Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
Ive been looking forward to a glass of wine in an elegant train car.
The train has two engines, one at either end.
Meal service begins shortly after our 5 p.m. departure.
Credit:Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
But with rain threatening, not everyone wants to.
Another eagle does an Icarus over the canyon until its out of sight.
Were lucky to have Robert BJ Lefever on this train.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
Lefever is an eagle spotter.
In less than five minutes in the Trough, we sight six eagles, with more to come.
And Lefever is always the first to spot them.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
They call me eagle-eye around here, he says with a laugh.
The next day, I sampled a different scenic train of West Virginia.
The Parade of Steam is a veritable Miss America pageant of the Iron Horse.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
The scene, when I arrive, is heart-stopping in its magnificence.
Ash and embers fly through the air, leaving the bystanders blinking and rubbing their eyes.
Engine grease soils the tracks.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
The noise is ungodly, ear-splitting.
Ive always been a railfan, he tells me.
Hes booked on two rides this weekend.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
I grew up where theres lots of railroad history.
I especially like the steam trains.
My grandpa was a brakeman here, he says, and lived across the river.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
I used to bum rides on the trains when I was a kid.
I just love em.
Tourist excursions began in 1963.
Mark Orwoll/Travel + Leisure
At the ticket office, a sign above the guichet says, Special Rides Today.
The Greenbrier River Valley is teeming with wildlife.
Passengers may spy mergansers and mallards, deer, and even black bears.
On this day, we see all those things and more, except for the bears.
The steam whistle echoes lugubriously among the slopes.
Photogenic cascades froth down the sides of the hills, passing below our tracks and flowing into the river.
Despite the mismatched cars, it is one hell of a handsome train.
The next day, I find myself again in Cass.
Our engine, Shay No.
11, was built by the Lima Locomotive Works of Ohio in 1923.
The Shays were designed for power and grip, not for speed.
They can reach 11 mph if called upon, but average only about 6 mph on most trips.
The rolling stock on theBald Knob excursionconsists mainly of gondolas once used to carry cut trees to the mill.
The state park put roofs over the cars and double-sided wooden bench seats lengthwise down the centers.
Not every steam locomotive can make such a climb, especially considering the curves we have to contend with.
We come to a switch, where we reverse direction onto a new set of tracks.
Our locomotive, which had been pushing us, is now pulling us.
Coal smoke unexpectedly flows back into the open passenger cars.
The train crew advises us to squint and look away if a cloud of smoke comes at us.
Eyewash is available for anyone who needs it.
We pass three grand vistas where the tracks are higher than the treetops on the downslope side.
Finally, we pull into Bald Knob, two hours from Cass.
Picnic tables are scattered about a vast meadow.
What are the odds?
No alcohol is allowed here or anywhere else in the state park.
