Western Maryland Railway
It has been said that the reason for the WMRR is to export the state of West Virginia.The Western Maryland Railway started out in the 1850s as an agricultural railroad, operating in central Maryland. It serviced the areas that the B&O didn't. Chartered by the Maryland Legislature in May of 1852 as the Baltimore, Carroll & Frederick Railroad, the name was changed in 1853 to the Western Maryland Railroad. The company incorporated the Baltimore & Susquehanna Branch from Relay House to Owings Mills in 1857. New construction pushed the line towards Westminster. As for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the City of Baltimore provided a bond guarantee for the construction. The charter was to construct a railroad from Baltimore to Westminster, and then towards Hagerstown. This would open up the Cumberland Valley region in Washington and Carroll County to the markets of Baltimore Construction began again after the civil war. In 1873, the line had reached Williamsport, west of Hagerstown, and the key connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal. The Canal had been built westward from Georgetown, near Washington D. C. 185 miles up the Potomac River Valley to Cumberland, Maryland. Coal was loaded at the terminus in Cumberland from a number of Allegany County shortlines, all of which eventually were absorbed into the WM. Before the canal or the Western Maryland were completed to Cumberland, the B&O railroad shipped coal from Cumberland to Williamsport.
In 1902, the City of Baltimore divested itself of its WM bonds to the Gould Syndicate. The Gould masterplan was a transcontinental railroad, using existing connector roads and shortlines where possible. It was a battle of the robber-barons, with the Pennsylvania Railroad, the B&O, and the New York lines fighting for the freight traffic of the nation. The line from Big Pool was immediately extended westward to Cumberland to connect with another piece of the Gould puzzle, the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg. (The name of the Town later had the h added to the end). The Western Maryland Railroad (Railway, after Dec. 1, 1909) reached Cumberland, Maryland, from the east in 1906. West of Big Pool, it required 23 bridges and five tunnels (Indigo, Stickpile, Kessler, Welton, and Knobley), and that was following the water level route of the Potomac River. The line was closed in 1975.
Overextended financially, and outmaneuvered by its rivals, the Gould syndicate, and the Western Maryland, went into receivership in 1908. The railroad emerged in 1910, reorganized as the Western Maryland Railway. The Connellsville extension was completed in 1912. During World War I, the WM was directed to oversee operations of the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad. The government oversight of the railroads lasted from 1917 to 1920. The WM was doing well, after almost being dragged down with the Gould empire.
In 1927, the Baltimore & Ohio purchased John D. Rockefeller's WM stock. This gave it a 43% interest in its rival. The Interstate Commerce Commission (I. C. C.) told the B&O to divest the stock, but, as a compromise, the stock was put in trust with Chase Bank in New York. This was the beginning of the end for WM independence. The WM completed numerous purchases and consolidations in the ensuing years, including the Cumberland & Pennsylvania in 1944.
References
Biery, Thomas A. "Western Maryland the Connellsville Extension, May/June 1995, The Railroad Press, Issue 24.
Cook, Roger and Zimmerman, Karl. Western Maryland Railway - Fireballs and Black Diamonds, 1981, Howell-North Books, San Diego, Ca., ISBN 0-8310-7139-7.
Grenard, Ross and Krause, John. Steam in the Alleghenies, Western Maryland, (no date), Newton, NJ: Carstens Publishing Co.
Hicks, H. Ray. "The Connellsville Extension of the Western Maryland Railway," R&LHS Bulletin, No. 85, March, 1952.
Jones, Dwight. Western Maryland Cabooses, 1991, Western Maryland Railway Historical Society, Union Bridge, Maryland.
Price, William. Western Maryland Steam Album, 1986, Potomac Chapter, NRHS, Inc., Kensington, Md.
Salamon, Stephen J. & Hopkins, William E. The Western Maryland Railway in the Diesel Era, 1991, Silver Spring, MD: Old Line Graphics.
Stakem, Patrick E. and Stakem, Patrick H. Western Maryland Diesel Locomotives, 1996, TLC Publishing.
