Durbin Rocket - Durbin WV

The Durbin Rocket arriving at the Durbin Depot.

The other day I had a chance to take my son to ride the Durbin Rocket in Durbin WV and being as I have a fondness for steam-powered locomotives I wanted to pass that love of old locomotives onto him.

The Durbin Greenbrier Valley Railroad operates the Durbin Depot as well as the Elkins Depot and Cass Depot offering Steam locomotive rides from both Durbin & Cass and diesel locomotive rides from the Elkins Depot.

The Durbin Rocket is an old logging engine hooked to a variety of cars offering riders the ability to freely roam and enjoy the open air flat car, passenger cars, bunks in the caboose, or ride on the back of the caboose to watch the tracks flow by beneath you. The entire atmosphere is laid back and inviting with engineers and staff members that are happy to take the time to talk, answer questions, give advice, or invite you onto the engine to see first hand the controls which made the ride that much more enjoyable.

The ride itself is a short one with a brief stop at a rest area to allow riders to stretch their legs and enjoy a bit of scenery. The train does the initial ride in reverse due to the lack of a method of turning the locomotive at the current time and then does the return trip forward leaving the open air car ash and smoke-free on the way out of the station and subject to some smoke and ash on the return trip. 

While there we were informed that the section of track that connects Durbin to Cass is under construction/repair and will eventually be opened up allowing much-needed maintenance to be done on the locomotive housed at Durbin at the larger Cass maintenance yard and the possibility of station to station train rides or multi-train transfer rides being offered in the future.

The Durbin Depot also offers special train rides such as the train robbery where they encourage riders to dress in period clothing (minus guns of course) and witness an old-fashioned horseback train robbery. I plan to return for this ride at a later date.

Me and my son both had a wonderful time on our ride and now look forward to riding the other trains operated by the DGVR in the future. If you'd like to book a ride on the Durbin Rocket or any of the other DGVR operated rails you can do so by visiting mountainrailwv.com.