All Aboard! Even You Wood Hicks!

Nestled in the mountains of West Virginia, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park offers excursions that transport you back in time to relive an era when steam-driven locomotives were an essential part of everyday life.


The town of Cass remains relatively unchanged. The restored white clapboard company houses can now be rented as vacation cottages. They really add to the charm and atmosphere of the town. From the company store and museum to the train depot, my Dad and I found a lot of things to do prior to our train ride.


We elected to visit the Lumber Mill Ruins and the Cass Shops, where they keep and repair the locomotives each night. I was transfixed by the huge machines they use to keep the engines in good running condition.

The Cass Railroad was built in 1901 to haul lumber from the nearby mountains to the mill in Cass. The locomotives are the same Shay locomotives used in Cass for more than a half-century. Many of the passenger cars are old logging flat-cars that have been refurbished.


With the steam engine warming up behind us, the ruins of the lumber mill were rather spooky as the morning fog (and the steam engine exhaust) rolled around them while we looked them over.


Once we boarded the train, the real excitement began! The great pistons of the Shay locomotive started pulsing, driven by hundreds of pounds of steam pressure. The shaft began turning, the wheels found traction, and the locomotive began to move. With thick, black smoke belching from its stack, the train pulls away from the station, passing the water tower from which the locomotive tanks are filled. As the train rounds the curve up Leatherbark Creek, we passed the Cass Shop and a graveyard of antiquated but fascinating equipment slowly rusts on a siding.


As the steam pressure builds, the locomotive is driven at full power, and the laborious journey up the mountain toward the two switchbacks begin. The loud huff of the stack, the clanking of gears and pistons, the furious scream of the whistle at the crossings, and the ever present clackety-clack of the rails made my dad and I feel as if we had indeed been transported back in time.


The train soon passed through the first switchback, reversed up a steep grade, and ascended to the second switchback where the process was repeated, and then finally into open fields and Whittaker Station. The switchback process allows the train to gain quick altitude, and in this instance, the train traversed a grade of up to 11 percent, or 11 feet in altitude for each 100 feet of track. A 2 percent grade on conventional railroads is considered terribly steep!

The Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association has recreated a logging camp of the 1940's at Whittaker Station that shows both the living quarters and the equipment used by the loggers (the lowliest of them were called "Wood Hicks"). The centerpiece of Camp One is a Lidgerwood tower skidder, one of only two examples left in the world. These huge railcar-mounted machines carried logs out of the woods on aerial cables for distances up to 3000 feet. I was so engrossed by them, I completely forgot to take pictures!


We took the full 4 and 1/2 hour trip to Bald Knob, so we left Whittaker Station and proceeded to Oats Run for the engine to take on additional water at a spring.


The train then climbed up the mountain, finally reaching Bald Knob, the third highest point in West Virginia. The overlook at Bald Knob provides a spectacular view at an altitude of 4,700 feet.


Do you see what I see? The huge radio dish from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the small town of Greenbank lays at our feet in the distance.

I stood looking into the mountains singing "Country Roads" in my head while I waited for the ride back down the mountain to Cass...

Almost heaven! West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains
Shenandoah River -
Life is old there
Older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Growin' like a breeze

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gathered round her
Miners lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine
Teardrops in my eye

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice
In the mornin' hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin' down the road I get a feelin'
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads
Take me home, now country roads
Take me home, now country roads...

The Drake Equation

This past weekend, my Dad and I took a rather exhausting, but exciting, motor coach tour from Washington DC to the wild mountains of West Virginia in order to ride a couple amazing train rides. I hope to write about the train rides soon but its been a crazy week since I got home and time is not permitting a whole lot of writing or reading (but I'm trying to catch up with you all!)

The first stop of our trip, however, was the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank, located in the depths of Monongahela National Forest. About an hour from the observatory, no one's cellphone could get a signal - and it's by design - as the radio signal from cellphones and even digital cameras - interferes with the huge radio wave collection dishes.


The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) operates the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the world's largest fully steerable single aperture antenna.

The GBT is described as a 100-meter (328 feet) telescope, but the actual dimensions of the surface are 100 by 110 meters. The overall structure of the GBT is a wheel-and-track design that allows the telescope to view the entire sky. The track, 64 m (210 feet) in diameter, is level to within a few thousandths of an inch in order to provide precise pointing of the structure while bearing 16,000,000 pounds of moving weight!

Used for scientific research into the wonders of our colossal universe, the isolated site was first used in the 1950's by a Dr. Frank Donald Drake to look for little green men.


Dr. Frank Donald Drake (born May 28, 1930, Chicago) is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. He is most famous for founding Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and creating the Drake equation and Arecibo (located in Puerto Rico) Message. The Arecibo Message was a "greeting card" beamed out into space asking for alien life to get in contact with us "lonely" humans. As far as anyone knows, no alien has ever gotten the message.

The Drake equation (sometimes called the Green Bank equation) is an equation used to estimate the potential number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It is used in the fields of exobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The equation was devised by Frank Drake in 1962.

The Drake equation states that:


where:

N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;

and

R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space

Values based on "current" best estimates,

R* = 7/year, fp = 0.5, ne = 2, fl = 0.33, fi = 0.01, fc = 0.01, and L = 10000 years
result in

N = 7 × 0.5 × 2 × 0.33 × 0.01 × 0.01 × 10000 = (only) 2.31 civilizations.

Which isn't very many given the billions of stars in the Milky Way. Many hours of effort have been expended searching for ET and as yet, no sign of any has ever been found.

What would happen if we did find such life?

humankind's radio, and later television, broadcasts have been beaming into the deep voids of space for nearly 100 years now, any ET would likely will learn of us humans by hearing and seeing such shows as news reports of violent war and silly shows like Howdy Doody, I love Lucy, Get Smart, and Gomer Pyle, USMC. I wonder what do sort of opinion of us humans might an ET form?

I personally hope there is other (putting aside the question of intelligence) life out there. I have not thought through the ramifications of what such life might mean, should we discover it (or it discovers us). I'm certain our world's religions would be greatly shaken, if not stirred.

Weekend Fast Foward

I've started to write this entry, or continue with it a half dozen times now - and have just not been able to put the words down. By now, last weekend is nearly a week ago -


Labor Day Weekend - Ah, a time to head for the houseboat and hope Hurricane Earl would stay well off the coast of New Jersey. My parents planned to meet me there after taking the Cape May - Lewes Ferry across the opening of the Delaware Bay. My dad is crazy like that. As it turned out - the hurricane caused the cancellation of a number of ferry crossings that day, but not the one my folks were on. My mom said the boat was "rocking and rolling", and my dad was just disappointed, saying "it was like riding across a mill pond". They go see movies at theaters and come out with contradicting reviews too - so you just never know with those two.

I left work a little early on Friday and got down to the wharf in time to shop at the ship's store - unfortunately they were fresh out of Chicken Necks. Chicken Necks are used as bait for Maryland's famous Blue Claw Crabs. The nearby hurricane meant the skies were gloomy and there were short periods of drizzle but not much wind - perfect conditions for catching some crabs -


Failing to get the chicken necks, I decided to take a swim. I had the whole pool to myself - as everyone else seemed to be busy crabbing or battening down their hatches.


I was happy to see Barley's head pop up when I walked to down the dock. This little dog is so ridiculously cute and so ridiculously friendly. I find myself asking his mom if I can take him for a walk and just pat him silly.


Speaking of cute dogs, I spotted this one in the Chestertown Farmer's Market. Tori Z's Kero dog! I didn't buy the little stool but I did buy some cucumbers, tomatoes, and some eggplants. I love cucumbers and eggplant. I'm rather fond of Kero too!


Down the street from the Farmer's Market is the Chestertown Town Dock. This dock is open to public and sailors come ashore in dingys from their boats tied at moorings in the middle of the river. This year's crop of ducks and geese was a good one. I watched a little boy fearlessly throw popcorn to a goose that was easily 6 inches taller than he was. I think his mom was going hysterical as the goose made threating moves and rather odd noises, but he just stuck to eating the popcorn at his feet.

Having an extra day down at the wharf meant having some time to explore some of the adjoinign countryside. One such place is down the Chester River around a bend in the river that is home to Camp Pecometh called Spanish Neck. Spanish Neck is a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Chester and Corsica Rivers. On it lies a 758-acre farm named Conquest and a Conquest Beach park. The farm dates back to 1669 and a land grant by Lord Calvert, the founder of the state of Maryland.

For some interesting but confusing history of the area, go (here).


At any rate, I was surprised to encounter some buffalo while walking along an equestrian trail near the beach. I don't know if many of you recall the movie, "Bless the Beast and the Children" with its haunting "Cotton's Theme" but it popped into my head then and hung around for awhile. "Cotton's Theme" was later revised slightly and called "Nadia's Theme" for the Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast from Romania.

After a pleasant 3 mile stroll through the countryside at Conquest Beach and another 3 mile stroll at Adkins Arboretum, I had worked up and appetite so I headed to the wharf with high hopes...


...that there would be some steamed crabs to be had! And corn on the cob! Yummy!

I must admit the very first person that ate a crab must of been very, very hungry indeed... I can imagine his (or hers) surprise when they found out how good these taste!

Liisa and Ted, the couple in the boat next door - have caught hundreds of crabs this summer. She was saying she's used every crab recipe she knows to prepare them!


After I ate, I felt like Barley... ...it was time to take a pleasant snooze in the warm afternoon sun.

The Old Drive-In

Recently, PBS has been airing a program called "Drive-In Movie Memories." It is about the history of the drive-in movie theater, with a focus on its various stages of development and popularity.

I found it interesting to see that one of the few remaining theaters is in Orefield, Pennsylvania named Shankweiler's Drive-in Theatre. It is only about an hours drive for me. What makes this drive-in so intiruing is that it is America's oldest continuously-operated Drive-in theatre. It opened in 1934 and has changed owners a number of times, but it has never gone dark. If I were to plan a pilgrimage, the owner says to plan to arrive very early. This venerable venue for cinema al fresco parks less than 300 cars and often fills-up early, particularly on the weekends! They are currently screening double features; 7 nights a week in the fast waning summer, and on weekends April, May and September.

Visiting their website (here) was like stepping back in time. According to the site:

Richard Hollingshead opened New Jersey's first Drive-in (and now remembered as the first Drive-in to open in America) in Camden, New Jersey, on Tuesday, June 6th, 1933.

Wilson Shankweiler opened Pennsylvania's first Drive-in, which is only the second Drive-in to open in America, in Orefield, Pennsylvania, on April 15th, 1934 (within 25 years, more than 4,000 Drive-ins will be built in America).

In 1948, speaker poles and car speakers were installed at Shankweiler's Drive-in. I don't know what they did before this! I know movies had sound back then.

In 1955, Hurricane Diane leveled the projection booth and Shadow Box Screen at Shankweiler's. A new CinemaScope Screen and Snack Bar / Projection Room / Restroom building were built in their place.

In 1986, FM radio micro-vicinity broadcasting was introduced at Shankweiler's and they became the 1st Drive-in to feature audio in FM broadcast Stereo.

In 2002, the latest in cinema sound reproduction was achieved with the installation of Red L.E.D Spectral © recorded analog soundtrack readers and cinema sound processor and a new and more powerful FM stereo transmitter. This technologically advanced system provides the customer with near digital quality sound which can be received and enjoyed on their car or portable radio.

As I watched this show on PBS, I found myself remembering a simpler time of life when my parents used to pack me and my brothers up in the old Plymouth station wagon and go to the movies!


A 1966 shot of the local Budco 309 marquee. The drive-in was open year round and had in-car heaters that were propane and then later, electric powered.

The Budco 309 Drive-In was owned by the Smith family and opened circa 1955. It was operated by William Goldman Theatres Co. When the adjacent indoor theater, also operated by William Goldman Theatres, was opened in May 1968, the 309 Drive-In, was still open and actively screening movies.

In 1972/1973 the William Goldman Theatres were renamed Budco Theatres by their new owner. At that time, the drive-in was made twin screen (although I do not remember this specifically, nor do I remember the two screens.)

Of course all this was back in the dark ages and nearly pre-history and my memory isn't what it used to be, but... I remember seeing part of Futureworld in 1976 at the Budco 309 Drive-In. I say part of it, because I either found the movie so boring, or the back seat of the station wagon we had so "sofa-like" and we had brought our pillows, that I fell asleep.


Star Wars (the first or is it the fourth?) opened May 25, 1977...

I best remember seeing this particular movie at the drive-in on a rather cool evening - and hearing the awesome John Williams sound track crackling and full of static from the speaker with the on-the-window-hanger but not at all caring about *that* - the jaw-dropping special effects on the huge outdoor screen were mind-boggling (at the time)!


The 309 Twin Drive-In was closed in 1984 by Budco Theatres Company to become a parking lot for the now greatly expanded indoor AMC 309 Cinema 9. The big outdoor screen remained standing for years until the property was "developed" into a strip mall having a bunch of clone stores for which nobody really asked, ho-hum places like the Staples office supply store.

Another local movie theater that I recall with great fondness was the Doylestown Barn. It opened in barn-like building in 1966 as a single-screen cinema by the William Goldman Theatre Company. In 1968-9 it was twinned. The second cinema was "cutely" called the Silo. In 1975, the theater was bought by the Budco Quality Theatres and a third cinema was added. Over the years, more and more screens were added until in 1997, the Barn was permanently closed and demolished to make way for the "very sterile" Regal Barn Plaza Stadium 14 and $12 movie tickets!