Mt. Savage, September 5,1999
Map of Mt. Savage c.1918

This map shows the height of Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad operations in Mt. Savage. Map is from Deane Mellander's excellent Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad
book. This map is much reduced from the one in the book. The book is an excellent but brief history of this very remarkable town.

This photo was taken on Sunday before Labor Day, a wet and blustery day from the tail end of a hurricane. Scrolling right, you see WMSRR train really struggling upgrade at milemarker 177. Besides the dreary day, the passengers were subsequently stuck at the depot for a while because of a major power outage and no way to turn the locomotive. The residential section of Mt. Savage is immediately below the mountainside rail line, although because of the considerable elevation difference, a WM connection with Mt. Savage rails was much further up the valley at No. 9. Visible from this location are several of Mt.Savage's substantial churchs and the new high school. To the left was the industrial heart of Mt. Savage including the locomotive works and shops of the C&P, the iron furnace and facilities and the various brick works. Raw materials were fed into these facilities by tram roads off of Big Savage Mountain down Sulphur Run . Big Savage's summit is hidden by the fog on this day.


Mt. Savage's history predates the B&O railroad arrival in Cumberland in 1840's, waiting for a transportation system to move the iron that was the first product of town. Not only did Mt. Savage produce the first rolled iron rail in the U.S., it produced a fair amount of it (15 miles of rail in one contract for the B&O not to mention the rail needed for iron work's own line to Cumberland). It is seems amazing in this day that iron was produced in a number of local furnaces, using only material at hand. Iron furnaces need fire brick and this commodity became a more enduring product of Mt. Savage. The two brick plants in the photos above continue the industrial heritage of Mt. Savage. Of course, the second photo is the plant at Zihlman that can be viewed from the Frostburg depot.
Not only did Mt. Savage have many firsts in local industry, it also had an important role at the end in saving the WM line to No. 9 (near Frostburg). If the brick plants were not still providing loads to Chessie in the mid 1970's, would not the line have been completely pulled up to Cumberland when the rest of the Connelsville Sub was scrapped? I think that one of the WMSRR passenger cars should be named the Mt. Savage.

This is The Castle, built for the company doctor and later owned by a manufacturer of glazed brick, it now is a bed and breakfast with great hospitality and some very interesting maps.

Imagine one's surprise when traveling through the Mt. Savage suburb of Slabtown to come across this estate called Evergreen. This imposing structure was the homeplace of the Trimble family who held a large amount of land for timbering, farming and coal mining. Today it is a museum and can be found on the Trimble Road high above the WM crossing.

This illustration is from Tall Pines and Winding Rivers (Ben. Kline). The Green Ridge Railroad used two of the Mt. Savage locomotives. Deane Mellander estimates that approximately 100 locomotives were manufactured at the Mt. Savage works.


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Here is a very good link for more Mt.Savage history
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
Cass Scenic Railroad, home of Western Maryland Shay No.6
More railroad photos
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