A Trip Down Memory Lane: A 1972 Baltimore-to-Hagerstown (And Return) Steam Passenger-train Excursion
U.S. Railroad Almanac
My goodness! Does this one take me back! AND…it was one of only two times that I got to see steam passenger-train excursions operating on the then still-existing WM! On the second one, incidentally, I and a friend caught just a brief and fleeting glimpse of the train in question.
As to the Feb. 5th and 6th excursions, my mom read an event announcement in the newspaper, then giving me the heads-up thus cluing me in.
I remember it was very early on Saturday that I woke up, got dressed and headed out the door to go watch the train. The place, I thought, where my chances would be best to see this train on the move, was at a location along the railroad having the name Glyndon, located approximately seven miles from home. The temperature was cold, there was snow all around, and the blue sky above was blocked out with clouds — in other words, it was overcast.
In Glyndon, Maryland, there’s a roadway that crosses over the tracks on a stone bridge, the structure providing an excellent vantage point for anyone wishing to take photos. I was off on the road bridge’s east side on the south side of double tracks there, if you’re trying to visualize this in your mind.
Meanwhile, I spotted one photographer with tripod-mounted camera on the bridge waiting like I was for the train to show up. There were quite a few people mulling around in the cold doing likewise.
Unbeknownst to I think most of us, two WM diesels (Alco — American Locomotive Company-manufactured products — model FA’s, specifically) painted black and yellow, had arrived beforehand. I later learned from buying and reading the Cook/Zimmermann book The Western Maryland Railway: Fireballs and Black Diamonds, that these two locos coupled back-to-back were used as head-end helpers assisting the steam train — lead by Reading T-1 #2102 — over Jack’s Mountain, in Pennsylvania on track sitting at an incline of 1.31 percent.[1]
Well, the steam excursion, it turns out put on a marvelous show and was a wonderful sight for eyes to behold! I only wish I had photos of the event to share with you now, but, regrettably, I do not.
No problem, though. If you can get a hold of a copy of the Cook/Zimmermann book, on page 276 of the original version of this volume (a revised, thicker version was released subsequently) in it there is included and published a photo taken, I presume, from the stone roadway bridge, of the train itself. What isn’t readily available, however, is the date this photo was taken. Was it snapped on Feb. 5th or 6th? My best educated guess tells me it was taken on Feb. 5th, by, I’m guessing, the person standing on the bridge with tripod-mounted camera, in this case, Ara Mesrobian, the caption in question reading: “Passing through Glyndon, less than a mile from Emory Grove Interlocking.”[2]
Notes
Cook, Roger; Zimmermann, Karl; The Western Maryland Railway: Fireballs and Black Diamonds, Howell-North Books, 1981, p. 276
Ibid.
Updated: Feb. 6, 2025 at 1:59 p.m. PST.
Image credits: Alan Kandel (upper); Roger Puta via Wikimedia Commons (lower)
All material copyrighted 2025, Alan Kandel. All Rights Reserved.