West Virginia Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Published: October 16, 2026

West Virginia’s railroad museums are a logging railroad, a Chesapeake & Ohio town collection, and a cast-iron roundhouse. Cass Scenic Railroad State Park still runs geared steam on the grade the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company started in 1901. Hinton’s museum keeps Chesapeake & Ohio tools and the John Henry story, a few blocks from the 1905 depot. At Martinsburg, the Baltimore & Ohio’s West Roundhouse of 1866 is the surviving cast-iron-frame roundhouse.

D&GVR's Chesapeake and Ohio F7 7094 at Tygart Junction, WV

A Durbin & Greenbrier Valley/West Viriginia Central freight train, led by Chesapeake & Ohio F7 #7094 (built as Milwaukee Road #109-A), at Tygart Junction, West Virginia. Loyd Lowry photo.

Cass tickets, the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley, the Potomac Eagle, and the West Virginia Central at Elkins are on the West Virginia scenic-train guide. American-Rails does not sell tickets.

On this page: At a glance · West Virginia railroads · Cass · Hinton · Martinsburg · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Cass Scenic Railroad State Park	Cass	Logging railroad of 1901. Geared steam, including Shay No. 5 of 1905. First park trains June 15, 1963	West Virginia State Parks · Cass
Hinton Railroad Museum	Hinton	Opened May 26, 1991. Chesapeake & Ohio tools, uniforms, and the John Henry story. The 1905 depot is a separate building	206 Temple Street
Baltimore & Ohio Martinsburg Shops	Martinsburg	West Roundhouse of 1866, the surviving cast-iron-frame roundhouse. National Historic Landmark	roundhousewv.com

West Virginia railroads

Before statehood the ground was Virginia. The Baltimore & Ohio reached Harpers Ferry in January 1837 and the Ohio River at Wheeling in 1852. West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863, with the railroads already in place. The twentieth century was a coal railroad: Baltimore & Ohio in the north, Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk & Western in the south, the Virginian on an easier grade of its own, and the Western Maryland into Elkins. The state page’s table puts the peak near 3,996 miles in 1920 and the modern freight network at about 2,098 miles, with 10 freight railroads. CSX and Norfolk Southern hold the old mains. Amtrak’s Cardinal still uses the former Chesapeake & Ohio through the New River. The state account is the West Virginia railroads page.

The rides that are not museums stay on the scenic guide. That includes the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley, which also operates the Cass trains, the Potomac Eagle out of Romney, and the West Virginia Central at Elkins. Toy-train rooms at Harpers Ferry and on Kruger Street in Wheeling, and the train at Oglebay Good Zoo, are family stops. Confirm them on the scenic guide. Neighbors with their own museum pages are Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Cass

Cass was a company town of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, laid out in 1901 for the men cutting spruce on Cheat Mountain and Back Allegheny. The railroad started the same year, to bring logs down to the mill. The track eventually reached Bald Knob, which the state park calls the third-highest peak in West Virginia. The logging line, the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk, ran to a peak of some 175 miles, and every engine was a Shay. In June 1942 the operation was sold to the Mower Lumber Company. The mill and the railroad shut down in July 1960.

The state park history dates Cass’s arrival in the park system to 1961. The Cass page on this site says the property had been purchased by March of that year and turned over to the Department of Natural Resources. The first official passenger trip ran on June 15, 1963, and more than 23,000 people rode in that first year. The company town itself came into the park in 1977. The railroad is still an 11-mile heritage line, and the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley operates it. Shay No. 5 was built by Lima in the fall of 1905 for the Greenbrier & Elk River, class C-80, and it has not left this railroad. Shay No. 6, built for the Western Maryland in the spring of 1945 and one of the last and largest of the type, came to Cass in 1981. The roster, the Bald Knob ride, and the shorter trip to Whittaker are on the Cass page and the scenic guide. Hours and fares are the park’s to post.

Hinton

The Hinton Railroad Museum is at 206 Temple Street. The city dates the opening to May 26, 1991. The collection is Chesapeake & Ohio: models, tools from the years of John Henry and the Great Bend Tunnel, uniforms, and photographs of the division point Hinton used to be. The 1905 Chesapeake & Ohio depot, at 100 Second Avenue, is a different building. It was the division terminal, it is still an Amtrak stop for the Cardinal, and the museum is not inside it. Hours are the museum’s to post.

Martinsburg

The Baltimore & Ohio reached Martinsburg in 1842 and built its first shops there before the Civil War. Confederate troops destroyed that plant. After the war the railroad rebuilt the complex, from 1866 to 1872: a machine and woodworking shop, the West Roundhouse, and a car shop. The West Roundhouse is a sixteen-sided brick building whose roof is carried on a cast-iron frame, designed by Albert Fink. The National Park Service calls it the oldest fully covered roundhouse in the United States, and the site calls it the surviving cast-iron-frame roundhouse. A second roundhouse, finished in 1872, was lost to arson in the early 1990s. The shops worked until the mid-1980s. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began on this property. The complex is a National Historic Landmark, designated July 31, 2003, and the nomination places it at 300 East Martin Street.

Martinsburg is a railroad shop, not the Baltimore museum. The Baltimore collection, in the roundhouse on Pratt Street, has been the National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation since the announcement of July 14, 2026. That campus is the B&O museum page and the name-change note. Tour times at Martinsburg are the site’s to post.

Sources

West Virginia State Parks, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park history, wvstateparks.com.
American-Rails.com, Cass Scenic Railroad, for the March 1961 purchase, the June 15, 1963 first trip, and Shays No. 5 and No. 6.
City of Hinton, arts and entertainment page, for the museum at 206 Temple Street and the May 26, 1991 opening. National Park Service place page, updated January 19, 2021, for the Chesapeake & Ohio exhibits. National Park Service, Hinton Depot, for the 1905 station at 100 Second Avenue.
Martinsburg Roundhouse, roundhousewv.com, and the National Park Service place page for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops. National Historic Landmark nomination, listed July 31, 2003, reference 03001045, for 300 East Martin Street.
American-Rails.com, West Virginia railroads, revised August 13, 2026, for the mileage table. Ride dates stay on the scenic guide.

Confirm hours and which locomotive is on the property before you travel.

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