Seeing pictures of the kids, Christopher, reminds me of all of the time I spent at the office when I should have spent a bit more of it with them. Revel in the joy of it, mate, as it will go by so fast.
Drove up to Meyersdale, Pa., yesterday to have a look at the WMRY's Salisbury and Keystone Viaducts. Hadn't been up there in more than forty years, and boy have things changed. Despite their height, both bridges are increasingly obscured by trees. I wanted to get some nice pictures, but it was impossible just shooting from the road, that and some of the changes CSX has made makes immediate access near impossible. One needs to approach them from the GAP trail (built atop the old WMRY right-of-way) to get up close. From the Meyersdale station, it's a bit of a hike...will come back in the fall with a bicycle:
The old WMRY station at Meyersdale now houses the local Historical Society, and the fellow we talked with filled us in on everything they have going on. The station sits on what is now the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP), a rail-to-trail park that runs from Connellsville to Cumberland, basically the length of the WMRY's Connellsville Extension completed in 1912. North of Connellsville, the trail is extended as far as Pittsburgh, running over what is likely former P&LE right-of-way. It is beautiful country.
From Meyersdale we drove back to Frostburg for lunch, passing over the Eastern Continental Divide en route. Savage Mountain is now dotted with windmills on the Pennsylvania side of the Mason-Dixon. A cousin of mine who lives in Mt. Savage on the Maryland side says that one could rake up the bird carcasses that lay about beneath the massive mills...they apparently take a heavy toll of passing bird-life.
From Frostburg we headed back to Cumberland, traveling down the old National Road (Rte. 40) to pass through "The Narrows" before entering the city. The old town looks increasingly worn with each passing year. With the exception of CSX's maintenance facility on the south side, there's precious little major industry left. The state built a high-security prison in Cresaptown quite a few years back which probably employs quite a few people. One has to wonder what the recent closure of the former West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company plant in Luke, Maryland, will do to the local economy. Probably 1500 jobs when you add up the employees and all of the ancillary workers in the community. But I digress...
The old station at Cumberland looks brilliant, albeit strangely quiet for a warm, sunny Friday afternoon. Very quiet, as apparently Western Maryland Scenic's last train of the day had passed through a couple hours ahead of us:
I look forward to seeing 1309 once in service. A lot of folks are very skeptical of that eventuality, but I feel confident they will get things sorted. WM Scenic has taken a terrific PR beating from the railfans, but in the end one might look back and see the brilliance of the sequence of events. Low-ball the initial estimates for refurbishment/rebuild, then blow through every incremental funding until its done. If they'd said, "Hey, it's going to cost $2.7 million up front", probably would never have gotten started. Instead, say it can be done for $700K, then bleed the state and the donors dry getting to the end-product at a cost four-fold higher.
From Cumberland we drove down to Paw Paw, as I wanted to show my daughter the C&O Canal tunnel:
It's a relatively short 1/3-mile walk up the tow-path to the tunnel. This project is reminiscent of the 1309 "debacle". At 3118', the company originally estimated it would require two years and cost less than $35,000...instead it would be 14 years before it was done, and they spent $600K, not to mention the extinguishing of quite a few Irishmen along the way. This project is the reason the canal ends at Cumberland instead of Pittsburgh, as originally planned, having drained the corporate coffers. Still, it is often grouped in the shortlist of greatest engineering achievements in the continental US, and certainly worth seeing. There was a timber rattler blocking the towpath just inside the portal, cooling him or herself from the ninety-degree heat, so we elected to just have a look from outside.
I am hopeful that someday they will complete the rail-to-trail park that might run from Cumberland to Big Pool. The country, especially the Potomac Bends east of Paw Paw, is just spectacular. Bits of it are done, from Big Pool running as far west as Little Orleans and Doe Gully, the site of the WM's first of many Potomac crossings on its Cumberland Extension. Until then, there are still faint traces of what once was:
From the tunnel we crossed over the Potomac into West Virginia and Paw Paw proper, then across Rte. 9 to Berkeley Springs. Dinner in Hagerstown, then east over the Blue Ridge to home. A day spent with the sun on my face...I felt renewed...a good day.
Healey
