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Featured Tourist

Western Maryland
Scenic Railroad

"Scenic Train Rides in the Heart of Mountain Maryland"

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german estern Maryland Scenic Railroad has been providing excursions of all kinds for over 30 years in the heart of Mountain Maryland. Leaving Cumberland, the route travels west through a breach in the Allegheny Mountains over an iron truss bridge, around Helmstetter’s Horseshoe Curve and through the 914-foot Brush Tunnel under Piney Mountain. Climbing grades up to 2.8% on the 16-mile trek, the route follows the former Western Maryland Railroad right-of-way, then joins the old Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad.

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

wmsr_state egyptian he Western Maryland Scenic Railroad is a tourist-hauling operation based in Cumberland, Maryland — a city of rich railroad history, including the Western Maryland and the Baltimore & Ohio. Today, excursion trains operate over 16 miles of former Western Maryland trackage from downtown Cumberland northwest to Frostburg, Maryland. This was the easternmost segment of the WM's Connellsville Branch, a line 80 miles in length. The WMSR operates passenger excursion trains out of the former Western Maryland station in Cumberland, erected in 1913, which also houses one of the six visitor centers of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park. At Frostburg, the other end of the run, smaller locomotives reverse direction on a turntable while passengers layover and enjoy the depot and associated attractions. Longer motive power is handled via a push-pull operation. Between the endpoints, the route passes around Helmstetter's Curve in Cash Valley — long famous among railfans as a photography site for steam action. Brush Tunnel comes next, followed by a hairpin turn at Woodcock Hollow. The Allegheny Highlands Trail of Maryland, part of the Great Allegheny Passage bicycle trail from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, runs along the entire route of this scenic line. The railroad currently rosters two steam locomotives and three diesel-electrics, all of which are maintained in the former Western Maryland car shops just across the Potomac River from Cumberland in Ridgeley, West Virginia.

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1965 Official Guide map / collection

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1965 Official Guide table / collection

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postcard / collection

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promotional brochure / collection

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1992 tourist train guide ad / collection

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2019 tourist train guide ad / collection

Scrapbooks

Publications

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collection

wmsr_tourist1992

1992 tourist train guide ad / collection

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1994 tourist train guide ad / collection

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1998 tourist train guide ad / collection

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2001 tourist train guide ad / collection

wmsr_tourist2006

2006 tourist train guide ad / collection

wmsr_tourist2019

2019 tourist train guide ad / collection

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Fill Up Your Glass, Madam?

Cumberland, Md / Jun 2003 / RWH

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Jun 2022 / ETH

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Snapshots

Links / Sources

This page was updated on 2022-08-13