It's been about 50 years since smoke-blowing steam locomotives chugged along the rolling mountainside in Petersburg, W.Va.
But this weekend, steam trains will be center stage at West Virginia Rails 2010, a festival that celebrates 100 years of a railway line carved into the Appalachian Mountains by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
The event will feature two steam locomotives as well as several diesel trains, similar to those that traveled the rails of the state's pastoral Eastern Panhandle in the early 1900s. Once again, the trains will be picking up passengers, this time for a firsthand look at what was once the country's primary form of mass transit.
Festival organizers say they are anticipating a crowd of about 15,000, which will likely include scores of train enthusiasts with a fascination for the enormous moving boxcars.
"It goes back to childhood, looking up and seeing this huge massive train. People are in awe, like they're looking at the space shuttle," said Jason Johnson, event promoter. "You always hear people say, 'When I was a kid, this train always ran by the house.' That's how all the stories begin.
"There are about 100 steam locomotives operating around the country, most in small museums, really," Johnson said. "A lot of people now want to expose them to their own children."
In addition to train merchandise vendors from around the country, the event will feature one of the largest miniature train displays in the U.S., said Julia Hartman, executive director of the Grant County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"It will be brought in on a tractor-trailer," she said.
Trains include the coal-fired Flag Coal Co.'s Number 75 of Ashley, Ind., one of the most-traveled steam locomotives for railway events.
Visitors will be allowed to operate the steam train, with instruction from a locomotive engineer, as well as blow its whistle. Another steam train, the 65-year-old Vulcan 0-4-0T, will make its first trip outside of its home tracks, the New Hope Valley Railway and North Carolina Railway Museum in Bonsal, N.C. It will be available for hourly rides each day.
The festival will also feature track cars that were used for moving railroad workers. Several train rides are scheduled, ranging from a 45-minute round-trip tour to an all-day scenic excursion. On Saturday, the slate features a four-hour, round-trip dinner train through the South Branch Valley.
West Virginia Rails 2010 begins Friday about an hour north of Petersburg in Romney, W.Va., where the Potomac Eagle, a popular scenic railway train, will ferry passengers to the event.
Excursions will run through a portion of the area called "The Trough," a scenic canyon along the South Branch of the Potomac River. Trains will include open-platform cars, which Johnson said allows passengers an up-close view of the rolling mountains and the local wildlife.
The route is known for its bald eagles, which, according to the Potomac Eagle website, can be seen on about 90 percent of its excursions.
"Sometimes they fly down along the train," said Johnson. "That's a big part of the sightseeing."