Cass Scenic Shay No. 11 to return to steam July 15 NEWSWIRE

CASS, W.Va. – Cass Scenic Railroad Shay No. 11 will return to steam the weekend of July 15-16 after being out of service for nearly three years. The locomotive’s renovations include a Federal Railroad Administration mandated Form IV overhaul and the replacement of the locomotive’s left and rear firebox sheets.

Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad crews, the operator of the Cass Scenic Railroad, have also installed several hundred new rivets and staybolts and renewed several dozen flexible staybolts, railroad President John Smith says.

Cass Shop workers have also installed a new stack and renewed bearings on the line shaft.

The locomotive is expected to make a debut on July 15 at the railroad’s Great Train Race celebration in Spruce. The locomotive will compete in the annual train race alongside Western Maryland EMD BL2 No. 82, a locomotive that was restored earlier in the year and debuted in Western Maryland’s fireball paint scheme.

With No. 11’s return to steam, it will join Cass Scenic Shays Nos. 2, 4, and 5 in operation at Cass this season, along with Cass Scenic Railroad Heisler No. 6 in Durbin.

Cass Shay No. 11 was built in 1923 for the Hutchinson Lumber Company of Feather Falls, Calif. The locomotive would spend much of the mid-20th century in the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in San Diego before heading to Cass in 1997.