Heritage route
Cass Scenic Railroad
Cass → Bald Knob · United States
Home to the world’s largest fleet of geared Shay steam locomotives, grinding up 11% grades to Bald Knob, 4,842 ft. West Virginia’s third-highest point.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 19480295 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 3 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: the railway’s own site — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Cass Scenic Railroad?
The Cass Scenic Railroad runs 35 km from Cass to Bald Knob.
How long does the Cass Scenic Railroad take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 4 h 30 min for the 35 km. That is an average of 8 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 24 km/h.
Who runs the Cass Scenic Railroad?
Mountain Rail WV and WV State Parks, with Shay geared steam.
How old is the Cass Scenic Railroad?
The line has been in service since 1901. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
More heritage routes
- Durango & Silverton
1882 gold-rush narrow gauge: steam-hauled ever since, on the Highline ledge blasted 120 m above the Animas River gorge.
Wikipedia ↗ - La Trochita
Theroux’s Old Patagonian Express: 750 mm gauge, 1922 steam locomotives and wood-stove-heated wooden coaches across the steppe.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sagano Scenic Railway
A retired JR alignment above the Hozugawa rapids: twenty-five slow minutes of maples and gorge that the modern main line skips through tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Gunma
Restored D51 498 “Degoichi” and C61 20 haul retro coaches up the Joetsu Line on weekends: steam echoing off the Tone gorge under Tanigawa’s wall.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
More train routes in United States.