Thurmond West Virginia

The Chesapeake and Ohio Depot

These days, three days a week, Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, two Amtrak Trains, # 50 (Eastbound) and # 51 (Westbound) The Cardinal, pass by this station located in one of West Virginia’s, and I would submit America’s, most famous Ghost Towns. Because this town (yes, under the laws of the State of West Virginia it is still an “Incorporated” town with a mayor city council etc.) is a well-known White Water Rafting mecca, Amtrak still lists Thurmond as a flag stop. And sometimes, occasionally, the Cardinal, will stop, but only occasionally. But it was not always so. During the first two decades of the 20th Century, the Thurmond Depot hosted 15 trains a day, and handled as many as 95,000 passengers a year (note: for FY 2008 Amtrak reported the grand total of Boardings and Alightings at Thurmond WV came to 405)!

Thurmond WV began its existence in post Civil War West Virginia. It was the offspring of the fertile mind of Captain William Dabney Thurmond. He was called “Captain” because during the then “recent unpleasantness” had had led a group of Confederate “fighters” known as “Thurmond’s Rangers.” (Note: for much more of the historical background on the town click on: http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvhs1403.html. This is an article by Jessica Fair on Thurmond which appeared in the West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly in 2000.) Nowadays, in addition to having the town named after him, he has an extreme sport triathlon, consisting of whitewater rafting, biking and running events, named in his honor: “Captain Thurmond’s Challenge.”

In 1873 when the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was finally completed through the Allegheny Mountains, Captain Thurmond built a railroad depot on some of his land in Fayette County WV. All of his holdings, and the Depot in particular, were located on a small spit of land on the north side of the New River. Then he and his sons went into business hauling produce and passengers in, and passengers out on the newly completed Richmond to Huntington rail line. His “town” never grew to more than about 75 people. But it was a complete town with a general store, post office, Western Union office, Adams Express office, and after 1891 a hotel in addition to the depot. But one thing it didn’t have was liquor.

Captain Thurmond was a strict Baptist and he wanted that evil “firewater” kept out of “his” town. As part of his plan to do this he had his town Incorporated in 1901. He wanted to be sure that if you lived in his hamlet located on a narrow piece of land on the north side of the New River, deep in the heart of the New River Gorge, you would never be in temptation’s way. With “Incorporation” he insured that this would remain the situation in Thurmond. Now that he was sure he had Satan under control, in 1904 the old depot was torn down and a new one was built. This depot is the one pictured above.

Oh yes, the Liquor, it never did come to Thurmond. But it came close. A commercial rival of Mr. Thurmond’s, a Mr. McKell, saw a “business opportunity” and opened a rival hotel to Mr. Thurmond’s establishment but on the south side of the New River, not within Thurmond itself, but literally within sight of the Thurmond C & O Depot. This hotel, The Dunglen Hotel, became known as a “Little Monte Carlo” because it not only had liquor, particularly for miner’s on the week-ends, but also gambling, “the world’s oldest profession’ (ahem it is hard to maintain a family-oriented blog these days isn’t it), and 100 rooms. Among other activities, there are those who claim (a claim published in that noted historical authority: “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!”) that the Dunglen Hotel hosted the worlds longest running poker game. This Gaming Marathon lasted, it is claimed, for 14 years. (Too bad they didn’t continue on so they could have hosted a show on the Travel Channel.)

In the 2000 Census the town of Thurmond had a population of 7 (click on the site if you don’t believe me). I really don’t think there has been much of an influx since then, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a decrease in next year’s counting. Most of the buildings are vacant and not open under normal operations (don’t worry, from what I have heard and seen, there is nothing in them anyway, unless you are into the paranormal world). The Depot is owned by the National Park Service and is part of their New River Gorge National River operation.

The Thurmond Depot is a National Park Service Visitor’s Center. It is opened during the “tourist season” (generally during the summer and a few “high tourist weekends” such as the fall foliage season). It has a few exhibits downstairs and a few more upstairs as well. On the second level, in the “Bay Window” extension on the track side (the above shot is of the other side) is a recreation of the railroad telegrapher’s office complete with a manikin dressed in his C&O uniform and a recorded message wherein this “agent” tells about what he did back when Thurmond was a classic American Mining Boomtown.

You can still travel to Thurmond West Virginia today. The National Park Service directions are as follows:

“To reach Thurmond, take U.S. Route 19 to the Glen Jean exit, north of Beckley. Follow the signs to Thurmond, seven miles down WV Route 25 (Route 25 is a narrow, winding road and is not recommended for RVs and trailers). No automotive services are available in Thurmond.”

Those of you who may travel into this area in an RV or even a small truck with a trailer note the warning about Route 25 well. I drive this road 1 or 2 times a year. They are not kidding and yes, I have seen several “rigs” driven by “experienced” drivers come to grief on this road. Yes, the curves ARE that bad. But other than that, I do urge you to come, not only to see the Depot, but also “Downtown Thurmond.”

Special note: The Hotel Dunglen, mentioned above, burned to the ground in 1930. The site is now a parking lot used by the National Park Service and its visitors. As with most National Park Sites, I am sure the use of alcohol is prohibited and the Rangers probably would not want card games or any other shenanigans going on either. Ahh . . . Captain Thurmond would be pleased.

Elkins West Virginia

The Western Maryland Railroad Terminal

For yours truly, this is the station that started me on the road of trying to photograph Railroad Passenger stations in the towns I visited. The particular day this shot was taken, we were on our way back home. We stopped in Elkins on this particular afternoon. And there I had a chance to get a close look at something I had only glanced at in all my previous brief passes through town. This beautiful, but sadly forgotten railroad station.

And the sight of it set me to thinking. I guess it was the grandeur of the building, built to standards equal to, or in many cases better than other contemporary buildings in the town that caught my eye. Why had this happened? Was it a fluke, or were similar structures still extant? And thus began the “quest.”

Elkins WV was originally created as a railroad town by Henry Gassaway Davis and his West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway (WVC&P). The WVC&P began from an interchange with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Piedmont WV. Davis had been working in Piedmont for the B&O for a number of years when he began “his” railroad in 1880. In 1890 Davis and a business partner, Stephen Elkins founded a town on the Tygart Valley River and named it after Elkins. The WVC&P reached Elkins in the late 1890’s.

Shortly after building through to Elkins, Davis sold the WVC&P Railroad to George Jay Gould who at the time controlled the Western Maryland Railroad. Gould had dreams of building a transcontinental line and saw the Western Maryland as the eastern portion of that dream. His original goal had been to make his west-east link through Pittsburgh.

How Gould saw the WVC&P fitting into this scheme is still not clear to me. According to Alan Clarke in his book on the Coal and Coke Railroad (Henry Gassaway Davis’ “retirement project”), Davis expected Gould to send his Western Maryland transcontinental trains through Elkins, down his Coal and Coke to Burnsville WV. Then the trains would follow another rail line that was supposedly going to be constructed through the southern portions of the Little Kanawha River drainage into Parkersburg WV where it would link up with a supposedly new line of the Wabash. Whether this was indeed Gould’s plan, or just a diversion that Gould promoted in his “war” with the Pennsylvania Railroad, is unknown to me (perhaps some reader of this posting can enlighten us all).

At any rate, presumably in anticipation of this transcontinental role for Elkins, Gould had the Western Maryland build this station in Elkins. Hence, this was the rationale, supposedly, for the station’s ornate features. This was going to be a “Transcontinental Line” (nevermind that the Western Maryland for years advertized itself as a “Fast Freight Line” and ran comparatively few long distance passenger trains).

The Western Maryland is “long gone,” absorbed into the Chessie System, and thence into CSX. And the trackage into Elkins is almost all gone as well. What was once a giant yard hosting many train cars is now largely a patch of weeds. And while CSX was at it when they “tore up” the track in the area, they also destroyed a key bridge just south of the station that tied the station trackage into the tracks then still left in the Elkins area thus effectively taking it “off line.” (It is rumored that they did this at night to avoid detection.)

The station, itself, has been extensively renovated both inside and out. And as beautiful as the picture above shows the outside to be, the inside is even more elegant, particularly the woodwork. The Station serves as a Visitor’s Center for the town of Elkins. Among other things, the town and many citizens in the area are attempting to create a West Virginia Railroad Museum on the “patch of weeds” in the back where the freight yards used to be. Presumably the station will become part of that overall idea.

The bridge south of the station that CSX “destroyed” has been replaced, and now tourist trains run by the West Virginia Central, utilize the Elkins terminal for some of their runs down the Tygart Valley and also up towards Cheat Bridge. The railroad has also moved its headquarters into the station building.

Marlinton West Virginia

The Cheaspeake and Ohio Station

Pocahontas County was formed in 1821 by an act of the Virginia Legislature (West Virginia was still part of Virginia at this time). The first county court met in the small community of Huntersville WV.


In 1891 the County seat was moved to "Marlin's Bottom" which was subsequently re-named "Marlinton" ("There ain't no "g" in Marlinton). In reality, Marlin's Bottom had been the scene of the earliest settlement. In 1851 Andrew Lewis, a famous early Virginia explorer, found 2 individuals living in the bottom, one of them in a tree.


Shortly after Marlinton became the county seat, The Cheasapeake and Ohio extended its Greenbrier sub-division into town and then beyond (the line eventually ended at the small town of Durbin WV). This station was constructed in 1901.


After the Greenbrier Sub-Division was abandoned by the Chessie System (the successor to the C&O), most of the roadbed was converted to the Greenbrier Rail-Trail. The Marlinton Station, by that time one of only 4 still extant on the line, was converted into a Visitor's Center complete with information and a display of what the station had been like in the period 1910-1920.




Sadly, this station burned last spring. I found out about it a few weeks ago from a fellow traveler on Amtrak's train, The Cardinal. He told me at the time that he understood the fire had started in the electrical system.



Since the fire, the Visitor's Center has been moved to the Van Reenen Home, and an effort is underway to build a replica of this station. This is an area of the country that has struggled economically for many years. Any help I am sure would be appreciated.

Martinsburg West Virginia

The Baltimore and Ohio Station

This station was built in 1842. It was actually a hotel owned by a private individual that had a shed for train passengers to use while waiting attached to it. It had a status in relationship to the B&O similar to the status enjoyed by the many taverns and inns found along the roads back then, and even today. That is to say, it was dependent upon the B&O for providing it with customers even though it did not belong to the B&O. This building is still the site of a train stop today. Amtrak train numbers 29 and 30, The Capitol Limited, stop here. In addition, at present, there are two MARC Commuter trains that leave from here for DC in the morning, and two MARC Commuter trains that arrive here from DC in the evening.

I say at present, because MARC has announced that due to reduced funds from the gasoline taxes, they are going to cut one in-bound and one out-bound train from Martinsburg WV. They will have a public hearing on this on the 24th of November. If you are interested, and are geographically able to attend, do so. The hearing will be from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at Martinsburg City Hall, J. Oakley Seibert City Council Chambers, 232 North Queen Street Martinsburg, WV 25401.

At any rate, to the best of my knowledge these train stops make this the oldest Train Station still in active use by Amtrak. Now the reality is that today a new re-modeled and expanded basement is the actual "station," and even it is really little more than a waiting room. But at least it is still a "station" in the broadest sense of the word.

Obviously, this station saw a lot of "action" during the Civil War. It is located just across the tracks from what was, at one time, one of the larger collection of railroad shops on the B&O. In late June, early July 1861, Confederate forces under the command of Thomas J. (soon to be called "Stonewall") Jackson occupied Martinsburg. While there they proceeded to attempt to completely destroy the B&O Railroad and deny its use to the Union forces. Towards that end, they destroyed or removed all pieces of rolling stock in the area. In addition, they took machines and machine tools from the shops, and burned the shop buildings to the ground. Finally, they also tore up most of the tracks in the area, and burned or otherwise attempted to destroy all the bridges nearby.


Some of the operating equipment Jackson seized at Martinsburg was moved over land, drawn on wagons by teams of horses, down the "old wagon road" (which became US 11 and later parts of I-81 down the Shennandoah Valley) to Strasburg VA. Here it was placed in use on the Manassas Gap Railroad. Less than a month later, Jackson and his men used this hi-jacked rail equipment to ride from the Valley over to Bull Run to participate in the battle called "Bull Run" by those loyal to the north, and "Manassas" by those loyal to the south (It all depends upon where your lines were located).

But Jackson did not let his men touch this station across the tracks from the shops. At that time, the state of Maryland (which had stayed with the Union) and the City of Baltimore were major stock-holders in the B&O. That fact made the B&O a function of the Union Government in Jackson's eyes. And thus, since his forces were operating against the forces loyal to the Union Government, that made the B&O, its tracks, equipment, and buildings, "Fair Game" for appropriation and/or destruction. Jackson reasoned, however, that this station was, in reality, a hotel owned by a private individual who was a resident in Martinsburg (and a potential loyal supporter of the secessionist cause). Thus, it was not "B&O" (i.e. Union government) property, but "private property." And so it was spared. (Note, the famous Belle Boyd, who later earned "fame" as a Confederate spy lived just around the corner from the station. Her house is still there and is open for tours.)

Wheeling West Virginia

The Baltimore and Ohio Terminal

This 1908 structure was noteworthy among West Virginia Passenger Train stations both then and now. At one time it functioned as the largest "Terminal" in the state and the busiest one as well. But maybe the term "Terminal" needs a little explanation.

As I understand it, a Passenger Station (or Depot) has passenger trains that may start or end at the structure. But it also will have trains, indeed the majority, that start or stop elsewhere but pause at this particular structure as part of their regular schedule. A "Terminal" on the other hand is noted primarily for being a place where most of the trains either begin or end their routes. There may be through trains pausing in route, but they do not comprise the majority of the traffic seen at the station.

One of the peculiarities of West Virginia Railroads, is that most of them are in the process of going from someplace and going to a different place. Thus in the far south you have the old Norfolk and Western line (now Norfolk Southern). It runs from Cincinnati Ohio to Norfolk Virginia. Passenger trains using the main line stopped at several places, but except for the occassional branch local up some hollow in the southern coal fields, there were few trains that stopped and/or ended at any of these stations.

In the south central area you have a collection of lines which were operated by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (now CSX). The main line goes from Cincinnati Ohio in the west, to Tidewater Virginia in the east. However, it had numerous branches serving various mines up various hollows in the area that became known as the Kanawha Coal Fields. Again, as with the Norfolk and Western, there were a few local trains, many of them mixed" (combinations of passengers and freight), but most C&O passenger trains at any one station, were through trains.

Just north of that line, you did have the only lines that "ended" in West Virginia. These lines, which actually connected and thus made through service for freight possible, were the Kanawha and Michigan (later New York Central, later Penn Central, later Conrail, and now Norfolk Southern), and the Virginian (later Norfolk and Western, now Norfolk Southern). They did have a "Terminal" in Charleston WV that served the Kanawha and Michigan (later New York Central), the Virginian, and the Elk River line of the Baltimore and Ohio (originally built as the Coal and Coke Railroad). However, on none of these lines was passenger traffic ever a major concern.

Still further north you had the two B&O lines, the "Old Main" (the original line completed in 1852) that ran up to Benwood and Wheeling WV, and the early "branch line" constructed as the "Northwestern Virginia Railroad" (later known by the B&O as the "National Limited Line). The eastern part of this route (through Clarksburg and Fairmont WV) still exists. The western part has been abandoned. The Clarksburg-Parkersburg section has become The North Bend Rail Trail. Again, as with the Norfolk and Western and the C&O, these lines had some branches, and these branches had some "local" passenger service which started and ended at various points. But again, as with the previous roads mentioned, trains serving these branches were not as numerous or as prominent at any particular station as the through passenger service.

Finally, in the "northern panhandle" section of West Virginia there was one more East West route. This was the Pennsylvania Railroad line that went from Pittsburgh to Columbus. It made only one station stop, Weirton WV.

With all these east-west lines, there were only 2 lines that went north-south, and one of them went only part way. There was a line in the east that consisted of the Western Maryland, down through Elkins and Durbin, where it met up with the Greenbrier Branch of the C & O. This line ended at Ronceverte WV. However, passenger traffic on this line was minimal though for a time a north-south passenger connection did exist between the 2 roads. The other north-south line was the B&O line which hugged the eastern bank of the Ohio River, all the way from above Weirton, down to Huntington WV. And this is where the above "Terminal" comes into place. For this line did see a lot of local traffic between points on the river.

The Wheeling Terminal was the busiest train "terminal" in West Virginia when measured in terms of the number of trains that either started, ended, or stopped en route. Further, it had more trains starting or ending than an other Passenger Train facility in West Virginia. At one point in the operational history of the B&O there were 19 trains that started, ended, or paused at this station. Historically, this made perfect sense. Because the originally projected western terminous for the B&O in 1828 was to be "Wheeling." Now once Wheeling was reached, the B&O started trying to cross the Ohio. In these efforts they met some resistance from the government of the state of Virginia, and . . . as they like to say, the rest is history.

Today, the B&O tracks through Wheeling, both the east-west line which went from Pittsburgh across the Ohio River and on to Zanesville and points beyond, and the north-south Ohio River line, have been adandoned and the tracks pulled (in the case of the Ohio River line, they are in place south of Moundsville WV). And obviously, this station no longer functions as a railroad terminal. Instead, it is part of the campus of the Northern West Virginia Community College. (Incidentally, I took this shot from the 2nd floor of West Virginia's Independence Hall, where the state was formed in 1863).

On a more personal note: I notice I have a follower, Ed. Welcome, I hope you enjoy this site as much as I enjoy posting to it.

Smithton West Virginia

The Baltimore and Ohio Station

This is a very normal, ordinary wooden station building, plain in design. It probably resembles many other railroad station buildings that still exist, or used to exist. About the only thing out of the ordinary about it, is that despite the fact that the railroad called it "Smithton" it is actually located in the town of Smithburg WV. But that, in and of itself, is not really all that extraordinary. In plenty of other places, the railroad would give a station a name that was different from what the locals called their settlement.


Sometimes there were understandable reasons for a difference between a station name, and the name of the community it served. For example, several places railroads changed the station name in order to avoid confusion with other stops in the area with similar sounding names. The Norfolk and Western had two stations, Shepherdstown WV, and Sharpsburg MD, separated only by the single track bridge spanning the Potomac River. Accordingly they re-named the Sharpsburg MD depot, Antietam. This change not only avoided confusion on the operation of the railroad, but also assisted Civil War veterans who desired to return to the scene of battles they were in.


But other times, there was spite and vengance involved in changing a station's, and even the town's name. The best example of this situation I know of, was when Collis P. Huntington decided that the citizens of Coalsmouth WV were not sufficiently cooperative with the crew building his new Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. So, he simply had the name of the town changed by his chief lawyer, a man by the name of Parsons. The lawyer decided to name it after his home town, St. Albans VT. And thus was born "St. Albans WV."

At any rate, Smithton, Smithburg, whatever you want to call it, is no longer an active station. Further, the tracks that used to serve the station are no longer in existence. The tracks, which dated back to the historic Northwestern Virginia Railroad, a subsidiary of the Baltimore and Ohio, known for many years as the "National Limited Line" of the Baltimore and Ohio, were pulled in 1985 and the line was "railbanked." Through this section of the country, the line became the North Bend Railtrail.

Smithton depot, located roughly at the half-way point, has been repainted and restored on the inside to resemble a typical country station of the late 1800's in West Virginia. It is a very ordinary station. But even so, it still has a story to tell. You just have to listen and know where to look.