The Beech Mountain Railroad began its lengthy history in 1890, as a narrow gauge tramway line constructed to serve the Alexander Lumber Company. Two years later in 1892, the original tramway was converted to a standard gauge railroad under the title of the Alexander and Rich Mountain.
By 1900, the A&RM Railroad had been sold to the Randolph Coal and Lumber Company, which re-chartered the rail company as the Alexander and Rich Mountain Railway - the same name, but as a railway. Six years later in December of 1906, the A&RM Railway was reorganized once again, this time as the Alexander & Eastern Railroad. Over the following four decades, the A&E expanded and declined with the fortunes of the local timber and coal industry, which resulted in the continous construction of track to service new sources of traffic and the wholesale abandonment of other lines that served dried up mines and timbered hollows. A major abandonment occured in the late 1940's when most of the Alexander and Eastern was ripped up. Fortunately, this abandonment was not permanent and in 1953 the track was re-laid by the F.C. Cook and Company as the Beech Mountain Railroad. From that point on, the Beech Mountain Railroad has mainly been a coal hauling line, with the occasional exception of timber products. Dieselization on the BEEM began in the 1950s with the purchase of a 4 axle GE unit and later an Alco S-1, #9452. However, a declining coal market saw the mines served by the railroad close one by one and track removed, until by 1975 only 8 miles of rail remained between the Carter Roag coal mine at Star Bridge and Alexander, where the shortline interchanges with CSX's former Baltimore and Ohio Pickens Subdivision. Between those two communites, the railroad follows every twist and turn of the Buckhannon River as it winds its way through the isolated Upshur county backcountry.
Current Operations
In the spring of 1998, the railroad shutdown when the last coal from the Star Bridge tipple was moved out by rail. The line and it's equipment sat dormant until the summer of 2004, when work began to repair and upgrade the railroad to once again handle 10,800 ton unit trains on a weekly basis. On February 14th, 2005, the first train of the 21st century was loaded at Star Bridge with coal bound for the Dominion Terminal export piers at Newport News, Va. Currently, the Beech Mountain's relies on an Alco S-2, named "Old 113", to move the coal trains between the CSX interchange and the United Energy owned Carter Roag tipple in several cuts. A second Alco owned by Carter Roag, this time an S-4 numbered 115, is used at Star Bridge to drift the cars under the tipple. Over 750,000 tons of coal expected to be produced annually once full production is achieved.
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Photo by Matt Reese. The view looking across the rail-road bridge over the Buckhannon River towards the Beech Mountain enginehouse in February 2005..
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Photo by Matt Reese. The three track CSX interchange yard at Alexander after the completion of a major track rebuilding project in 2004.
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Photo by Matt Reese. #113 shoving a string of loaded hoppers past the engine house at Alexander.
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Photo by Matt Reese. After running around the string of hoppers using the siding in the foreground, #113 has recoupled to the first cut of the first loaded train in 2005. Compare the "visible" paint scheme applied to the Alco during the mid 90s with the 1990 photos below - with class lights to boot!
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Photo by Matt Reese. #113 at the south end of the Alexander siding on February 14th, 2005. Even after sitting unused for nearly six years, the Alco remains in meticulous condition due to the efforts of it's crew.
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Photo by Ron Stafford. BEEM #113 is passing east through the community of Palace Valley with a cut of empty hoppers for Star Bridge in the fall of 1990.
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Photo by Ron Stafford. The workhorse of the Beech Mountain Railroad, #113, at Star Bridge.
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Photo by Ron Stafford. #113 and #115 are switching at the Star Bridge tipple on October 17th, 1990.
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Copyright 2000-2005 © Northern WV's Railroads.
Special thanks to Ron Stafford for his assistance and wealth of information on the history of the Beech Mountain.
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