CSX.. Baltimore & Ohio

Cumberland, Md

Viaduct Junction, January 1997. Mixed freight swinging onto the West End. I took this photo while driving from lunch and almost missed the lead diesel. This junction splits the railroad, this train is on the West End which was the B&O's first route over the mountains, the line eventually terminated in St. Louis; the other way uses the Sand Patch Grade and ends up in Chicago. The Viaduct Junction tower in the background was replaced shortly after this photo and the interlocker is how handled out of Jacksonville, FL

Cranberry Grade

This grade is against eastbound tonnage. It rises 1,200 feet in eleven miles between M&K Junction and Terra Alta, WV (once named Cranberry Summit)

This photo was taken on a Sunday afternoon in August, 1993. I was riding my mountain bike down the grade when rounding a turn, I met a bear standing up in blackberry bushes. If you follow the left hand track down the grade in this photo, you might see a small black spot. That's the bear, it looked a lot bigger in real life!
Eastbound coal drag crossing the South Branch of the Potomac near Oldtown

Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad, former B&O line in the South Branch Valley
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