The Mescher Family

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Vacation Aug 5-17, 2004 to Pennsylvania and West Virginia

Welcome to our Vacation 2004 page! Below, you will find lots and lots of pictures of our trip. We travelled from Chicago to Pennsylvania, down to West Viriginia and then back home. The scenery was amazing and we saw lots of kewl train stuff since I love trains (thankfully, the kids do too). Without further delay, here's what we did!

Aug 5 - Not much to talk about and no pictures... drove from Chicago to Bryan, Ohio when Amy's Uncle, Aunt and Cousin live. Got stuck in a huge traffic jam in Chicago which made the trip 2 hours longer than it should have been, but otherwise, things went well.

Aug 6 - Spent the day with Amy's cousin Jenny. Took Melissa to a couple nice parks and had a good time playing. The middle picture is of Melissa swinging with another girl she met at the park... they had fun chasing each other around and screaming. It's neat how Melissa just makes friends with whoever she meets, usually starting with "Hey Girl" and repeating it endlessly. It's quite cute. Jenny is in the left and right pictures. Hi Jenny! It was good to see you. :)

Aug 7 - Another travel day, this time from Bryan Ohio to Scottyland campground in Rockwood, PA. This was a decent campground but they had a hard time finding us a space the first night even though we had reservations. Also, it was located at the bottom of a huge hill so it was pretty tough getting in and out everyday. Once we were there, it was nice though. The left picture is our campsite for the 3 nights we were there. The other two are Melissa throwing rocks in the lake that was not far from the camper. She loved to say "Splash" after throwing the rocks. We also got to feed some ducks which the kids enjoyed immensely.

Aug 8 - Wow! What a big day. We really packed in the activities and it was one of my favorite days of the trip as I got to see a lot of things in person that I've read a lot about but had never seen before. But let's not jump ahead...

The day started with an hour drive to Cumberland Maryland to ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railway. The ride was behind a working steam locomotive as you can see in the pictures below. It was an hour and a half up the line to the little town of Frostburg, with an hour and a half stop there for food and shopping, then another hour and a half back to Cumberland making for a 4 and a half hour trip.

On the far left is the Western Maryland Station in Cumberland where the ride started. The 2nd is the train in the station and the 3rd is daddy and Melissa in the cab. They were allowing people to take pictures up there, so why not? The last 4 are the train during the ride with far right picture showing the train about to go into a tunnel.

These are pictures of the turntable at Frostburg where they turned the engine around for the ride back. This gives you a good look at the engine. The last one is Melissa covering her ears while the engine was letting off steam during the wait at Frostburg. We weren't very far from the engine and believe me, it was really loud. I felt bad for Melissa but she was cute and I couldn't resist a picture.

Here's some pictures inside the train. Oddly all of Melissa - didn't get any of Jacob for some reason. :( Anyway, the two pictures on the right are Melissa and another girl she introduced herself to on the train. They liked making faces into the video camera together (you can turn the screen around so they can see themselves) and helped them enjoy the ride back to Cumberland.

These next 4 are really for daddy. One of the main scenes on my model train layout (well hopefully... it isn't exactly started yet) is this very spot on the CSX line that parallels the WMSR ride we took. The far left is called "red rocks" for obvious reasons. The 2nd with the rocks at the top of the cliffs is "lovers leap" and the two on the right are the US 40 highway crossing Wells creek. The whole area is called "The Narrows" as this is the one point where the mountain has a narrow passage way that allows the creek to pass through. There's just enough room for 2 railroads and a highway too. It makes a great modeling spot since there's a lot going on in a pretty small area.

After the train ride, I wanted to follow the old Chessie System (now CSX) line from Cumberland back to our campground in Rockwood. I'm hoping to model the part from Cumberland to Sandpatch which is about 2/3 of the way to Rockwood and I've done tons of research on the area but this was my first visit in person so there's lots and lots of pictures cause I have no idea when I'll be able to go back.

The first stop was the locomotive facilities in Cumberland itself. We were only there for about 20 minutes but I got really lucky and saw them turn two different engines on the turntable. You can see one engine beng turned in the last two pics. Pretty kewl stuff (for me anyway).

Driving through downtown Cumberland, we saw a couple trains, so of course, I couldn't resist more pictures.

From Cumberland, the first stop was Hyndman. Only the left pic is Hyndman... there isn't much to see there now. A few years ago, there used to be a manned tower at Hyndman as well as engine facilities since Hyndman is where the long grade up the mountain starts. These days, there's no need for towers and the trains are actually controlled from Florida. Better for the railroad, but worse for the railfan. The last 4 pics are of the very tiny town of Fairhope. Again, not much here except beautiful scenery. The elevated view is actually from a platform with a bench that was built specifically for train nuts like me. Unfortunately, no trains showed up but we were only there for 5 minutes.

Next up the line after a bit of driving down some roads we had no right driving a motor home down, is Mance. The town of Mance is basically a couple houses and a barn but it's a famous part of the railroad because of the big horseshoe curve there. At Mance, I got super lucky and caught a train just as I got there. You can just barely see the engines in the first picture. The 3rd picture is actually the end of the train where there was another engine. This train was going uphill and they often add an extra engine on the end to help. The engine is cut off once the train reaches the top of the mountain. In any case, the last 4 pictures follow the pusher engine about halfway around the horseshoe. Past the halfway point, you can't take good pictures anymore because of all the trees, but you can still see it rolling by if you are standing there.

Still Mance, now with no train. It's hard to see it but in the right picture, the mountain on the right is where the track finally curves out and goes away from you. You can follow the train all the way around the horseshoe to that point. An amazing place to watch trains.

More of Mance, this time from Track level. Incidentally, the previous elevated pictures are all taken from another platform built specifically for rail fans to take pictures from. The picture on the right below is actually a cabin also built for railfans. It's open all the time and anyone can stay there. In fact, while I was there, a guy was preparing to spend the night camping out at Mance. See... I'm not the only train nut around. ;-)

The final stop of the day (believe it or not, it's *still* the 8th) is Sandpatch. Sandpatch is even more famous than Mance because Sandpatch is the highest point on this section of the railroad - it is the summit of the Allegheny mountains on the mainline from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. to Chicago. Just like Hyndman, there used to be a manned tower here as well. The tower at Sandpatch stood for 88 years but was closed and torn down in late 2001. However, there is still lots to see at Sandpatch. I got super lucky here and got to see 2 trains cross the summit in only a half hour. Amazing luck.

The first picture is an odd one... it's the no trespassing sign and while I normally don't take pictures of the signs I'm ignoring, this one struck me because the Chessie System notice was still posted even though it merged into CSX almost 20 years ago. Worth a picture. The 2nd picture is the highway bridge that crosses the tracks here. We parked the motorhome on a side road just off the bridge. The next two are of the only remaining structure at Sandpatch. It's a maintenance shed I think. The next picture is of the empty spot where the tower once stood. Next is a pic looking east from the tower location towards the tunnel and lastly, there's picture of the summit marker that notes the highest point on the line.

Here's some pictures down closer to the tunnel. This is a really distinctive area and makes for a really good modeling spot with the tunnel, high cliff wall and signals. The pic on the right is funny only to show how far I walked to get to the tunnel. The highway bridge is back there, but you can barely see it in the distance.

Here's the first train that came through almost as soon as I got to Sandpatch. I love the 2nd picture as the sun glare is really kewl.

This train was probably the highlight of the trip for me. I was just about to start walking (well, running) back to the motorhome when I heard a rumble. I stayed put and got to see this train come through Sandpatch and disappear into the tunnel. I know this seems stupid, but this was extremely kewl for me and well worth the tongue lashing I got from Amy when I finally made it back to the motorhome to end the day.

Aug 9 - Today started a lot slower and was much more relaxed. The only thing scheduled was an "easy" bike ride of about 25 miles round trip on an old train line that once again paralleled the active CSX line (noticing a theme here?). The goal was a huge old train bridge that is now a part of the bike path. We ate lunch in a kewl little pizza place in Rockwood and then rented bikes and a kids carrier from a bed and breakfast in Rockwood. Soon enough, we realized the "easy" bike ride wasn't gonna be so easy with 75 pounds of kids trailing behind us. Amy and I switched off who had the kids and by the end, we were pretty much wiped out, but we did make it to the bridge - the proof is the pictures below.

The kids in the carrier. Don't ask me why they were tired... they weren't pedaling... but they were darn cute.

Here's the bridge (Salisbury Viaduct) that was our destination along with a bunch of pictures taken from the top. The 2nd to last picture is actually from a different day when we drove under the bridge but I put the picture here since that's what we rode on top of today. The last picture is of a small graveyard very close to the bridge with some very old grave markers. It was kinda kewl so we took a pic.

A train we saw during the ride. We saw a bunch more too but the foliage was so dense between the bike path and the train line (they run on opposite sides of a river), we really couldn't get any good shots.

Aug 10 - A good rest day for us. We did travel to the next campground but the drive was only about 3 hours and very scenic. The next campground was close to Elkins, WV and was a Jellystone campground. We like Jellystone because they always have good playgrounds and swimming pools which the kids love. This one also had a river running behind it that the kids liked to dip their feet in. The first pic is our site. That night, we drove just down the street to an amazing restaurant that has an old railroad dining car restored with tables they use for indoor seeting. They also have a huge deck with lots of outdoor seating overlooking the river. A pretty amazing setting for dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The last three pics are at the resturant.

Aug 11 - Another really big day for us that we almost missed and if we do it over again someday, will plan quite differently. Today was our visit to Cass Scenic Railway in Cass, WV - about an hour (or so we thought) drive from our campground. They had two trains scheduled, one at noon and another at 2:30. We planned to take it easy and catch the 2nd train. I has hoping to leave by noon so Amy decided to do laundry in the morning. Through no fault of hers, she had problems with rusty water in the washing machine (don't ask) and we had to do an extra load which meant we didn't leave until 12:45.

Of course, the drive took closer to an hour and a half with the last 10 miles all up and down narrow mountain roads where you averaged 25 mph if you were lucky, which got us in at 2:15 - just enough time to catch the last train. The ride lasts 2 hours so we got back at 4:30 but everything shuts down at 5:00 (everything meaning the restaurants, gift shops, tours, everything... basically the town of Cass is deserted after 5pm) and we were the last ones there. Next time, we're getting there nice and early so we can take our time to see Cass because there is a lot more to see and do than just the train ride.

That's not to say we had a bad day though - the train ride was fantastic and we had a really great time. Cass features a completely different type of steam engine called a "Shay". I'll explain more in the pictures but the cars were open air cars so we smelled the smoke and we had cinders raining down on us as the steam engine worked hard to push us up the mountain. A very different ride, but quite fun.

This is the station area at Cass. The first picture was taken right before we left - that's why the parking lot is empty. The last is our train's engine. This is the boring side of the engine and you'll see why later. The left side of a Shay engine is very different from the right side.

Here's everyone riding the train. These were converted old logging cars with a bench in the middle and open air sides. Jacob loved running through the train as it was moving. Just in case you are wondering about our parental sanity, the train only goes 4 mph and he never fell. ;)

This is the remains of the old logging mill on the site. Cass used to be a big logging community but has been a tourist railroad for well over 20 years by now. My dad took me here when I was a kid and I always wanted to go back.

Here's pics of the train in motion while we were riding it.... gives you a real good idea of what the ride was like. Shay engines were built specifically for logging (and some coal mining) and Shay's can go up very steep grades - almost 5 times as steep as regular steam engines - and can handle very sharp curves and very poor track conditions. Because of this, their top speed is only 12 mph and like I said above, going uphill here, we were only doing 4 mph.

Here's an example of a switchback. There were two of these on the ride up and they are used to gain elevation quickly without having to make big circular trips around the mountain. The easy way to think of it is imagine the train zig-zagging up one side of the mountain. The train pushes the cars up to a point where the track ends, then reverses and pulls the train up another track going higher. You can see what I mean below. In the left pic, we're coming up to the switchback and we're about to go up the tracks at the upper right. In the middle, we're at the point where the track switches off and on the right, we're finally going up the higher track.

We met another train coming down the mountain as we made our way up. This train made a much longer trip, leaving at 10:30 and not arriving back until 3:30 or so. The 2 hour trip we took was the shortest of 3 different trips you can take. They also have a kewl thing where you can rent a caboose and they will drop you off in the caboose at the top of the mountain where you can stay however long you want and they'll come back and get you later. We were told this train had two cabooses on the way up but one was dropped off at the top. Pretty kewl if you ask me. This train also had an open air car with no roof as you can see in the 2nd pic... most cars did have roofs though as all the cinder and ash would probably displease most riders.

Here's a good close up of the "working" side of a Shay engine. As you can see, it looks nothing like a normal steam engine. You see the 3 vertical pistons on the side of the engine? Those pump up and down which drives a long horizontal rod running along the wheels of the engine from the front, all the way back under the tender. This spinnng rod has gears on it which match up to gears on the wheels so when the rod spins, the wheels turn and that's how the train moves. It's pretty kewl to see it in motion... maybe I'll post a movie clip here if you want to see it. The other thing to note is that the boiler on the engine is shifted over to the left side to compensate for the weight of the huge pistons on the right side. If you remember from the pic above, the left side has no pistons at all - it's very plain compared to the right side.

Here we are at the end of our trip. This is a small area known as Whitaker. We're not even halfway up the mountain but the views were still great.

Here we are coming back into the station at the end of the trip. The last two pics are our now empty train heading back to the yard for overnight storage.

The kids liked playing on the playground train they had there. Hmm... maybe something for our backyard... The right two pics are of a model train layout based on the town of Cass in the year 1930 which was very, very well done. In the last picture, you see rows and rows of white houses. These are the logging company houses used to house employees back in the day. Most of the houses are still standing in Cass and they have restored a number of them which you can rent as your lodging during your visit to Cass.

Aug 12 - Thankfully, a light day today as we were starting to get tired. A short drive of 3 hours or so to our next campground - Babcock State Park in WV which was very close to the New River Gorge National River. On the left is a picture of our motorhome at this campground. The campground was adjacent to the stables. They had horseback rides on trails but you had to be at least 8 years old but we did get to have Melissa ride around a small circle they had set up. Melissa was a pro and loved riding on the horsie.

I'm cheating a bit here because these pics aren't actually from this day but they are inside Babcock State Park. The campground and stables are separated from the main park by about 3 miles so before we left, we stopped in the main park where they have a working grist mill which you can see below. We didn't go in it since we were short on time the day we were there but it's a beautiful mill in a gorgeous setting.

Aug 13 - Another pretty easy day. We decided to do some antique shopping in the many nearby small towns and we also stopped at the famous New River Bridge which you can see below. This was the longest Arch bridge in the world until a longer one was built somewhere in Asia. Even so, it's still the longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

One thing that the New River is famous for but we didn't get to do for obvious reasons, is white water rafting. The river has lots of rapids and is a great ride. I actually did white water raft down the river when I was in High School so I know it's an amazing time. There are rafting companies everywhere you look too. When the kids are older, we'll definitely have to come back. In the right two pics, you can see rafters on the water.

Aug 14 - Our last really busy day of the trip. We decided to visit the ghost town of Thurmond which is an old coal mining town built on the banks of the New River. There were some hikng trails in the area too so we wanted to do some of that too. What we didn't count on was the quite narrow road that takes you into Thurmond. They didn't even bother marking the center line for most of the road as it was barely a lane and a half wide. What made it even worse was all the rafting buses going the other way on the road. That led to quite a few fun motorhome vs. bus adventures but we managed to survive.

Here's the town of Thurmond. This was the largest town on the new river in the early 20th century but only a few buildings remain today. Coal was the major industry and railroads were everywhere. The first three pics are the train station built in 1903 that is now the visitor center for the park. You can also see the train bridge that gets the railroad to the other side of the river here. The bridge is the main reason why Thurmond became the largest town since there were very few bridges across the river and this was the first one built in the area.

Here's some pictures of the other remaining buildings in Thurmond. Two of the stores were banks and most of the buildings are in sad shape since the town has long since been abandoned. The last picture is from a hike we took later in the day that overlooks the town of Thurmond so I put the pic in here.

And of course, a day next to the tracks wouldn't be complete without a couple trains coming through. Here's one where Melissa waved to the engineer so he was waving back. ;-)

Second train of the day rolling through Thurmond going the other way.

After checking out the town of Thurmond, we drove down another mile or so to a beach area and let the kids play in the water. Their clothes were soaked but they had a good time.

As mentioned above, we did take a short hike... the only picture of which is on the left. Hiking is tough when the kids aren't quite old enough to walk the whole way themselves and are way too heavy to carry. Oh well. The three pics on the right are the last place we stopped on the day - an overlook of the biggest waterfall on the New River. The kids didn't care about the waterfall but they loved the picnic benches. ;-)

Aug 15 - Today was our big driving day from West Virginia to Indianapolis to visit Amy's Grandpa and her Sister. A long 7 hour drive but we did see this kewl power plant adjacent to a waterfall just before leaving West Virginia.

Aug 16 - Today was spent with Amy's family. Mostly we hung out at Grandpa's house watching the Olympics and went out for lunch and dinner. Didn't take any pics... guess I was getting tired.

Aug 17 - Drove back home today to finally end the vacation. Was a relatively uneventful day but we were certainly happy to get home. Below are a few more miscellaneous notes about the trip.

One thing we took a risk on this vacation was not scheduling any naps for the kids. Jacob sometimes has 2 naps and Melissa usually gets 1 nap if we're at home but on vacation, we were on the go too much for regular naps, so the kids got their rest in their car seats mostly. They are so cute when they are sleeping (and quiet).

Here's a few last pics inside the motorhome. Melissa loves her dollhouse and played with it all the time. In the middle, the kids are all ready for bed and are just finishing up a Blue's Klues video. Melissa's bed is actually the table which folds down. In the past, we've put the table up in the day and down again at night but for this trip, we just decided to leave it down all the time. It gave the kids a play area during the day and was a lot less work for mommy and daddy. I think the last pic of Jacob pretty much sums up the trip for us. It was a lot of fun but boy, were we tired by the end. It was good to finally get home.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed our vacation photos!