Heisler country. Deep in the West Virginia wilderness, a well-used, 3-Truck Heisler Locomotive from a nearby lumber mill is pressed into service dragging freight loads down the disused C&O Greenbrier Division for interchange in the yard at Cass, some 8 miles to the south, circa 1940.
This image was captured on a 2021 photo charter, near MP 89.1, in the small town of Hosterman, along the Greenbrier River, on trackage that's been recently rebuilt, after lying dormant for 35 years. Washed out during flooding that occurred in 1985, the rail link between Cass and Durbin, WV is slowly being restored, with a tentative completion date sometime in late 2021. The track may be new.....sort of.....but it still looks like Heisler Country and the speed limit is not likely to approach 45 mph anytime soon. There's not much in this frame to give away the fact that this image is not 80 years old....except the track probably looked better back then. It is difficult to believe that back in the 1970s, the Greenbrier Scenic Railroad actually ran fan trips on this very track, using Reading T-1 #2102.
Scenes depicting steam operations on the old C&O Greenbrier Division between Cass and Durbin, WV, featuring Moore-Keppel Climax #3 and Meadow River Heisler #6.
