A chilly night in Cumberland. It's a chilly night on the platform at the station in Cumberland, MD as a brakeman positions himself to marshal Locomotive #1309 to the standpipe for water. This image depicts C&O Locomotive #1309, a 1949-vintage Baldwin 2-6-6-2 which was built for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. She hauled coal trains for a mere 7 years before being retired to reserve and eventually to static display. The locomotive was hauled out of B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore in 2014, after being purchased by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad for use in tourist service. After a protracted restoration which consumed half a dozen years and a lot of cubic dollars, the engine runs today on a section of the old Connellsville Sub-Division from Cumberland to Frostburg. She is pictured here during a February, 2023 photo shoot organized by Lerro Photography, during which she was briefly decked out in the livery of her original owner, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
