Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Contrasts in Restoration.

Even though Carole and I are not really railroad fans, we do like to take a peek into rail museums when we happen to see one on our travels. As we were spending some time in the village of Clifton Forge VA we noticed that they had a rail museum so we drove over to see what it was like. Since it looked like it was fairly impressive we decided to pay the $8 admission fee to take the tour. Carole joined some other folk to take the guided tour while I went off to explore on my own.

The train cars are mostly open and you can just wander about them to see what rail travel was like back in the old days.

Later that same day we drove over into West Virginia to take a look at a town we'd been through years ago: Marlinton. They have a much smaller museum in their downtown area. Both have cabooses to view. But the ones in Clifton Forge have been completely restored, while the single caboose in Marlinton has only had the outside repainted while the interior is rather decayed. I suspect they're waiting for funds to fix it completely for viewing.

Two completely restored cabooses in Clifton Forge, Virginia.

The little restored rail depot in Marlinton, WV. Very nice!

Caboose and two rail cars. Nicely restored on the outside.

But the interior of the caboose is a wreck.

It does look as if they may be starting interior restoration. It's a nice car.

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