinsburg. Both divisions have connections to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern – two major railroads called Class 1s.
The purchase of the Winchester & Western gave OmniTRAX a total of 470 railcars and seven locomotives to add to their overall operation, and the company also picked up about 60 employees through the Winchester & Western.
Berkeley County officials are also glad to see the purchase.
Sandy Hamilton, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority, said that for years the Winchester & Western Railroad was underutilized, but she thinks OmniTRAX will help the railroad and the communities around it grow.
“We have a gem here. We have a great line that would cost billions of dollars to replicate it,” she said.
Hamilton notes OmniTRAX will bring in new capital, resources, and support to the railroad, and she believes the impact will filter out throughout West Virginia.
“They have some exciting ideas, they have exciting connections, and I think it’ll be someone good that we can partner with to market.”
But in terms of actual dollar amount, the total economic impact for the community is yet to be determined.
