MAY 2001 V.65, N.5 

      Just four years short of its centennial birthday, Cass Scenic Railroad's Shay Engine Number Five is still huffing and puffing its way around the tortured, crooked tracks for which it was created. As far as can be determined by Cass historians, "No. 5" is the only Shay engine still operating on the tracks for which it was originally purchased.

      An ingenious lumberman, Ephraim Shay is generally credited with the conception and construction of the Shay, the first geared locomotive. Rod engines used prior to the advent of the Shay required well-graded, well-laid, and well-supported tracks that could not be too steep or have curves that were too sharp. Shay seized on the idea of creating a locomotive using reducing gears instead of side rods. In doing so he achieved unheard-of freedom of movement on rough, hilly, and sharply curved track. With ease of repair, even and smooth distribution of power to all the wheels, and tremendous flexibility, the Shay immediately became the most favored engine for mountainous logging operations. Records of lumbering companies throughout West Virginia and most other mountainous logging areas indicate the use of Shay engines at some point during their operations.

      No. 5, a Class 80-3 engineÐwhich means it weighed 80 tons without coal, water, and oil, and rides on three trucks of wheelsÐwas built by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. Research by Philip V. Bagdon, a Shay engine and logging historian, indicates that the engine left Lima on November 1, 1905. Seven days later, it arrived in Cass to begin its career between Cass and the top of Cheat Mountain (known to local railroaders as the Cass Hill) and the Shavers Fork Basin of the Cheat River.

      In one of his early-twentieth-century letters, Emory P. Shaffer, manager at the time of the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company and for whom No. 5 was built, notified his superiors that the engine made its first haul against the Cass Hill just three days after it arrived in Cass. For its early working assignments, it wore the colors of the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk Railroad.

      With six tons of coal, 3,500 gallons of water, and its oil supply on board, it weighed in at just over 100 tons. With this weight and a tractive effort of 35,100 pounds, supplied through solid axles and wheels, No. 5 was well suited for the 6.7 to 11 percent grades of its domain. The engine served on the Cass Hill until Shay No. 8, a Class 100-3, was purchased in 1912 to serve on the steep, treacherous 6.8 miles of track. No. 5 spent the next 10 years working the forests and coal mines of the Cheat River Basin. When the Cheat Basin was logged out, according to Bagdon, No. 5 went to Bergoo and worked the two forks of Leatherwood Creek. By October 1925, it was working 10- to 20-hour days, six days a week. The only time No. 5 came to Cass between 1912 and 1938 was for boiler repair and inspections. In the early 1940s, No. 5 was demoted to the unenviable task of serving as a back-up engine wherever and whenever needed.

      While experiencing countless derailments from the crooked and poorly supported rails, No. 5 was fortunate to have suffered only one major mishap. According to the Western Maryland accident report, the engine collided with an eastbound coal train at Spruce at 6:25 on the morning of October 12, 1942. Fortunately, both trains were moving at a very slow rate of speed.

      No one was injured and the damage to the coal train was estimated at $20. While no estimate of damage to No. 5 was ever recorded, the engine suffered substantial damage and was out of service for two months.

      In March 1958, extremely cold weather and deep snow hindered the movement of logs off the mountain. Consequently, scrap wood from the saws that was used as the primary fuel for the mill's boilers was exhausted. No. 5 was moved beside the boiler room and its steam lines were connected to those of the mill in an attempt to keep enough steam in the mill's pipes to prevent them from freezing. On March 23, the day of "The Big Freeze," No. 5's fire was allowed to get too low and the cylinders froze, cracking one of its cylinder blocks. Incapacitated, the engine was moved to a remote corner of the maintenance shop and would not see service again until the mid-1960s.

      The Monarch of the Mountains was sitting, for the most part forgotten, in the northeast corner of the maintenance shop when Mower Lumber Company discontinued operations in July 1960. The engine was still there when the Cass, Greenbrier, Cheat & Bald Knob Scenic Railroad, the forerunner of the Cass Scenic Railroad, commenced operations in 1962. In 1963, when mechanics finally began restoration work on No. 5, the rails had sagged under its weight. Repairs were completed and the engine returned to service in the uniform of the Cass Scenic Railroad in 1965. It saw continuous service from then until the close of the 1994 season, when it went into the shop for a major rebuild.

      Through the years, No. 5 has always been handled by the best engineers the mountains and logging industry could produce. The engine's first handlers, according to Roy B. Clarkson in his book On Beyond Leatherbark: The Cass Saga, were brothers George and Charlie Cromer. Philip Bagdon's The Cass Roster also lists George "Piney" Williams as an engineer for No. 5 from 1905 through 1912. According to Artie Barkley, a 35-year veteran of railroading at Cass, Clyde Galford ran the engine for its last 11 years in the logging woods and was probably No.5's last regularly paid logging engineer.

      After No. 5 was acquired by the Cass Scenic Railroad and returned to service, Galford once again became its engineer and served until his untimely death in 1966. For the next 10 years the engine was under the tender care of several different handlers. In 1977, Artie Barkley became its engineer and gently coaxed No. 5 around its domain until the close of the 1994 season. After a six-year hiatus, No. 5 came back into service on September 29, 2000, just in time to join the Cass centennial celebrations. This time it puffed away under the capable hands of Danny Seldomridge, a Cass Scenic Railroad veteran of 17 years.

      Senior among its peers working the Cass Scenic Railroad, No. 5 will forever reign over a fleet of proud engines. All are a living tribute to those who worked and died in the woods and mills, on the engines and log cars, and along the tracks of their domain.

      Freelance writer and photographer L. Wayne Sheets is a native of Pocahontas County. His work also has been published in the Elkins Inter-Mountain and GOLDENSEAL.