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Buffalo Creek & Gauley RailroadAn all-steam coal hauler when others went to diesels |
Dundon, WV / Gary Everhart collection 
In the highly individualistic, at times even eccentric pattern of short-line operations in the South, the Buffalo Creek & Gauley (which maintained passenger service through the medium of Mack rail bus), remained in steam well into 1957. The BC&G, whose No. 3 is shown while its crew takes time for lunch at Widen, West Virginia, serves the coal mines of the Elk River Coal & Lumber Company and daily affirms its faith in valve gear, side rods and all the creed of steam.
Lucius Beebe & Charles Clegg / The Age of Steam / 1957
The Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad was an 18 mile long coal-hauling shortline that operated in central West Virginia for sixty-one years, from 1904 through 1965. The shortline rostered more than a dozen steam locomotives over the course of its operation, having never purchased a diesel-electric locomotive for motive power. Beginning at Dundon, WV, the line ran east along the Buffalo Creek to a terminus 18 miles away at Widen and the Rich Run coal mine. The shortline interchanged with the Baltimore & Ohio back at Dundon. There were several attempts after 1965 to restart the line using diesel-electric power and operating under different names. All were short-lived, the last one ending in 1999. At least four former BC&G steam locomotives have been preserved for display or operation.
from Rails Through Dixie by John Krause (1965) / collection
The mission of the Buffalo Creek & Gauley, up until its demise in the mid-sixties, was to take empties from the Baltimore & Ohio at Dundon, West Virginia, to the coal mine at Widen, and to return the cars loaded to the Capitol Route. Between the two BC&G extremities was Swandale, where the two more industrious agencies were a lumber firm's company store and the mill itself, over which towered three tautly braced smokestacks. BC&G's No. 4, built new for the railroad, cuts through the middle of town on its way to the mine.
John Krause / Rails Through Dixie / 1964
1940 Official Guide map / collection
1940 Official Guide / collection
1920 Official Guide ad / collection
adapted from www.buffalocreekandgauley.com
1940 Official Guide ad / collection
1960 Official Guide ad / collection
from American Short Line Railway Guide by Edward A. Lewis (1975) / collection
from Extra 2200 South magazine (Jul 1971) / collection
from Extra 2200 South magazine (May 1971) / collection
from Steam Locomotive & Railroad Tradition
magazine (Mar 1971) / collection
Buffalo Creek & Gauley #14
Dundon, WV / Sep 1957 / collection
Buffalo Creek & Gauley #14
to Buffalo Creek & Gauley, 1950
to static display, Gaithersburg MD
from Rails Through Dixie by John Krause (1965) / collection
Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railbus A
postcard / collection
from History of the J.G. Brill Company / collection
Strasburg, Pa / Jul 2024 / Gragg Robinson 
Jul 2024 / Gragg Robinson
Strasburg, Pa / May 2024 / RWH
Strasburg, Pa / Sep 1999 / John Durant
See also our complete Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania featured scrapbook in Preservation
Baldwin Number Four
Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4
Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4
Dundon, WV / May 1960 / Jeffrey Lawrence collection
Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4
to North Carolina Trans Museum
to "Southern Railway #604"
to Durbin & Greenbrier Valley
at Cass Scenic Railroad
from Rails Through Dixie by John Krause (1965) / collection
from Steam Locomotive & Railroad Tradition magazine #23 (May 1968) / collection
from Railroading magazine #39 (jul 1971) / collection
Southern Railway #604
North Carolina Transportation Museum
Spencer, NC / Sep 1994 / Andrew Lisowski
collection
collection
collection
See also our complete North Carolina Transportation Museum featured scrapbook in Preservation
Article
New boiler will allow Buffalo Creek & Gauley No. 4 to run again
February 2022
CASS, W.Va. — Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad 2-8-0 No. 4, the last steam locomotive in revenue service on the fabled West Virginia short line, will steam again, thanks to a plan to obtain a new boiler for the Consolidation.
John Smith, CEO of Cass Scenic Railroad and West Virginia Central Railroad operator Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad, tells Trains News Wire, “I’m meeting with the contractor” — Sistersville Tank Works Inc. of Sistersville, W.Va. — “and the [Federal Railroad Administration] steam inspectors at the start of the new year, to finalize as many of the details as possible prior to the start of constructing the new boiler to make sure we eliminate as many surprises as possible.
“We have the first two progress payments on hand and will do our best to raise the remaining $300,000 to finish. Once work on the boiler is started it is estimated to take one year to complete.”
Those interested in helping fund the effort can visit the new BC&G No. 4 website and click on the “donate” page.
The locomotive last operated as Southern Railway No. 604 for the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, N.C., hauling visitors on the grounds of the former Spencer Shops from 1987 until the locomotive’s FRA-mandated 1,472-day service inspection in 2001. During disassembly of the 2-8-0, museum staff discovered more damage than anticipated, and work eventually stopped when Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No. 611 came to Spencer for restoration. The museum sold No. 4 to Durbin & Greenbrier Valley in for $150,000, and the locomotive and its tender were moved to Cass in late 2015.
Evaluation by the Cass shop crew determined the boiler shell was in good shape, but the flue sheets and firebox would require replacement. Because the Cass crew was busy maintaining its geared-locomotive fleet, and there would be no place to operate No. 4 until the Greenbrier River line was completed, management determined replacing the boiler would be the best option. Sistersville Tank Works, which constructed a boiler for Cass Scenic’s Heisler No. 6 some 20 years earlier, was chosen for the job.
Alan Byer / TRAINS online
Cass, WV / Jun 2022 / RWH
Cass, WV / Jun 2022 / RWH
Cass, WV / Jun 2022 / RWH
See also our complete Cass Scenic Railroad featured scrapbook in Preservation
Links / Sources
- Brooks Stover's Buffalo Creek & Gauley website
- Wikipedia article for Buffalo Creek & Gauley