Eastern Railroad Discussion > Magnolia Cutoff Questions

During the B&O days through the 50s and 60s B&O would generally not run passenger trains on the Magnolia Cutoff (Along the Potomac River west of Hancock and east of Cumberland). My understanding was fear of freights and passengers simultaneously being in the many tunnels and something bad might happen. As passenger and freight traffic dropped, the B&O did away with the original line along the river using only the Magnolia Cutoff. They carefully dispatched trains to avoid simultaneous occupation of tunnels. Please correct me if I have that wrong.

Questions: 1. Does CSX still prohibit simultaneous occupancy of tunnels on Magnolia Cutoff? (I know only one Amtrak per day each way) Will that change after completion of Gateway project?

I am not a railroad rules man, but I know of no such prohibition. We run our Amtrak qualified cars Franklin Inn and Dover Harbor on the Capitol Limited and I do not ever recall there being an issue on the radio with a train behing held to ensure we didn't pass a train in a tunnel.

I believe the real reason the B&O did this was the river line (low-line)) was much more scenic for the passenger trains.

J. Lilly
Washington, D.C. Chapter NRHS
www.dcnrhs.org

Definitely no restriction aside from your usual height restrictions... I've seen trains pass each other through every single tunnel on that line.

The B&O Cumberland Division tunnel restriction applied to 4260' Knobley Tunnel on the Paterson Creek Cut-Off. No freight train was permitted in the tunnel when occupied by a passenger train.
tom

Another thing to consider is that some of the local passenger stations were on the old low line. A 1948 timetable in Hollis & Roberts' "East End" shows stations at Hansrote, Green Ridge, Magnolia, and Paw Paw. Paw Paw's old train station is still standing along the former low line route, and Green Ridge was on the low line only.