Nostalgia & History > Another first, and for the doubters, in living color!

My first trip to Cumberland was an event in so many ways. Absorbing every piece of info about the B&O at the time, the signs all pointed to the one place I had to go, and that was Cumberland. B&O men that I talked to in Baltimore did not have much knowledge about the great terminal, but one thing most of them did acknowledge was that most traffic they handled in the terminal had Cumberland somewhere in all of their paperwork. So, on Christmas vacation in 1967, I took my first weekend railfan romp west to the Queen City. Ironically,  I did not know anything about Hagerstown, so it was just a couple of exits off the Interstate at that point in my fledgling rail photographer career.

It was quite a first trip to say the least. My 17 year old butt got its first thrill ride, as a slipped and slid in a pre dawn snow storm that continued from the Hagerstown area all the way to Cumberland. There was serious self talk about doing a 180 and heading home, but, I was driven to see this B&O Mecca. I pulled into Cumberland around 9 in the morning, and not knowing anything about anything at this point, went into the B&O passenger station. There was a friendly agent there who actually became an invaluable tour guide, giving me explicit directions to the yard and shops. As it turned out, I hung around the station most of the day, but what a day it was. There were three passenger trains and a total of 10 freights in a 6 hour period. I had never to this point seen more than four or five movements at any one time in my hopping around Baltimore. It was magical! Later in the afternoon, the snow eased up a bit, and I worked my way to the shops and yard. At that point, the biggest B&O yard I had seen was Curtis Bay in Balto, but this was massive compared to that. The shops made Riverside engine terminal back home look like a pit stop! I never saw so much power, and that day launched the first of what became well over a hundred trips to the area over the next several years.

The weather gods were kind, and the next day was beautful I had switched to color film, and looking at the found images, glad I did. Here is what I have been able to find from that glorious weekend.

top....Only freight train shot from Saturday that I was able to find. A westbound approaching Baltimore Street. Lighting was dark and miserable most of the day, so I shot all B&W.

middle...eastbound Shennandoah arriving in town.

bottom...one shot from the shops.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/19 04:12 by Roadjob.

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Now for the cool stuff!

Saturday night, no snow.

top..I was manic to see everything, so I set up a tripod to photograph the westbound Capitol Limited at the station. A very early attempt at night photography. The green in the foreground was actuall from a clear signal beckoning the train to head west. Before the urban development in the area, there were several grade crossings in the downtown area, including the one that caused the light streaks in the photo.

middle...next day, this eastbound trudged into the old yard just east of the station, and in the bottom shot, cut off the power and is seen going over a mini hump that was no longer in use.
 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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scenes from around the engine terminal

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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Needless to say, the terminal activity was blowing me away!

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top... westbound in town

middle...eastbound in town

bottom...eastbound Shennandoah arriving in much better light than Saturday. Interesting side note is the yellow crossing guard shanty on the left. No automatic crossing gates through the town at all back then.


 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/19 04:15 by Roadjob.

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An "A+" set of both black and white/color images. My favorite is your last photo with the crossing guard shanty.
Bob

Wonderful set, Thanks, love that last one.

Bob

Wow - what an impressive set of photos.
I really enjoyed these !
Gary

Another great group of photos. The two GP30s with two F7Bs is a pretty cool catch, but I also like the Shenandoah photos.

Wonderful stuff!!! Thanks for sharing it.

Those are great!

Awesome photos! Keep them coming. 

Mike Mikado Anderson

All I can say is MORE, MORE, MORE, PLEASE!!!!

Well........ it's official. Now, BEFORE I open up any 'Roadjob' thread I have to go put a bib on to catch all the drooling! The sheer history captured in your photographic efforts is astounding (slurp). Here's hoping the well never runs dry...

;^)

Wow, very nice. Thanks for venturing out in the weather; but then that's what we did when we were 17, right?

Interesting placement of the Mission next door to the tavern in the first shot. What did B&O handle in those express boxes on the Shennandoah?

Charlie
 

Excellent photo series.
Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

Everyone else has said it all.  They are all great photos and I cannot thank you enough for sharing them with all of us.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank YOUUUUUUUU!
John in White Marsh, Maryland

I'm no B&O fan, but you put together a great series of photos!


Thanks for posting.

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

A Cumberland I barely remember from my youngest years, things were still prosperous there then.
My father was 5 years into his career at Kelly-Springfield Tires, but my mother had control of the family car (lol), so the occasional opportunity to see B&O trains in Cumberland was always great as my awareness of railroading increased.

Thank you Bill for giving us this great dose of B&O Blue in the snow !