Page 18 - September October 2000
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  which to get up-to-date official transportation maps for each state, loads of railfan sites that quickly had “local knowledge” e-mailing in from friendly enthusiasts, details of the year 2000 schedules of the various tourist train operations, maps of the Washington metro, MARC and anything else you might need. It goes without saying that the web is a wonderful way to find and book motels if you don’t want to take a chance on just driving into town.
I also went through the listings for car rental but oddly enough the best deal was by Global Leisure, from an advert. on Teletext. This yielded a Chevvy Cavalier for 2 weeks for £314, with every charge taken care of (taxes, insurance etc.). This must be a very good deal as other companies I compared with offered only a sharp intake of breath when I quoted the price they would need to beat! It turned out to be even better on arrival, when the car was upgraded free to a 3.5 litre V6 Oldsmobile!
Order of Play...
As our arrival/departure point was roughly the middle of the three base camps, it was decided to drive straight to Cumberland on arrival. Though I’d rather have gone from Gatwick to Baltimore (having Gatwick 30 minutes up the road from home) I couldn’t get suitable flights. Washington Dulles is a slightly better placed start/finish point, though most flights only seem to go there from Heathrow - we used United Airlines.
Wednesday May 31 saw us land and once clear of the Washington area, an easy drive on I-70 and I-68 took us past Hagerstown, into central Cumberland to a quiet, “historic” B&B called the Inn at Walnut Bottom! By coincidence this is but 2 blocks from the WM station.
Thursday was appointed “local day”. E- mail conversations with local railfans had pointed me to at least four areas of interest in Cumberland. South of town there is a vantage point alongside the yard. Rt. 51 runs down along the east side of the yard. Cross Virginia Avenue and turn into Troy Street, the lot behind an “Advance Auto” store (a sort of small Halford’s) and you are right on the yard tracks with unobstructed legal view across to the engine terminal.
To view the terminal close up, turn right from Rt. 51 into Virginia Avenue, and first left behind the CSX repair shops - lots of locos close up.
In town a refurbished shopping area called Baltimore Street runs from the Western Maryland tracks to the CSX
  paved grade crossing on the grade itself, with the big wide-cabs starting to earn their living lifting the long trains around sweeping S-bends towards Glencoe. To get to Fairhope from Hyndman is not well sign-posted, but you need to find Church St. (see sketch) and that road takes you straight (well, wiggly) to Fairhope and beyond.
Returning to Hyndman you pick up Pa. 96 south again till it becomes a Maryland route and takes you through the famous “Narrows”, the gorge through the mountains where everything passes south towards Cumberland - this includes the highways, railroads and Wills Creek, the river that made the gorge, and occasionally wipes out the railway!
  Saturday in the
South Branch River Gorge... During June, the Potomac Eagle only runs on Saturdays, at 1 pm. This allows time for a quick morning run south from Cumberland on US-220, into West Virginia. Only about 20 miles south, US 220 crosses the tracks in Keyser. This town has a small but busy yard concerned mainly with re-classifying coal trains off the CSX “Cumberland Coal Business Unit.” These trains have come from the mines to the west, via towns like Grafton WV, and have fought Seventeen Mile and Cranberry grades. From Keyser to Cumberland is easier territory so the shorter “mountain” trains are often combined here.
From here, Romney, is not far away. The Potomac Eagle leaves from a station about a mile north of town on Rt. 28, and runs down to Petersburg WV through the river gorge. Unfortunately the smart blue
and grey cab units, including an Alco FA, are now gone. The train is hauled by
 mainline. From where it crosses CSX, up to the Amtrak station, is a gathering point for local railfans. At the Baltimore St. crossing a short siding is used for helpers to lay over, normally three or four SD50’s.
Slightly north of here, where Franklin Street crosses the tracks, is where the helpers are added to westbounds for the attack on Sand Patch. Lots to do and lots to see!
The local Holiday Inn sits almost alongside the main line opposite the station. Railfans ask for a “railroad room”! You could add this to Mike Scott’s collection of trackside motels. The lobby was lined with picture frames bearing not fine art, but plastic HO freight cars mounted in black velvet surrounds. Though the cars were from the rather cheap and nasty end of the market, the concept shows how much Cumberland considers itself a railroad town. Every restaurant and many stores in the town had wall paintings of railroading, usually the WM Scenic 2-8-0.
Friday was
Horseshoe Shaped...
North US-220 takes you out of town and across the Pennsylvania border. In about an hour you are near south Altoona, ready to turn west on 58th St. which leads to 40th Street. A few miles down this road is the national park at Horseshoe Curve.
The tracks are way up above your head, and between the park entrance level and the heights runs a funicular with cabins painted in the PRR tuscan with gold stripes and keystone. We rode on this as I’m now too old for the alternative of 200 concrete steps. (In fact, come to think of it, I’ve always been too old for....!).
NS has taken over the Curve but it is none the less appealing for that. In fact since not everything has been repainted yet, there was still plenty of Conrail, and Amtrak of course, towing sets of road- railers.
Returning south to Cumberland included a planned detour. Coming down South US 220 towards Wolfsburg, you can branch off on West US 30 then left on Pa. Route 31 which leads to Pa. 96. This takes you towards Cumberland parallel to US-220 but on the other side
of the mountain, into Hyndman, the town where helpers used to be added to westbound trains for Sand Patch.
A long tangent here sees westbound freights galloping along to dig in for the beginning of the grade.
Further along at Fairhope is the first
   18 ROUNDHOUSE
 Redskins GP30 at Cumberland, Pa. Martin Boyask







































































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