Cass Scenic Railroad - Geared Logging Steam Train 

Cass is easily a top spot for steam and scenery

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Good choice

Cass is one of the best to see steam in action

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Did you see yourself?

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It's also for safety, it doesn't strain the couplers

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Check the comment Walter's Trains made below for the answer to that.

The Climax was restored in 2019

Sorry for a 3 year late reply lol, but shay 3 is said to not get repairs, ever, "she's not needed" is what I've heard from a good friend of mine who is very close to staff at Cass Scenic Railroad. Although shay 7 is in the "list to be repaired", expect her to run in the next 10-20 years.(Sounds like a long time I know but it'll be worth it)

Cass operates on extremely steep grades, many times the gradient of a normal rail line. This means greater strain is placed on the couplers if they are pulling the weight of the cars behind them, and therefore an increased chance of a knuckle breaking, and if one did, the car could roll downgrade uncontrollably. (The manner in which air brakes work should prevent that, but it's possible the system could fail to function as expected) So to reduce the risk greatly, Cass pushes the train up the mountain, rather than pulling them. Also it keeps the smoke and cinders out of the rider's faces and most importantly eyes. Not to mention it's prototypical at Cass, since the days of logging trains on their route trains have been pushed up the mountain.

I understand. Cannot put innocent lives in danger! I'm curious, could it at leas pull one passenger car up the steep grades?

Yes, they can pull the trains instead of pushing, it's simply common practice at Cass to push them, just for added safety. During photo specials however the engine almost always pulls the train, as photographers usually prefer to have the engine leading.

I'll tell you, Shays may be very the slowest locomotives, but they're the loudest locomotives. I mean their whistles are STRONG.

The fact that they are shays has nothing to do with how loud their whistles are, many other engines wear identical or nearly identical whistles to the ones heard here.

The smokestack is wider at the top to catch cinders and prevent wild fires. The mesh covering at the top of the smokestack also aids in this prevention.

So that's its purpose

The Shay No. 3 presently at Cass (The one in this video) is not the Shay No. 3 that ran at Cass in decades prior, that Shay 3 is presently operation to the best of my knowledge out West, in its original cab number of 1.

oh

There are a lot more factors to the color and amount of smoke than just how much coal is being fed to the firebox. How recently it was fired, the quality/grade of the coal, and a number of other factors. And no where in this video do you see an engine emitting a lot of smoke when it wasn't about to need a great deal of steam to tackle a grade or heavy load. Immediately after being stoked, even only a little, there is often a great deal more black or brown smoke, it generally clears up to normal levels shortly after.