Passenger Trains > Sometimes the best views may not have a train in them...

Sometimes the best views don't have a train in them. On October 28th I had the responsibiity to deadhead private car Dover Harbor to Washington, D.C. from Huntington, WV behind Amtrak's Cardinal over the former Chesapeake & Ohio. What started as a rather dreary day turned rather beautiful as we approached the New River Gorge, then got cloudy again east of Hinton.  I hope you will enjoy these.

The first is the Bridge over the New Rier at Hawk's Nest, WV.  The second is the iconic New River Gorge Bridge.  And the third is a beautiful fall WV day east of the Gorge Bridge but railroad west of Sewell....



 

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The next two photos are the depot and the town of Thurmond, West Virginia.   The third photo is one of the quickly disappearing C&O cantilever signals.  I believe this was taken a little east of Quinmont.

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The next shot is the east portal of Big Bend Tunnel at Talcott, WV.   The is the new bore put in about 1932, parallel to the Great Bend Tunnel, site of the legend of John Henry's steam drill race.  

The second photo is the passenger Depot, at Alderson, WV, a flag stop for the Cardinal.

Finally is the east portal of Alleghany Tunnel, just inside Virginia.

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Thanks for posting... Great pics of my favorite piece of railroad....

The two pictures of Thurmond really show why it is a popular setting for model railroaders to use.

Some wonderful fall scenes!  Let me know next time you have to do this and I'll bring my camera too! 

Great pictures.  Thurmond always bugs me.  Official population is under 10 and it has an Amtrak stop.  I live in a town of about 1,000,000 (Louisville, Ky.) and we don't have any passenger service.  Oh, I know.  There's other things around there.  Still, I'd like to be able to catch Amtrak without having to drive 100 miles.

Thurmond is an interesting place.  Like another said, interesting for the modeler.  There are several nice stations along the Cardinal route through VA and WVa.

John

Great shots on a great day!

B&OBill

Lobby Congress for  an expanded  national rail system.

Is that walkway on the outside of the bridge at Hawk's Nest (photo 1) part of the state park or just a walkway for railroad personnel?

Thurmund...doubled for Matewan in the movies. 

Ed

I am not authoritative, BUT based upon what I have seen from signage, location, and the fact that there is nothing across the river to access, I'd say this is railroad only.

The walkway was built for a reason. The bridge was built in 1897 (it's in its third century!) and during the passenger heyday on the C&O, traffic ran right hand main as the signals were ABS. The original main line ran across the bridge (main track 1 now) and the second main on the other side was put down in ~1905. During that time, the passenger depot at Hawks Nest called "MacDougal" for the town of MacDougal was in the apex between the two tracks. The walkway was there so that eastbound passengers could walk across the bridge to go up to Anstead and vice versa. There was also a passenger station on the other side for Hawk's Nest, replaced by a shanty in the 1940s, so after coming east on the train to visit town, or go to work or school, passengers would have to walk to the other side to board the train to go home.

The walkway is there today for railroad employees to use, especially transportation in case one needs to walk their train while on the bridge. The reason it looks the way it does and not the "standard narrow bridge walkway" is because it was originally intended for the public. Things are 'different' in the Gorge and you can walk across it without getting any grief from anybody. It's nature's law out there and I have been walking across it my whole life. That's one of the reasons that the gorge is my favorite place on earth.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/15 19:32 by Airchime_30109.

Great shots you have there, thanks for posting.

Great report: a wonderful selection of landmarks along the road, captured with great skill.
In the future I hope to ride the Cardinal again. 
If only Amtrak would wash the rear window on the Superliners these views would be available to any passenger who wanted to stand in the last car and watch the world go by.

No Superliners on the Cardinal. Viewliners and Amfleets...