6/4/17

My image today goes back to Cass Mountain Scenic Railway in West Virginia and i decided to go for an antique look.  This is the Heisler type locomotive sitting ready and waiting to run on the day we were there.  Heislers were designed for logging railway work and were geared differently than a typical locomotive.  It was the only one I have ever seen and it was great to know they still operate it.

4/23/17

Today's image goes back to West Virginia and the Cass Mountain Scenic Railway.  Cass is a former logging railroad and the Shay locomotive is seen here pushing our train up the mountainside through some lovely wooded scenery.  I decided to give this image a more vintage feel by processing it in Black & White.

4/9/17

Today's image goes back to Cass Mountain Scenic Railway in West Virginia where they have one of the few of these locomotives still in operation.  This is a Heisler type locomotive named for Charles L Heisler who designed it.  It was not as popular as a Shay or Climax style, probably because it went into production after them but was a logging type geared locomotive.  It's cylinders were set at 45 degree angles where a Climax was at 25 degrees.  There were only about 625 of them produced but they were built up until around WWII while the Climax locomotives stopped production in 1928.  This one sits warmed up and almost ready to go should it be needed that day at Cass to pull a train of tourists on the old logging route.

11/27/16

My image today goes back into the archives and my trip to West Virginia.  The place is Cass Mountain Scenic Railroad.  This is the locomotive that pushed our train up the mountain and then pulled us back down.  This is a Shay type locomotive that was used a lot in logging operations which is what went on in this area of the state.  The gearing on a Shay locomotive allows it to be very powerful and not slip on steep grades like a regular geared locomotive would.

4/12/15

Well, we got a bit of rain last night but not very much at all and today it's so windy it will probably dry right up again.  It's all going to the south and east of us.  Well, on to today's photo.  This one goes back to West Virginia and the Cass Mountain and Scenic Railway.  Our Shay type locomotive was pushing us up Cass Mountain through the woods at this point.  We had just stopped to have the tender filled with water and you can see they got it really full by the stream coming out the end of it.  :-)

3/22/15

Another image of one of my favorite things to photograph, a steam train.  Flowers are only predominate because there are more opportunities for photos of them.  :-)  This image is from back when I was in West Virginia riding the Cass Mountain & Scenic Railway.  True to it's name we were stopped for a short while at a scenic overlook partway up the mountain.  This is the point where I took my mountain view photo of WV with the hawk in the sky.  This image is of our locomotive that at this point was pushing us up the mountain.  I thought it showed off it's unique drive gear rather well.  I decided to process this image in B&W for a more unique look.

2/8/15

Feels like spring and I wish it was but I know this won't last.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts though.  Today i am sharing an image from a trip to West Virginia that I hadn't posted before.  This is an image from Cass Scenic Railway which uses a lot of Shay type locomotives.  These had special drive gear and were great for heavy loads and steep grades.  They were used a lot in logging operations back in the day.  This image shows the driving gear off.

1/18/15

This is an image that reminds me of summer with the lush green and the plus of a steam train!  :-)  This was taken in West Virginia at the Cass mountain & Scenic Railway.  We were being pushed by a Shay type locomotive through the woods and up the mountain.  A beautiful and fun ride and I highly recommend it.