I've Been Working on the Railroad...

The last stop on our journey was the C & O Museum located in Clifton Forge, VA.  This was especially interesting since the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad has a deep history in Huntington, WV.

The museum and rail yard gave a great overview of historical and current railroad operations.  It was especially neat to see the transfer from steam and coal powered engines to diesel.  One big advantage to diesel engines was that multiple engines could be added on the same train WITHOUT having to add extra workers.  While it takes four diesel engines to get the power of one steam engine, it took less manpower since three workers are needed for each steam engine on a train.

The Greenbrier steam engine weighs 462,000 pounds dry (without coal or water) and is said to reach a top speed of 120 mph.

In the days before speedometers, engineers had to calculate mph by timing how long it took them to get from one mile marker to the next.   

The wheels were as tall as me (5' 5")!!

Gadsby's Tavern is a dining car on the George Washington (named "The most wonderful train in the world").  Every car on this train was named for a person, place, or event in Washington's life.

This car can now be rented for special occasions.
(We were able to eat lunch in the car.)

Just for fun...  A model train that appears way too small to hold more than one person can actually carry a crowd around the oval track.

Each car can hold up to three people.

The museum displayed many different size models.  One is pictured below along with the plaque that describes just a little bit of the amazing detail that went into the construction.  I hope you see how much math is involved in running a train AND in building one...even if it is just a model!