Eastern Railroad Discussion > Watching Maryland Midland & CSX do the "Highfield Shuffle"

Sometimes interesting railroading occurs close to home.
Steam-era passing siding lengths sometimes necessitates the "Highfield Shuffle" as MMID and CSX exchange cars on the x-Western Maryland RWY. trackage.
Follow along while playing "The E Street Shuffle" by Springsteen (good) or "8th Avenue Shuffle" by the Doobie Bros. (better).

The MMID UBHF (Union Bridge-Highfield) is sitting at MP 94 on the CSX Hanover Sub. This is beside the former FT. Ritchie property and is about as far west as I have ever seen the MMID wait for CSX. This was necessary as the inbound cars for MMID were too long for the passing sidings. MMID has left its outbound train on its own main line at Highfield as it was also too long for its passing siding.
All photos by WW Jenkins

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The CSX Hanover-Hagerstown turn shows up with an interesting mix of 6-axle power, the meager 3-car train was likely just picked up at the gritstone mill at Greenstone, PA. 
The engine headlight is not on here, but that will change.
The CSX engines then back up to the outbound MMID cars sitting on the MMID main line, formerly the WMRY's East Sub.
MMID UBHF thens pulls east on the CSX Hanover Sub to clear the way west for CSX.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/20 09:31 by bigsavage.

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CSX then pulls west onto its main line to return to Hagerstown. My trusty 15 yr. old Nissan is at far right.
Note the headlight is now on, likely because of a friendly reminder from the MMID crew.
CSX heads west and is about to cross MD 491 at Ft. Ritchie and passes MP 94 where the MMID was originally sitting. The old house at the right has been vacant for many years, since the closure of the Fort 20 years ago, the towns (Highfield, Cascade, MD.; Blue Ridge Summit, PA.) surrounding the former Fort are looking a little tattered.

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MMID UBHF backs up off the CSX East Sub, and prepares to pull east onto its own trackage.

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I was advised by the friendly MMID conductor that they would be sorting the loads for the NVR plant in Thurmont before coming down the mountain, and it would take about 30 minutes.
I cleared the lengthy road paving project in Sabillasville, MD. on MD 550, and went to "visit nature".
That little trip unveiled this mountain vista looking west, the village of Sabillasville is in the middle of the photo, the old WMRY came along the mountain to the left, passed through the village, made a horseshoe bend just beyond the village, and looped around the mountain on the right to get to Highfield.
If I ever get rich, a property like this would be a must...

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Nice sequence of photos.  I've witnessed the shuffle several times, each time a littte different twist.

MMID came down the mountain, and here it is rolling east at Lantz, MD. the building to the right once served as a general store, post office, and station for the WMRY.

Finally we're back in Thurmont as the eastbound train is about to cross Altamont Ave.

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I love all the photos of the former Western Maryland Railway lines since I was lucky enough to have traveled over them at various times in the good-ole-days riding the many WM excursion train trips.  The WM was an outstanding well maintained railroad and as I have stated many times, it should not have been merged into the Chessie System, CSX today.  To me and many others, the ICC (predecessor to the Surface Transportation Board) should have insisted that the WM merge into the Norfolk & Western (today's Norfolk Southern) as this would have given much more competition to the Chessie System and to Conrail for freight heading into Baltimore.  Things would be so different for the Port of Baltimore had this occurred and Port Covington Yard in Baltimore would still be a large railroad yard for both importing and exporting of merchandise.  Thanks for sharing your photos with all of us.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Good stuff, thanks for posting.

Beautiful series of well-lit photos. Thanks for sharing these, as well as the description of the "Highfield Shuffle".
/Ted

ClubCar Wrote:
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> I love all the photos of the former Western
> Maryland Railway lines since I was lucky enough to
> have traveled over them at various times in the
> good-ole-days riding the many WM excursion train
> trips.  The WM was an outstanding well maintained
> railroad and as I have stated many times, it
> should not have been merged into the Chessie
> System, CSX today.  To me and many others, the
> ICC (predecessor to the Surface Transportation
> Board) should have insisted that the WM merge into
> the Norfolk & Western (today's Norfolk Southern)
> as this would have given much more competition to
> the Chessie System and to Conrail for freight
> heading into Baltimore.  Things would be so
> different for the Port of Baltimore had this
> occurred and Port Covington Yard in Baltimore
> would still be a large railroad yard for both
> importing and exporting of merchandise.  Thanks
> for sharing your photos with all of us.
> John in White Marsh, Maryland

Would have been nice if the Wheeling got it!!!!!

Awesome!  Love those flares!

Fantasies about WM's survival under ownership by another line are just that. In the railroading atmosphere of the 1960s-70s, WM had 1/3 the traffic of the B&O, particularly between Connellsville-Hagerstown. The B&Os buyout of its WM stock in 1967 guaranteed that Chessie could dismember the system however they saw fit.
Even in the railroad economy of the last 30 years, if the WM mainline still survived, whoever ran it would be dealing with the maintenance/infrastructure problems that have bedeviled WMSR and the GAP trail. Now that the B&O Sand Patch line barely has 20 trains a day, Hays Watkins may have been right in the mid1980s that this line was excess capacity.
There is also the reality of the collapsed coal industry.
People such as George Leilich, Bill Howes, and Don Phillips have written about this subject, every effort was made to study the continued use of the abandoned lines, but the economical advantages to maintenance savings and salvaged materials were too great in 1973.

Come out tomorrow (with your face mask on, of course) the UBHF will have a helper on the rear. It should be 55 x 8 going up the mountain from Thurmont. Unless there is a change in the morning, YKR GP16 #1600 should be in the helper consist.

JB

WMF7A Wrote:
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> Come out tomorrow (with your face mask on, of
> course) the UBHF will have a helper on the rear.
> It should be 55 x 8 going up the mountain from
> Thurmont. Unless there is a change in the morning,
> YKR GP16 #1600 should be in the helper consist.
>
> JB
Although the helper was mid-train and there was 6 units, thanks much for the tip, whoever you be.
There was also a guy who had a Chessie cat shirt on out there, kinda looked liked the lead singer of Midnight Oil...