CLIFTON FORGE, VA (LOOTPRESS) – A festival celebrating the railroad that helped power West Virginia’s industrial revolution is planned for June 10-11.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) traversed through West Virginia, becoming a lifeline for the state’s economy. It opened up the region’s vast coalfields, allowing for the efficient transportation of coal to markets across the country.
The annual C&O Railway Heritage Festival is set to kick off next Saturday.
This annual fundraising event for the 54-year-old non-profit organization that preserves and shares the transportation history of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway will take place at the C&O Railway Heritage Center museum on June 10-11, 2023 from 10 AM-4 PM.
Admission is $5.00 per person and, in order to introduce rail history to the next generation of supporters, children three years old and under will be admitted into the event for free.
The region’s rail heritage will be celebrated with a large lineup of events and features for visitors of all ages.
The C&O Heritage Center’s popular 7.5″ gauge “Little C&O” ride-on train will be running throughout the extensive museum grounds, which feature a variety of replica railroad structures, such as the 1891 passenger station and the 1920s signal tower “JD Cabin.”
The two-story structure serves as a great vantage point for watching and photographing CSX’s active yard and mainline traffic.
Beside JD Cabin rests a popular fixture at the C&O Railway Heritage Center: the famed 1948-built C&O J3a 4-8-4 steam locomotive No. 614. During the Heritage Festival, guests can tour the locomotive’s cab and sit behind the throttle in the engineer’s seat.
Multiple food and craft vendors will also be set up at the festival.
Generously donated to the C&O Historical Society by CSX Transportation after a meticulous restoration at the CSX Huntington Locomotive Shop in West Virginia, the SD40 diesel locomotive No. 7534 is the newest example of railroad motive power to be put on public display at the Clifton Forge museum.
Now wearing its original C&O Railway paint and lettering, visitors can also take a seat in the restored cab of this 1971-built showpiece.
The C&OHS’s 5,000-square-foot museum, housed in a restored 1896 railroad Freight House, will also be open for visitors. Its indoor exhibits were researched and developed to illustrate the timeline of the railway’s push west, taking the visitor through history up to the modern CSX Transportation era.
To learn more about the C&O Historical Society, click here.