My Railfanning trip to Cumberland

[Cody J]

Well when I arrived at Cumberland with my mom (who isn't a railfan... yeah I know she's a weirdo  ). We set up at Franklin Street to wait for the EB Capitol Limited. While we were waiting we saw an EB CSX Manifest. When the Cap finally came we rushed over to Mexico Tower to catch it again, but we got lost. So, I called my brother and told him to go to Google Maps to get us there. At Mexico we saw a CSX 156 on the rear of an empty coal drag. I got a couple shots of the CPL's and Mexico Tower before the train came. I also used those two things to frame my photo with the Cap Limited.
On our way back towards the Engine Shops I made a quick decision to go on a hill and photograph the hump. We then headed to the shops were I saw a ConRail and many, many CSX locos including CSX #1 The Spirit of West Virginia. I headed on to the dead line which had two ex-Seaboard B36-7s. One without CSX Markings on the conductor side, I don't know about the engineer side though.
We then left for the trip on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad led by a 1916 2-8-0 Consolidation locomotive built by Baldwin. About 3-4 miles into the trip we stopped to dump the ashes. We were stopped for 45 minutes which at that time I knew something was wrong. We got started going again and stopped near (what I think is) Sunnyside. But we got started again in about 30 minutes. About 1/4 mile from Frostburg we stopped again where the grade steepens to about 2.8%. We couldn't get going so we had to wait an hour for a GP30 #501 to come from Cumberland. At about 3:20 (20 minutes after we were supposed to be in Cumberland) the GP30 coupled onto us and shoved us into Frostburg. At 3:30 we were off the train and the train was leaving at 4:00. We saw 734 turn on the turntable (which was pointless because it had a pusher and they turned it completely around). Anyway, we were back in Cumberland at 5:00. What was supposed to be an hour trip to Frostburg took 4 hours and what was supposed to be 1.5 hours in Frostburg turned into 35 minutes.
All-in-all I had a great time.

Cody

PS- I will post pics later after I edit them

[Cody J]

IMG]http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/trainsrock96/GEDC1801.jpg[/IMG]















I hope this works

[ebtnut]

Cody:  Glad you got your pics of the Cap.  Looks like you had a pretty good day of it.  Sounds to me like the steam loco got some bad coal.  They normally don't have those kinds of problems.  Note that they generally swing the loco all the way around on the turntable to folks can get a good look and some pics of both sides of the engine. 

[Cody J]

Yeah, they said that they had mud in the coal. Yeah that's what I was thinking about the turntable too.
Also, does the Cap normally operate with 3 locos? The consist was, 3 locomotives led by 171, a baggage car, and 7 Superliner cars.

cody

[jettrainfan]

Excellent Pics! I would have loved to see that steamer. Western Maryland steamers are beautiful! Especially if they have the fireball lettering! (that one has it) Thanks for telling your tale of your trip!  

[jward]

normal consist for the capitol is 2 locomotives, 9 cars. but the capitol is often used to ferry locomotives between washington dc and chicago. perhaps the locomotives are going to or from beech grove (indianapolis) for shop work?

glad you enjoyed one of the best railfan spots in the northeast.....

[Cody J]

For WMSR Pictures visit my Photobucket:

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/trainsrock96/?mediafilter=images

Cody