We're back from Canada.  The weather wasn't great, but it was a good trip.  I haven't finished processing all of my photos yet, but here's a sample...  This is the view out our hotel window in Niagara Falls...

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(you obviously need to look at the full-size image)

I've returned to civilization. I would have posted again while in Cass, but in addition to the fact that it's in the middle of nowhere and I wouldn't really expect there to be cell towers anyway, Cass is apparently located in the National Radio Quiet Zone. The NRQZ was established in the valley around the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, a 110-meter diameter radio astronomy telescope. There are no cell towers, radio stations, over the air TV or any other kind of radio transmitters anywhere in that valley that can transmit above a rather low power output. So, yeah, we were pretty isolated.

Anyway, I'm going to do this a little differently than I usually write, and take advantage of the "integration" I set up between my blog and my photo gallery...

The reason I went to Cass was to catch the Cass Scenic Railroad's annual Railfan Weekend, and see their impressive collection of operating geared steam locomotives, which have fascinated me for quite a long time. Of particular interest to me is the Shay-class locomotive, invented by Ephraim Shay and manufactured by the Lima Locomotive Works. The Shay was essentially the first geared steam locomotive, and Cass owns 5 working units, in addition to two other geared steam locomotives.

1.184022.18420Geared steam locomotives are quite different from regular locomotives because the pistons do not directly drive the wheels, but rather use a kind of primitive drivetrain, similar to that of a car [1]. The gears connecting the driveshaft into the wheels uses a rather large reduction factor, resulting in an engine that can produce an absolutely massive amount of torque [2]. These engines were especially well suited for climbing up very steep grades, which were common for logging or mining railroads (the Cass Scenic Railroad was formerly the Mower Lumber Company's private logging railroad). The tradeoff to this design was that these engines were limited to extremely slow speeds (the reduction gears were fixed, not variable like in a modern transmission), but speed was not of particular concern when the goal was just to get the logs or coal down the mountain, where the cars would then be picked up by conventional locomotives and taken away.

3.182464.18270On Thursday, we started our journey from my mom's house in New Jersey, where I met up with Rob and his dad. Our first stop was in Cumberland, MD, to see the yard that CSX operates there [3], along with the old Western Maryland train station which is in use now as the starting point of excursion trips (we arrived too late in the day to see or ride on that train) [4].

5.182916.18315After leaving Cumberland, we made our way down to Elkins, WV, to ride on an excursion train operated by the Durbin and Greenbriar Valley Railroad's restored line along the former Western Maryland Railroad line on restored Western Maryland equipment. Got some decent photos in, even though the weather was not particularly cooperative. [5, 6]

7.183368.183879.1841710.18351We got back to Elkins in the afternoon, hopped in the car, and headed down to Cass. Took about an hour and a half to get there, at which point we checked into our house. [7] The town of Cass, WV was a company town. The Mower Lumber Company built and owned every single building in the town, and pretty much everyone that lived there worked for them in some respect. The state park now controls the town, and all of the company houses (that are still structurally sound) are rented out as places to stay when you're visiting the railroad. After checking in and getting settled in our house, we wandered around the station and the shop complex and saw all of the locos sitting outside, all fired up. [8, 9] We also saw the ruins of the lumber mill, which unfortunately burned down... twice. [10]

11.1849212.18645Saturday morning started our first trip up the mountain. We climbed up the steep winding track 6 miles to the town of Spruce, also a company town. Spruce is a ghost town in the true sense of the word. Not only does no one live there, but there aren't any buildings there anymore, either. The town of Spruce once was home to about 100 - 150 lumber company employees, most of which worked the pulp mill which was located here. Interestingly, the town never had any roads built to it. The only way in or out was by the railroad. In 1927, the pulp mill shut down and the town was abandoned, but in 1929, the Western Maryland Railroad opened it back up and repurposed the town as a service stop on their railroad. They built the big horseshoe track which is all that remains now. At Spruce, we took pictures of the passenger train that hauled us up the hill, a freight train, and the freight train pulled by the WM diesels that we saw the day before out of Elkins (they came up the line from the other direction, and they meet at Spruce). [11] We also shot the trains further down the line for a while. On the way back, we rode in the cupola in one of the cabooses. [12]

13.1867814.1868415.18696Saturday night back in Cass was a night photo session, where they staged the locos in front of the station with massive amounts of light, and people dressed in period-appropriate clothing. Got some really amazing shots, which I'm rather proud of. [13, 14, 15]

Sunday was more shooting along the line, but we only went half way up the hill to Whittaker. The weather was pretty terrible, as it was raining rather hard and was very windy. I stayed on the train most of the time, since I didn't want my camera (or me) to get soaked. After we got back to Cass shortly after 2, we got back in my car and started the long trek back to New Jersey.

So that was my weekend. You can take a look at all the rest of my photos by clicking on the picture below.

So... I'm in West Virginia. If you find yourself asking why, it's because the Cass Scenic Railroad Railfan Weekend is this weekend, and I've wanted to go to it for years.

The drive down was pretty nice, for the most part.  We stopped over in Cumberland, MD to check out what was there and to eat dinner and whatnot...  Unfortunately when we got to the point in the trip when we started going up and over the mountains in WV on the roads that have dozens of switchbacks, it started raining...  A little nerve racking, but we made it in one piece.

So right now we're in Elkins, where we're going to ride an excursion train on the old Western Maryland.  That train leaves at 8:30 tomorrow morning and returns "around 3".  Should be fun.

After we get back from that trip, we drive the hour or so down to Cass to see the Shays.  We're there Saturday and Sunday, and leave Sunday afternoon to head back to NJ.

So...  This should be a good weekend, assuming the weather is ok...  The forecast right now isn't that great, but hopefully it'll get better.

Oh, and I should point out that while Internet access via cellphone is cool, but it's hella slow when you're on a 1xRTT connection (speeds top out around 14 Kbps).  Apparently the middle of nowhere West Virginia isn't high on Sprint's priority list for rolling out mobile broadband.

Italy pictures are online!

Clicky clicky.

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Went to Jersey to visit my mom for Mother's Day weekend (granted, in this case, the "weekend" was Friday/Saturday, since I work Sundays). Friday, we spent most of the day out. First to go buy some new dress clothes for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah coming up next month, then into I-have-no-freaking-clue Pennsylvania to see Dingman's Falls. I got some reasonably good pics. This link goes to the album...

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Saturday, after getting up late and doing some other random shopping, I introduced my mom and Dan to the Alton Brown Pan Seared Ribeye. Quite a simple recipe, and, after just a little practice, you'll be making some damn good steaks. Alton is my culinary hero.