Steam & Excursion > Cass to Durbin Line Complete

Original source: https://www.facebook.com/100077189750314/posts/pfbid02K21qcMsAF13769mLUCZh5EDscLuN1Eb7XoPydiFmSACg3sQL7gZa3ijKQ6nSzDTPl/?mibextid=cr9u03

The Journey Continues… Cass to Durbin Line Completed! 

The Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad is pleased to announce completion of a 15-mile long section of railroad between Cass and Durbin, WV following a multi-year restoration. Today, the official steam locomotive of West Virginia, 118 year old Shay No. 5, made the first complete trip over the line since 1985.

Departing Cass at 9am pulling a caboose full of crew members, Shay No. 5 began the journey to Durbin where it retrieved Heisler No. 6 for its much anticipated return to Cass. 

The monumental undertaking to restore the piece of railroad, which was decimated by historic flooding in 1985, included the repair of over over five miles of washed out roadbed, track and the construction of a new bridge.

Beginning this spring the Greenbrier Express will depart the restored, historically important town of Cass and closely follow the free-flowing Greenbrier River to the small mountain village of Durbin. The ride upriver to Durbin passes through secluded wilderness featuring beautiful scenes of forested mountains at each turn of the river. Sightings of Deer, River Otters, and Black Bear along with a wide variety of Eagles, Hawks, Ospreys are common.

Please follow our social media channels and www.mountainrail.com for updates, including schedule and reservation information which will be announced soon.

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Excellent presentation, taken a while but great to see it finished!

Out 

Superior photography.
Bob

A great accomplishment, to be sure.  But that track still looks dangerously close to the river.  How often has that river flooded since 1985?
 

All nice pictures, but the fourth is a gem!

Dave

Whatever happened to the big Pacific Coast Shay #6?...

It was a thousand year flood but with our climate changing floods have been more often. 

patd3985 Wrote:
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> Whatever happened to the big Pacific Coast Shay
> #6?...

That is NOT a "Pacific Coast Shay", i.e. the #6 (Big Six), but the largest Shay ever built (150 tons?) for the Western Maryland RR. It is still operational at Cass.

This is wonderful news that we C&O fans have been waiting to hear for many years, after endless delays.  This reopens the uppermost 15 mikes of the very scenic C&O Greenbrier Subdivision the rest of which (below Cass) was abandoned in 1978. Much f it is now a trail.

Looking forward to riding it as soon as an opening date and a schedule are available.

Art House

drh1est Wrote:
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> It was a thousand year flood but with our climate
> changing floods have been more often. 

Interesting. So, this occurred in 1985. What year in the last 1000 years did the previous flooding event take place?

???

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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> drh1est Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It was a thousand year flood but with our
> climate
> > changing floods have been more often. 
>
> Interesting. So, this occurred in 1985. What
> year in the last 1000 years did the previous
> flooding event take place?
>
> ???
>
> Posted from Android
In the history of the C&O in the Upper Greenbrier Valley since 1900, Feb.1908 was the only other time while the RR was operating  (1900-1978) that the RR was seriously affected by river flooding.. ("The Durbin Route", McNeel)
Research of caves in the river valley indicates flooding of comparable volume occurred at 1000, 1400, and 2000 years prior to the 1985 event. However, river flooding below the level of the 1985 flood has happened in 1996 and 2016. (www.researchgate.net)
The Greenbrier River is the largest free-flowing waterway in WV, that is not blocked by a flood control structure. The river was studied for flood control projects in 1936 and 1967. ("The Durbin Route", McNeel)

From a hydrologic viewpoint, a 1000-year flood has a 1 in 1000 chance of occurring annually. A 100-year flood has a 1 in 100 chance of occurring annually.

Yes, this means there is the possibility of a 1000-year flood occurring two years in a row or even twice on the same year.

Posted from iPhone

kevink Wrote:
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> From a hydrologic viewpoint, a 1000-year flood has
> a 1 in 1000 chance of occurring annually. A
> 100-year flood has a 1 in 100 chance of occurring
> annually.
>
> Yes, this means there is the possibility of a
> 1000-year flood occurring two years in a row or
> even twice on the same year.

Living in Roanoke a the time, I don't recall any prediction of the magnitude of immanent flooding. The ground was saturated from the rains of the previous week, but when the skies opened up on Monday morning, there was no place for the water to soak in. I've never seen anything like that and hope that I never see another 1000 year flood.

I wish they would use some air dump cars to haul in two giant rock per car and dump them on the bad river bends that could undercut the track again in another flood.  Put in rock so big that the river can not move them or cut under them.  Other rip rap could be applied at places to prepare ahead of the next flood.  But some bends in the river are real danger places and wish they would get house size rocks to protect the track. Now that the railroad is all open for accress from a quarry that could load such large rock and roll them by rail in through connection at Elkins. 

Love photo #3.  And it's great to hear about the line restoration.

Nathan

I also REALLY like Pic 3!!

PlyWoody Wrote:
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> I wish they would use some air dump cars to haul
> in two giant rock per car and dump them on the bad
> river bends that could undercut the track again in
> another flood.  Put in rock so big that the river
> can not move them or cut under them.  Other rip
> rap could be applied at places to prepare ahead of
> the next flood.  But some bends in the river are
> real danger places and wish they would get house
> size rocks to protect the track. Now that the
> railroad is all open for accress from a quarry
> that could load such large rock and roll them by
> rail in through connection at Elkins. 

Thank you for volunteering to cover the cost of that. As soon as your check clears they will get right on it.

The reason this was held up as long as it was was reportedly the contractor entering the creek without a permit.  Then the steel got delayed.

NOTHING goes anywhere in water without the involvement of every imaginable bureaucrat in West Virginia, Army Corps, and anybody else that is interested, and the sum of the agencies squared * 12 months = delay.

The only way they got as much of this rebuilt the way they did was by staying out of the river, where the track 'used' to be.   What washed out and went in the river is still visible in the river.   The approach that was taken to stay clear rather than rebuild the original alignment was the genius one.   All the previous assumptions were to rebuild the roadbed exactly where it was before, and that's simply gone.  So massive amounts of material would have to be put back in the river to do that.  And nothing happened.

Yes, rip-rapping the banks with a few thousand tons of rock makes all the sense in the world.  Which is why it can't possibly be done that way today, and while the feds will sometimes pay for repairs, it's never preventative, only 'put it back the way it was' even if anyone can see it's perpetuating a problem.   That approach is truly baked in, it's not just railroads, it's present in almost any kind of flood damage funding.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/23 12:56 by randgust.