Steam & Excursion > AFT Confidential 65 Hagerstown MD

65 Hagerstown MD September 21-23, 1976

We left Baltimore at the usual 2 a.m., dawn came at about Gettysburg, and we were in Hagerstown spotting the train by mid-morning.  Chessie had added helpers twice during the night: A short pull to get us out of the Fulton Junction yard, and again from Camp to Highfield (a little over 35 miles). There was talk of Conrail using a helper through the tunnel under Baltimore, but I don't know if this happened or not.
Hagerstown was another idyllic setting. We were in the center of town in a park beside a tree-lined lake full of ducks, geese,and swans. Yeah, I could live here! It was a “Honey, be a dear and peel me another grape” kinda place. I liked it.
An amusing attraction in Hagerstown was their choice of local yard power, a pair of BL2's. I'd seen one when we passed through back in July, and now had a chance for a better look. What odd beasts! The crews were friendly and I was invited aboard while they knocked cars around. The cab inside was every bit as odd as the carbody outside! It's hard to explain, but the rear facing windows are actually up over a stairwell that steps down into the engine room.  The same locomotive I rode that day (WM 81) is now in the B&O Museum, so you can check it out for yourself.
It's Definitely Different.
 SR Bush
Dutch Flat

Photo 1. WM BL2 #81, now renumbered 7181 since I'd seen it 3mo ago.
Photos 2&3. The train through the trees across the swan infested pond- day & at night.

Photo 4. The swans were actually a little bit scary – I think they'd just as soon bite you as look at you.

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Good story, thanks for posting the photos.  Two things.  That WM BL-2 that is in the B&O R.R. Museum in Baltimore does not operate any more and like so many other things including the American Freedom Train Engine , Reading 2101, it too is sitting outside collecting rust, a real crime and a shame.  On the other thread you mentioned that it was Conrail, which would have only been the short part of movement in Baltimore through Penn Station and the tunnel through West Baltimore where at Fulton Junction the Western Maryland had a connection and thus the route was mainly Western Maryland (by then the Chessie System), not Conrail, all the way up to Hagerstown, Maryland.  Keep in mind that the WM had trackage rights from Fulton Junction on the Pennsylvania R.R., (now Amtrak) through Penn Station and then down the WM tracks that ran down along side of Fallsway (Jones Falls water way) into downtown Baltimore where the WM still had a freight yard and at one time a passenger station on Hillen Street.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Thanks!  I corrected the Conrail mileage mistake.
SR

Yes, Hagerstown was one of those places on my "if I were going to move east "places list.

Interesting that the train was actually displayed on the B&O branch to Hagerstown which came off the B&O at Brunswick and ran north. By that point in time, Chessie universally had the B&O/C&O/WM all under the same umbrella. Also, since by this point the effects of Agnes were still most lkely effecting the old Eastern Subdivision of the WM that you took the Hanover Subdivision "Dutch Line" to Hagerstown instead.

Swans are every bit as territorial as a pit bull.

RailBaron84 Wrote:
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> Interesting that the train was actually displayed
> on the B&O branch to Hagerstown which came off the
> B&O at Brunswick and ran north. By that point in
> time, Chessie universally had the B&O/C&O/WM all
> under the same umbrella. Also, since by this point
> the effects of Agnes were still most lkely
> effecting the old Eastern Subdivision of the WM
> that you took the Hanover Subdivision "Dutch Line"
> to Hagerstown instead.

The East sub was rebuilt after Agnes but Eloise in '75 washed it out again so after that everything was back on the Hanover Sub.

These posts hav Ed been so much fun to follow. I kinda like the BL2’s, maybe. Excuse of their uniqueness.

Nathan

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atsf121 Wrote:

> These posts hav Ed been so much fun to follow.

Who is Ed?