Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

[MARC Rider]

I seem to have a jinx when it comes to riding steam trains. Every time I visit a tourist railroad that is supposed to offer steam train rides, it seems the engines are out of service -- Steamtown NHP, the East Broad Top Railroad, the Maine Narrow Gage Railroad museum -- in every case, my ride has been behind a diesel. Well, this Sunday, the jinx finally broke, I got to ride behind Baldwin 1309, the last steam locomotive made by Baldwin, on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (WMSR).

I got up early on Sunday morning for the two and half hour drive to Cumberland, Maryland. Rain was in the forecast, so I packed along a raincoat and umbrella, but it was sunny all day. This was a good chance to test out the highway performance of our new Toyota Corolla Cross, and it was a smooth ride, plenty of power for the 70 mph interstate over multiple mountains, and a fuel economy of 32 mpg. The train departs from the old Western Maryland Railroad station in Cumberland, now called Canal Place, and the western terminus of the C&O Canal Towpath Trail and the Great Allegheny Passage trail. It's is right off Interstate 68, just down the ramps a left turn, and then right past the traffic light into the parking lot, which is supposed to cost, but the gates were up and the fare machinery was wrapped in plastic and obviously not functional. It was a pretty quiet day for a Sunday in the summer tourist season.

The WMSR runs on part of the Connelsville Branch of the now defunct Western Maryland Railway. This was a regional Railroad that mainly connected Baltimore to the coal country in Maryland and West Virginia, but they also had a branch to Connelsville, which connected to other railroads serving more westerly points. The Western Maryland was absorbed into the Chessie System in 1973, and the Connelsville Branch was soon abandoned as being redundant, given that it closely parallels the B&O (now CSX) line from Cumberland to Connelsville that is familiar to riders of the Capitol Limited. The local government acquired 17 miles of right of way between Cumberland and Frostburg and established a tourist line that has seen its ups and downs, but has been in operation since the early 1990s.

In any event, I made my way to the gift shop in the old station where my ticket was waiting and then went out on the platform to wait for the train. It wasn't too long before the sound of a steam whistle over by the railroad's shops in Ridgely, WV tarted echoing across the valley, and a plume of steam and smoke showed itself across the Potomac River. Then the train appeared, 1309 at the lead chuffing into the station.



It's pretty obvious that this locomotive is not EPA tier IV compliant. In fact, the entire trip was tinged with the tang of sulfurous coal smoke and cinders. It makes me wonder what American cities 100 years ago must have smelled like.

Our consist this day was:

*Outside seating car
*Standard Coach, apparently an ex-MARC, ex-PRR Budd coach. It was originally a sleeping car converted to a coach. I think I may have ridden this or a similar car on Amtrak back around 1984 when I I took a trip to New York and the MARC cars were subbed in because of either weather conditions or mechanic problems with the Amfleets.
*Standard Coach, couldn't figure out its origins
*Dome car "Ocean View." I think it's **That** Ocean View, for those who wonder where it went after Amtrak sold it.
*"Deluxe Coach" Pacific Trail, ex UP, Ex PC, ex Amtrak. (I think I rode this or one of it's sisters when I rode the Broadway Limited in 1973.)
*Lounge car "Overland Trail."

Pacific Trail and Overland Trail are private cars owned by a guy named Bill Hatrick who used to operate excursions out of LA Union Station along the Pacific Surfliner route before Amtrak tightened up its rules regarding private cars. He apparently shopped around various tourist railroads to operate his cars, and he ended up in Cimberland, Maryland, which must be a bit of a culture shock compared to LA. Mr. Hatrick served as the conductor on our train, and provided some historical background on his two cars, though he didn't know much about the standard coach "sardine cans," (as he called them.)

I had reserved the Deluxe Coach "Pacific Trail," because I wanted to experience the kind of vintage "reclining seat coach" I used to ride when I was a kid. Back circa 1969-1970, Penn Central would sometimes put these sort of 44-seat long-distance coaches on the NEC trains, which were always a joy to ride because of the really roomy seats, and the fact that the full-width lavatories on each end of the car blocked noise when people passing though opened to car-end doors. Back when I rode these type of cars as a kid, they were only 25 years old, now Pacific Trail, built in 1950, is over 70 years old, and looks it. But it was comfortable, and everything worked, which is more than one can say about some operators' newer equipment.


Here's a view of the interior of Pacific Trail. The seats really reclined very far back, but, interesting, there were really no headrests (unless people back in 1950 were shorter than they are now.) The suitcases in the luggage racks are period décor, but I was reminded about how far up you had to hoist your bag to store it. I certainly won't be complaining about how high the overhead racks are on the Amfleets.


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This is the interior of the Overland Trail lounge car. This was ex SP, but served combined UP-SP-CNW service between Chicago and Oakland. This car had the men's room that we in our coach used, as the men's room space in Pacific trail was repurposed for something else. This car not only had the loo, but also a shower, and also this:


One of the last of the on-train barbershops. I'm not sure I'd care to have my hair cut on a moving, bouncing train. I'm sure I wouldn't want a shave!

A few shots of the rest of the train:



The downstairs lounge of Ocean View


Ocean View dome seating.

Standard coach - ex MARC Heritage car. I remember the pink and cream Formica paneling from the days of my youth.


other Standard Coach. Not sure of this car's provenance.

Well, that's the train. I was settled in and ready for the trip up the mountain to Frostburg. Stay tuned, more to come.

 

[Bob Dylan]

What a great find Joe!( like your bad luck with Steam, my trip on the Texas State RR last month had the Steam Engine replaced by a F-9 due to Wild Fire Conditions)

And the Upstairs of Ocean View is looking lots better than the last time I rode in it on a Surfliner.

That Barbershop Pic is a Gem, something I remember seeing as a small kid from the Glory days of Passenger Trains, but like you, not something I'd care to try on a moving Train!

 

[Ryan]

She is in fact *that* Ocean View. Looks like that forward-center piece of glass was never replaced? It was blanked out when I rode it in.... 2011???

 

[MARC Rider]

With a blast of the steam whistle, we were off! I recommend sitting on the right side of the train heading up to Frostburg. While most of the ride is through the woods, this being the eastern United States, There are a number of clearings where the scenery shows through, and they're all on the right side (or left side heading down.) Cumberland has an altitude of about 600 feet above sea level. Frostburg is at a little over 2,000 ft. This train is climbing right up the face of the Allegheny Front, so there's a lot of mountain scenery. Given the track conditions and the grade, we won't be going any faster than 18 mph, but that's OK, as it gives one time to compose photographs.





The first part of the trip goes through the Narrows where Wills Creek passes through a gap in the mountains. The scenery is familiar to regular riders of the Capitol Limited, as the CSX track used by the Capitol is on the other side of the Narrows. By the side of our tracks is the Great Allegheny Passage Hike/Bike trail, which follows the Western Maryland roadbed out to Connelsville, and continues on to Pittsburgh.

Now we really start to climb. After all, we have to climb 1,400 feet in about 15 miles. There are three hairpin turns in the routes, one of which is large enough and has enough of a clear view to be considered a "horseshoe curve." I caught a glimpse of the locomotive through the window of my coach, but I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to really get any of the steam locomotive experience in my hermetically sealed air conditioned "chair car." Then I walked the train and found out that the Dutch doors in all the vestibules were open and available for us rail geeks to stick out heads out and look up the length of the train and take pictures, etc. Given that were were only going about 15 mph and that there was a rail-trail right by the track, I don't think there was too much of a safety problem with this. Certainly, no one told us we couldn't do it. One thing I did notice was that neither Ocean View nor Overland Trail had vestibules or any kind of exit doors. I got the real steam train experience leaning out the vestibule door taking pictures and getting the sulfurous stink and cinders of coal smoke right in my face.







About a mile from Frostburg, the route leaves the Western Maryland main line and goes on the route of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (which was purchased by Western Maryland in the 1940s.) This is a pretty steep line, we were told the grade was 3%, so 1309 was really working to get us up. (However, I should mentioned that at the back end of our train was an ex-Amtrak F40, which ,according to one of the car attendants was used mainly for "braking" on the trip down.)

After a ride of about an hour and 10 minutes, we finally arrived at the Old Cumberland and Pennsylvania depot in Frostburg.



They had a high level platform with bridge plates for the coach sections, but we first class passengers had to climb down the steps on to the ground. Obviously not ADA-compliant, especially since even if you boarded forward, there are steps to pass through the dome car.

Here's a picture of 1309, and here's some background on this engine:

https://wmsr.com/1309-restoration/
At this point, we had a 90 minute layover in Frostburg to get some lunch and otherwise drop some money to support the local economy. More to come...

 

[Old MM]

Enjoying the reporting and the pictures.
Yes, people in the 1950s were shorter, and generally smaller And 60s, and even 70s..

 

[Trollopian]

This is a lovely ride through a gorgeous though economically depressed part of Western MD. (To get an idea of just how sparsely populated the area is, take a look at the map of MD's Congressional districts, either before or after reapportionment, Maryland's congressional districts - Wikipedia.) Thanks, MARC, for the trip report. As you point out, it's pretty easy to get to the railroad from Baltimore or Washington and even from Pittsburgh. Blowing sooty snot for a few days is a small price to pay for this experience.

The barber's chair is a gem. I learned to cut my own hair (passably) in the pandemic so yeah, I'd probably risk a trim. But not a shave.

 

[MARC Rider]

So there we were at the old Pennsylvania and Cumberland Depot in Frostburg, and we had 90 minutes to look around and get lunch. Except that the depot really isn't in downtown Frostburg, it's down the hill about 150 feet lower than the downtown. There are light refreshments at the Trail Inn across the street, but otherwise, you're stuck with climbing the hill if you want more substantial fare. Fortunately, they have that covered, with a shuttle bus that will ride you up the hill and back down again. This is included in your fare and is operated by an outfit called "Tracks and Yaks," whose main business is operating a rail-bike concession where you can ride the rail-bike down the mountain and get picked up by the shuttle bus. They also rent bikes, so you can ride down the rail-trail, and then ride back up on the train. And they have a deal where you ride the rail-bike down the mountain and then kayak or tube in the Potomac River. (and, presumably, ride the shuttle bus back up to your car.)

https://tracksandyaks.com/


Here's one of their rail bikes. They also have 4-seaters available, too. You ride down, and they use a speeder to haul up the empty bikes. I don't think they would get too much business if they expected customers to pedal these all the way back up the mountain.





The shuttle zipped us up the hill. It was a bit crowded, so I masked up. First school bus I ever say that had air conditioning. They dropped us off at the basement entrance to the Hotel Gunter, a circa 1900 historic property. We walked through the basement, which contains an old speakeasy from Prohibition days and a number of historical exhibits, then up the stairs into the lobby:



Rather than wandering around town looking for a place to eat, I just ate at the Toasted Goat Winery Restaurant in the hotel. They had a nice brunch menu, reasonably priced. Then I had almost an hour to wander around town and get back down to the depot.





You can see that the town is located pretty high up in the mountains. For years, I had always thought that the town got its name from being the "icebox" of Maryland due to its altitude and distance from urban heat islands. However, on this trip I found a historical marker that maintains that the town was named for a Mr. Frost, who built an inn on the new National Road, circa 1800, and thus gave the town its name.

Walking down the hill wasn't as hard as walking up, so I didn't bother to wait for the shuttle bus, but rather returned to the depot on my own power.



I walked the length of the train and found the former Amtrak F40 at the end (or the front, for the ride downhill.)



A few of the cars, Ocean View, Pacific Trail, and Overland Trail.




more to come

 

[Ziv]

I went to Frostburg State for a year back in 1983-4 to get my Maryland residence when I moved east from Montana. It was an eye opening experience for a Montana boy to end up in the Appalachian mountains! I never even knew there was a train station still in existence.
Beautiful mountains, albeit small mountains after growing up in Montana. Judging from the photos and my own memories of the place, I bet the rail trip through the mountains is a beautiful one!

 

[MARC Rider]

Here's Overland Trail


A few more pictures of 1309





And it's time to board and head down the mountain!



Despite having the F40 at the front, the steam engine was still operating, and you could still get nice views of it while looking out the Dutch doors, and you could still get nice whiffs of coal smoke and cinders. The ride down was a little faster than the ride up. I think we might have hit 19 mph at one point. At every crossing there were lots of people with cameras and videorecorders taking pictures of the train.

We were back in Cumberland sometime around 3:30 PM. (The train leaves at 11:30 AM.) I walked around Canal Place a bit, viewing the end of the C&O Canal trail and the beginning of the Great Allegheny Passage, plus I got to see the train head back to the yard in Ridgely.



The drive home was longer than the drive up, as a result of a crash-caused traffic jam on I-70 around Hagerstown. One nice surprise was that the ramp from I-70 west to I 695 north outside of Baltimore was clear sailing. Usually, and especially on Sunday afternoons in the summer, this bottleneck backs traffic halfway to Ellicott City. In all, I had a nice day, got to (finally!) see a steam train in action. I'm thinking of taking one of the Reading, Blue Maintain and Northern trips this fall.

 

[Bob Dylan]

What a Great Day Trip!

Thanks for sharingit with us!