The seeds of the Gauley River Rwy, my On30 railway, were gathered from several trips I made with close friends. My first trip to Cass was in the early 1980's with fellow narrow gauger, Jack Kennedy. Jack had invited me to attend a "railfan weekend" in May and we left Morristown, New Jersey pretty excited about what we were going to see. Jack had been to Cass before and we stopped somewhere in western Va and Jack told me to stock up on snack foods because "there is no close place around Cass for a quick meal"....for a minute, I thought we were about to set forth into the "wilds" of West Virginia and we would be hunting and fishing our way through the weekend! Our accomodations were a small cabin owned by the local postmaster (in Cass?) and we stayed with a couple of other guys Jack knew. I sucked in everything Cass had to offer me....the operating Shays......the rides up and down the mountain......exploring the various camp cars and logging equipment on the mountain and walking "the dead line" along the Greenbrier River. I had a magical time that spring, seeing big mountain logging for the first time and the seeds of West Virginia logging had been found, but at that time I resisted "sowing them" as I was absorbed with the D&RGW and RGS narrow gauges of Colorado......the Cass seeds were packed away in my memories and I wonder now why I waited so long to find them again........
