This one's for Gregg...

[wm3798]

http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00014345+OP-14345

Eric Payne (seusscaboose) sent me this link and asked for more information about the train in the picture.  That's the WM Cumberland Station back behind the obviously PRR train.  I know the PRR had trackage rights into Cumberland via the WM's State Line Branch, which connected to the PRR Bedford Branch at the Mason Dixon Line.

Can you i.d. the locomotive type, and perhaps shed some more light on the passenger operation?

Lee

[John]

It's a steam engine 

[3rdrail]

That's a B8, an 0-6-0 switcher. Since the 0-6-0's were designed prior to 1920, the Lines West group in Fort Wayne designed the B6 with piston valve cylinders. The Philadelphia crowd stuck with slide valves for switchers on its B8. The B7?? Old H3 2-8-0's with the pilot truck and the rear driver removed. Not a swinging success.

I can guarantee you the B8 was not being used to pull a train, merely switching the cars. It was taken after 1920, as PRR used oil headlamps until that date.

[seusscaboose]

sweet
thanks guys!

[asciibaron]

i think the engine is being used to pull the train - PRR had no facilities in Cumberland

here's the details
Engine 2801, Train #6373, passenger train; 2 cars, 10 MPH. Photographed: leaving Cumberland, Md., August 18, 1933.

[3rdrail]

No facilities, but somehow the engine got turned, but the RPO did not... If the PRR ever put an 0-6-0 on a passenger train, the top speed allowed would indeed be under 10 MPH!

EDIT: It may indeed be a train, as there are markers on the rear of the RPO compartment. Weird.

[Bob Bufkin]

That is an interesting photo.  I know the line used light power in the diesel era.  Baldwin switchers with end mu (2 units) especially for this line.  I always wondered what the main power was in the steam era.  Light 2-8-0's maybe.  Could be the switcher was filling in for an ailing unit. 

Anyone know when passenger service ended on this line?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

PRR Light 2-8-0s? Ha! I don't think such a thing existed (although, by the 20s I guess the H3s were kinda light...).

[wm3798]

Gerald Althizer on the WM Yahoo list says it ended in 1934... 

The engine might have wandered down to MY to turn on the wye, or perhaps on the TT there (probably needed fuel and water, too), while the short train sat at the platform for loading and boarding.  The Current Occupant of the site does much the same thing.

Lee

[wm3798]

Last PRR passenger trip to Cumberland was Feb. 11 1934...  Just about 75 years ago!
Also, there is some conjecture that the PRR limited the size of locomotives working into Cumberland due to a light bridge on the State Line branch (The one that crossed Wills Creek and the B&O perhaps?)  The general consensus is that the B-8 is indeed the road power for the train.

More on this breaking news as it develops!

Lee

[3rdrail]

PRR Light 2-8-0s? Ha! I don't think such a thing existed (although, by the 20s I guess the H3s were kinda light...).

Yup, the PRR had light 2-8-0's until well after World War II. The H3's were all gone by the mid-1920's, but the H6sb's were still around in fairly large numbers until Diesels starting taking over seriously. The final PRR #1 was an H6sb. Look at the size of an H6sb beside an H10 and you'll definitely call the H6sb a "light" 2-8-0.

After we get an H9 or H10, we need an H6sb in N scale!!!

BTW, it was trains such as the local to Cumberland that saw D16sb 4-4-0's last into the 1930's. It was the Delmarva branches that kept them into the 1950's

[wm3798]

That's because here on the shore we prefer things that are old and reliable.  Our badly written city charter, for instance...

Q - "How many Delmarvans does it take to change a light bulb?"

A - "CHANGE!?!

Lee

[Bob Bufkin]

According to K. L. Douglas and P. C. Weiglin in their "Pennsy Diesels 1924-1968 A-6 To EF-36"
Quote:  Two units (5595 and 5597) (making them BS-7ms) were conveted to MU in late 1952, to dieselize the PR operation from Altoona down the Bedford Secondary Track to Cumberland, MD.  Although the track was rated for heavier units than 100 tons, the PRR reached Cumberland over trackage rights on the WM.  The WM section extgending from PA-MD state line into Cumberland was restricted to locos with working weights of less than 100 tons.  The restriction was a bridge over the B&O in the Cumberland Narrows at GC Junction.  The only PRR steam locos which had been allowed on this line were the 0-6-0 classes. Unquote.

So I would say that the 0-6-0 was the road power for this short passenger train.

Bob

[seusscaboose]

BRAVO !!!

the forum pays off again  ;D

[Bob Bufkin]

I found some further material on this line.  The PRR also added MU to another Baldwin switcher since if one was down due to maintenance the 1 unit had trouble keeping time on the line.  Thing is, they didn't have to do this.  Seems the WM upgraded their line and anything over 100 tons could now be used.