Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
For years, the Durbin Rocket has loaded passengers at the Durbin Depot and taken them north alongside the Greenbrier River, on a two-hour round trip excursion.
Now, with the connection of Cass and Durbin near completion, plans for the Durbin Rocket have changed, leading to the 2021 season being the last for the Durbin Rocket, as it is known.
Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad Inc. president John Smith said the train will be relocated to Cass Scenic Railroad State Park where it will be used for the Cass to Durbin route slated to begin by the end of 2021.
“What we decided at the very start was that we would try to figure out how to make Cass operate more than just six months,” Smith said. “We have this track that goes from Cass to Durbin, but you know, it flooded in 1985, so the goal we have is to make Cass as viable as possible as a business venue and keep it going twelve months of the year.”
DGVRR took over operation of the Cass trains in 2014, and in 2016, plans were underway to restore the track between Cass and Durbin to create a new excursion for visitors.
“The idea was to rebuild this track from Cass to Durbin which is kind of flat and could be operated in the winter months,” Smith said. “That was the goal years and years ago. We’ve been working on it ever since. The culmination is right now. All we need is two sixty-four foot steel beams and we’re in business.”
Those two beams are all that’s needed to complete the bridge that was washed out in the 1985 flood. Once they are installed, the Durbin Rocket will be moved to Cass and the new excursion will be added to the Mountain Rail West Virginia roster.
“What’s going to happen is that all the trains will actually emanate from Cass, and all the steam will be out of the Cass shop. The Cass shop is one of the five best steam shops in the world,” Smith said. We want to bring all the maintenance of the steam locomotives into Cass and operate all the trains out of Cass.”
While the Durbin Rocket is leaving Durbin, it doesn’t mean the excursions will end. Along with the daily Cass to Durbin route, Smith said there will be specialty trains that will continue on the Durbin Rocket route.
“There will still be occasional two hour rides out of Durbin, but there will also be two hour Whitaker rides, so we have different options that people can take once this is open,” he said.
Once the route is completed, Smith said there will be options for different types of excursions – Cass to Durbin and even Durbin to Cass with an overnight stay.
The goal of the change is to create a year-round attraction at Cass, as well as attract more visitors to the Durbin area.
“We want to keep trying to do what we can to help the businesses up in Durbin,” Smith said. “What we’re doing now obviously is not helping the town grow. We want to do what we can, but on the other side, we need to be able to make this as profitable as possible.”
Expanding to a year-round attraction, Smith said it will help keep employees working and expose visitors to another part of the county they may not have experienced.
“Every year when they do those polls with people who ride and railfans, Cass Scenic Railroad ends up in the top three in the nation,” he said. “That’s quite a feat. It’s a terrific ride. Durbin and Greenbrier don’t show up anywhere because we don’t have the world recognition.”
Smith hopes that having the Durbin Rocket depart from Cass will change that fact and have more people looking into taking excursions to Durbin and enjoying the town.
“We’re not getting rid of the train,” he said. “It will be the same train, we’re just reimagining it and running it out of Cass.”
For more information on DGVRR and all the excursions it offers, visit mountainrailwv.com