The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (WMSR) is a

heritage railroad A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

based in

Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its s ...

, that operates passenger

excursion train An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose. Examples are trains to major sporting event, trains run for railfans or tourists, and special trains operated by the railway company for employees and prominent customer ...

s and occasional freight trains using both

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

and

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

locomotives over ex-

Western Maryland Railway The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) which operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation. The WM beca ...

(WM) tracks between Cumberland and

Frostburg Frostburg is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and is at the head of the Georges Creek Valley. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located west of Cumberland, the town is one of the first cities ...

. The railroad offers coach and first class service, murder mystery excursions, and special seasonal trips.

Rail line history and description

The

Western Maryland upright=1.2, An enlargeable map of Maryland's 23 counties and one independent city Western Maryland, also known as the Maryland Panhandle, is the portion of the U.S. state of Maryland that typically consists of Washington, Allegany, and Garret ...

(WM) was a railroad that served

, along with a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

that ran between there and

, as well as stretching to other small towns, like

Hancock Hancock may refer to: Places in the United States * Hancock, Iowa * Hancock, Maine * Hancock, Maryland * Hancock, Massachusetts * Hancock, Michigan * Hancock, Minnesota * Hancock, Missouri * Hancock, New Hampshire ** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...

and

Connellsville Connellsville is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and away via the Youghiogheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela River. It is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 7,637 at th ...

.. In 1973, the WM joined the

Baltimore and Ohio The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

and Chesapeake and Ohio railroads to group into the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated unde ...

, which would eventually be completely merged into the new CSX transportation system. The Cumberland-Frostburg branch was subsequently abandoned. In the late 1980s, the city of Cumberland started seeing the old branch line as a possible tourist attraction, so a joint effort was formed; Allegheny County contributed $585,000, the city $2,470,560, and the city of Frostburg $338,427 to purchase the corridor. As part of the deal, the newly formed Scenic Railroad Development Corporation (SRDC) was given the old WM shops in

Ridgeley, West Virginia Ridgeley is a town in Mineral County, West Virginia, Mineral County, West Virginia, United States, and part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, Cumberland Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 590 at the 2020 United ...

, a 1913 station in Cumberland, and an 1891 Cumberland & Pennsylvania wooden depot in Frostburg.. From 1989 to 1991, the trackage was used by the Allegany Central Railroad before the SRDC began operations themselves as the WMSR. WMSR's excursion trains start in Cumberland at the Western Maryland Railway Station. Built in 1913, the station also houses one of the six

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains o ...

visitor centers as well as other attractions and offices. From there, the trains follow a former Western Maryland Railway line northwest through the

Cumberland Narrows The Cumberland Narrows (or simply The Narrows) is a water gap in western Maryland in the United States, just west of Cumberland. Wills Creek cuts through the central ridge of the Wills Mountain Anticline at a low elevation here between Wills Mo ...

, a deep

water gap A water gap is a gap that flowing water has carved through a mountain range or mountain ridge and that still carries water today. Such gaps that no longer carry water currents are called wind gaps. Water gaps and wind gaps often offer a prac ...

formed by the passage of Wills Creek between Haystack Mountain and

Wills Mountain Wills Mountain is a quartzite-capped ridge in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania and Maryland, United States, extending from near Bedford, Pennsylvania, to near Cumberland, Maryland. It is t ...

, parts of the Wills Mountain Anticline geological structure. They then proceed up the

Allegheny Front The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Rid ...

through a water gap formed by

Jennings Run Jennings Run (Garrett County) and Jennings Run (Allegany County) are Maryland tributaries to Three Forks Run and Wills Creek (North Branch Potomac River tributary), Wills Creek, respectively. Jennings Run (Allegany County) begins near Frostburg, ...

, pass Mt. Savage, and terminate at the former

Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P) was an American railroad which operated in Western Maryland. Primarily a coal hauler, it was owned by the Consolidation Coal Company, and was purchased by the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1944. ...

depot in Frostburg, where they lay over for about 90 minutes to allow passengers to visit the town while the locomotive is reversed on a

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

that originally served the Western Maryland in

Elkins, West Virginia Elkins is a city in and the county seat of Randolph County, West Virginia, United States. The community was incorporated in 1890 and named in honor of Stephen Benton Elkins, a U.S. Senator from West Virginia. The population was 6,950 at the 2020 ...

. The train then returns to Cumberland by the same route. Intermediate sights on the line include: * Helmstetter's Curve in Cash Valley * Brush Tunnel * Woodcock Hollow, site of a hairpin curve The

Allegheny Highlands Trail of Maryland The Allegheny Highlands Trail of Maryland (AHTM) is a long rail trail between the C&O Canal in Cumberland and the Mason–Dixon line, where it meets the Allegheny Highlands Trail of Pennsylvania. It forms part of the Pittsburgh–Washington, DC ...

, part of the

Great Allegheny Passage The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a rail trail between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Together with the C&O Canal towpath, the GAP is part of a route between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., that is popular with through ...

bicycle trail between Cumberland and

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, parallels the WMSR. Cyclists can make reservations with the railroad to put their bikes on board for the climb up the mountain to Frostburg, then cycle back down to Cumberland. On August 24, 2021, the railroad appointed a new executive director, Wesley Heinz. Heinz came into the position with a mission to rebuild and reimagine the entire organization. The new administration implemented a plan which resulted in the completion of locomotive No. 1309's restoration, as well as an increase of ridership, revenue. Thanks to this change, the line now sees more passenger traffic than it ever has in its history.

Shops

The WMSR operates out of the former WM's

, car shops located just across the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

from Cumberland. The shops include offices, a

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail saf ...

building, and the former paint shop which is now used to house the steam engine and perform repairs on the railroad's equipment. The WMSR shops also serve as a business offering restoration services for locomotives and coaches from both commercial and private owners. South, past the Ridgely shops and yard, the WMSR maintains a wye that is used to turn the railroad's locomotives and coaches.

Passenger and freight equipment

Since its creation, the WMSR has gained an extensive collection of light weight style

passenger coaches A passenger railroad car or passenger car ( United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach ( United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie ( India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry pas ...

, many of which it either has restored to service in its green and gold livery, or has used for parts to restore other coaches. Many of the restored coaches are painted with the names of local area towns, as well as benefactors of the scenic railroad. The WMSR also has a collection of freight equipment it has collected from

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and other sources that it uses for storage at the shops, rail line maintenance, and photo freight excursions. The WMSR currently also has three

caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damag ...

s. They are two ex- C&O cabooses and one ex-WM caboose. Other un-restored equipment includes an ex-

crane, ex-

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

material handling cars, heavyweight coaches and pieces for a turntable.

Equipment

Current fleet

Former units

Gallery

File:Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.jpg, The first WMSR Station is located at 13 Canal Street in

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. File:Western Maryland Railway.jpg, WMSR Nos 501 and 734 crossing the

from

to Ridgeley. File:WMSR 501 1.jpg, No. 501 Rolling into the Narrows File:Wsmr train tunnel 20161009 150847.webm, 501 going through Brush Tunnel File:Helmstetter's Curve wide.jpg,

2-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...

No. 734 coming across Helmerstetter's Curve, 2010 File:FROSTBURG HISTORIC DISTRICT, ALLEGANY COUNTY.jpg, The second WMSR Station is at 89 Depot Road in

References

External links

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

* The Western Maryland Railway Station in Cumberland is at {{DEFAULTSORT:Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Cumberland, Maryland Companies operating former Western Maryland Railway lines Heritage railroads in Maryland Museums in Allegany County, Maryland Railroad museums in Maryland Transportation in Cumberland, MD-WV-PA Tourist attractions in Cumberland, MD-WV-PA Transportation in Allegany County, Maryland