(The following story by Bob Withers appeared on The Herald-Dispatch website on November 5.)
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — More than 150 people from all over the country are arriving in town today for the Tourist Railway Association Inc.’s five-day annual convention.
“We are pleased to host the convention for the second time following last year’s successful convention on the Durango & Silverton Railroad in Durango, Colo.,” Don Maxwell, president of the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society Inc. and convention chairman, said Tuesday. “The visitors will affect the region’s economy significantly. They will stay at the Radisson Hotel Huntington for at least three or four nights, and several other local attractions will benefit, too.”
Today, the conventioneers will ride on the West Virginia Central Railroad in the northern part of the state, stay overnight in Elkins and take two more rides on the line Thursday.
Thursday night, back at the Radisson, they will attend a reception — after which Dave Corbitt, a CSX Transportation engineer and operator of the Potomac Eagle tourist train in the Eastern Panhandle, will present a slide show on steam railroading in China and Cuba.
Friday’s schedule includes several informational and training seminars and a tour of Blenko Glass Co. in Milton for spouses. On Saturday, attendees will tour Huntington Locomotive Shop, the railroad society’s museum at Memorial Boulevard and 14th Street West, Heritage Farm Museum and Village, and the Museum of Radio and Technology. A banquet follows, with entertainment by Eastern Kentucky Station.
On Sunday, the group will ride on the railroad society’s restored lounge car aboard Amtrak’s eastbound Cardinal to The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., for a bunker tour and lunch, returning by bus.
The local society last hosted the TRAIN convention in 1990.