Steam railroad reopens line after 38 years
Completion of civil engineering repairs to flood damage allows services to resume over full length of West Virginian route.
ONE of the USA’s major steam tourist railways reopened in May, nearly 40 years after it was closed by flooding. The 15-mile line from Cass to Durbin in West Virginia once formed part of Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad’s Greenbriar Subdivision. Abandoned in 1979, the section between Cass and Durbin was purchased by the West Virginia State Rail Authority in 1980 but was severely damaged by flooding in 1985 with a bridge destroyed.