West Virginia Railroad Museum on track for April 18 grand opening
ELKINS -- Without the arrival of the railroad, the coal and timber industries would never have rapidly become the powerful economic forces they came to be in West Virginia.
In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the presence of rail lines connecting the state to markets in the east gave investors the impetus needed to open coal mines and build coke ovens. During the same era, trains equipped with steam-powered winches pulling long steel cables wound their way on temporary tracks through the state’s massive stands of hardwoods, allowing rail-borne crews of loggers to clear-cut and haul away timber from thousands of square miles of virgin forest. Occupants of the coal camps and mill towns created by the new industries relied on railroads to access the outside world during an era in which cars were an expensive novelty and highways were few and far between.
To preserve and interpret the state’s rail heritage, the West Virginia Railroad Museum was formed in 2003. Initially, its work focused on collecting and restoring railroad cars and locomotives with West Virginia connections. But on April 18, the organization ushers in a new era, when it hosts a grand opening for its new indoor exhibit venue in the restored, 113-year-old Darden Mill at the Elkins Rail Yard.
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