Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad — Attraction in Durbin

We called and were told they had plenty of tickets for sale but they could not sell or reserve us tickets over the phone for an afternoon train and since we were in Elkins we told our excited young daughter we would get to ride the train. The man at the main office told us to call the Durbin office and ask them to hold us tickets if we really wanted to, but he felt it was unnecessary because there would be tickets. We called the Durbin office over and over. Called the main office back and he said they probably hadn't opened yet and we should drive down. We made the very long drive down from Elkins and arrived with a super excited kid only to be told the train was sold out and they could not allow us on. When I told the woman at ticket sales that I'd been told they had tickets, she said, oh, we've been sold out since this morning. When I told her I'd been trying to call all day she accused me of lying and I pulled out my phone and showed her the call history to her number and even tried it to show it was working. She said she swore it hadn't rang all day (obviously not true) and was very rude to me. She also stated there was no reason I couldn't have bought the tickets over the phone as I'd attempted to do. Overall the railroad just doesn't have their act together and they wasted a day of our time and money and left us with a heart broken kid as we stood and watched the train chuff out of the station without us. I was so angry at them, additionally, for making no attempt to accommodate us after being explained that the entire situation was basically their fault and that while we would survive, it's awfully hard to explain to a 3 year old why you can't ride the train you spent the whole day promising her she...

Wouldn't pay to ride this train again. Almost $90 a person isn't worth it. Maybe the other train that goes way up on top of a mountain would be better, but this one was boring and S-L-O-W as molasses on a cold winters day. 7 miles an hour.... And if your on the left side going to Durbin your up against the mountain the whole trip and there's nothing to see out your window. And once you get to this little dried up town of Durbin....you'll be disappointed at the "lunch" your getting. You go to one of 2 rundown so called restaurants and make yourself a cold cut sub with some nasty lunch meet that everyone else on the train has already leaned over and picked through. By the time we got in line to get ours there was only hame and 1 slice of turkey left and no cheese. Drink choices were sparce too. There was lemonade at one point but naturally it was all gone. And the people working there just go in the back when you go in. So I basically had a bread sandwich and a tea that was in sweetened( sign just said iced tea) and a bag of plain chips which was delicious since I was starving after putting 3 hours up the tracks looking at the side of a mountain. Host was nice on the train. She gets a little excited about nothing and makes a huge deal about some old tracks in the water from a flood years ago that you can barely see. But you live and learn I guess... I'll never be back for the Greenbrier Valley trip. 6 hours of my life wasted and out $180 for 2 people and 2 dried up subs. Hopefully this will help the next...

The D&G is a different kind of train ride than those in nearby Elkins and Cass. If you want "modern/mainline/air conditioned" experience, you want the rides out of Elkins (Cheat Mountain Salamander, etc). If you want the logging train climbing the mountains and company logging town feel you want Cass. Durbin is a slow ride along the Greenbrier River, so sort of the rambling "local train" experience. The scenery along the river is very nice and well worth the ride. The area is still very wild and not built up. They also have an open car on one end of the train that is open to all passengers, a great feature for fully appreciating the scenery. They do not have that at Cass or Elkins. They operate steam here (they do in Cass also) which they do not in Elkins. You are not going to see spectacular scenery on this ride, but you will see great scenery, an many opportunities to spot wildlife.

I have ridden a whole lot of tourist railroads across the US and I have to say that the the Durbin and Greenbrier had the nicest train crew I have ever encountered, and that is saying something. They were eager to engage the passengers and go out of their way to be friendly and helpful, even the locomotive crew. For the ride itself, 4 stars, add in the great crew, 5 stars.

Bear in mind, there is not much in the way of services in Durbin. There are local eateries, but they are eclectic and lodging and gas can be...