I've locked the previous 1309 thread because it has run its useful life. Please post news, questions, discussions, and other items related to 1309 here. Please start a new topic if you want to debate the shade of paint, size of lettering, font, number chimes the whistle should have, merits of whitewalls on the drivers, or if the number plate should have red or black background.

With that being said please have a look at the update from Trains Magazine here: http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/observation- ... pdate.aspx

I've been a big fan of WMSR for a decades, I've bought many tickets to ride over the years including cab ride. I've also attended a number of photo charters. Each time I come to Cumberland I stay for two nights at a decent hotel and eat at non-chain restaurants. I'm pretty sure this is exactly why they have the railroad there in the first place.

Cumberland is a great city and if you've not been I suggest making a ride behind 1309 a priority in 2017.

Wow. I hope there is a really good technical report on the restoration published. Lots of interesting work done.

it could do some serious heavy mainline work if they woulda coulda shoulda with all that work. Kudos to the WMRS crew.

I appreciate the thoughtful comments just written and also the write-up in TRAINS, a lot of specifics noted there.
This will at least give myself and others some idea of how to plan vacations this year.
Thank you.

The slide repairs still have not been completed to allow the WMSR to reach Frostburg again. Allegany County just closed on a 15 year, 9 million dollar loan with Key Bank this past Commission meeting with 1 million dollars of the proceeds earmarked for the Slide Repairs.

Also the last time I was in Frostburg, it appears the extension of the run around track at the depot has yet to be started.

I greatly appreciate any progress reports we can get. I also have to tip my hat to all of those fine folks who have been involved in this process from ideation to now. A quote in the Trains article struck a chord with me. I remember my only visit to the B & O museum way back in 1989 and looking at the 1604 in the mall, and the 1309 just down the track from it. Thinking if ever would ever see the day where they had a chance to run again. Thanks for making this come to reality!

Steve

Truly an inspiring restoration and professional approach. The excitement builds. This may have to be a destination from what very little I know of this area think a person could spend a few days to a week in the area and come away with a great vacation. Thanks for the trains link.

Regards, John.

Indeed, there is much in the Cumberland area. Right in Cumberland are some amazing old houses and the far west end of the C&O Canal. Less than an hour away in Romney, W.Va. is the Potomac Eagle tourist train, and of course there is all the railroad action in Cumberland itself on CSX.

For the rail enthusiast, Cumberland is also not too far from Altoona and perhaps an hour and a half from Orbisonia. The East Broad Top, as is well known, is not currently operational, but you can still walk around a take a look, and the Shade Gap Electric Railway (the trolley line there) is running. . .still worth a visit if you are in the area.

And only an hour and a half away is Martinsburg, W.Va. (1866 roundhouse under restoration), and about another half hour away is Harpers Ferry. Both Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry have Amtrak service (as does Cumberland), and they both also have commuter trains running to Washington, DC.

If you are into this sort of thing, you can even visit the grave of O. Winston Link in a cemetery in Shepherdstown, W.Va., which is between Martinsburg and Sharpsburg--the latter the site of Antietam Battlefield.

And this only touches the surface of things a history minded person might want to see.

Washout plugs delivered, very neat (from a facebook open group):

https://www.facebook.com/Wmsrsteam/post ... 0631447970

I would add the Everett Railroad to the list. It's just over 60 miles away at Hollidaysburg, PA, about an hour's drive. That's where Alan Maples operates his beautiful little 2-6-0 number 11.

Tom

What a great report. A few years ago when my car broke down in the museum parking lot, I spent three enforced hours examining 1309 while waiting for the tow truck. At the time, other than the amount of rust and debris that had built up, the most striking issue was the cut huge steam feed pipe that runs between the engines if not because it was just a large and custom part. Certainly a part regularly made/repaired during steam locomotive rebuilds these days. I would guess this would need to be in place for them to wheel the locomotive.

As part of that experience, I developed an interest in the locomotive and always wondered how it would sound starting up and pulling hard. Never figured it would really happen!

Bob

Thank you for that addition--I didn't realize that operation was that close to Cumberland, and to me (Martinsburg)!



If you get the opportunity, acquire or borrow a copy of O. Winston Link's "Sounds of Steam Railroading," "Thunder on Blue Ridge," and/or "2nd Pidgeon and the Mocking Bird." All of these have several sequences featuring Y-class compound 2-8-8-2s, with at least one starting and transition (simple to compound) sequence.

As to describing what you are likely to hear, in simple a true Mallet sounds like a simple Mallet (i.e., N&W 1218 or UP 3985) on steroids (heavy exhaust from the low pressure cylinders working on high-pressure steam). The recordings I own have the transition sounding loud and blurred, and then in compound the engines sound like a mushy but loud two cylinder engine (whuff, whuff, whuff, . . .), though not quite as mushy as a saturated locomotive.

If you are standing trackside as such a locomotive goes by, you'll hear two sets of machinery (rod) noises, like a simple articulated. The best way to describe them might be something like "clunk-a-clunk, clunk-a clunk, clunk-a-clunk," vs. the "clunk-a, clunk-a, clunk-a" of a two cylinder engine.

One of several sequences recorded from a caboose coupled ahead of the pusher on "Thunder on Blue Ridge" has the engine transition to compound--and the low pressure cylinders are a bit out of square, almost a comical variant of "I think I can, I think I can. . ."

There are a couple of Mallet tank loggers around (Clover Valley No. 4 at Niles Canyon, and Black Hills Central No. 110) that should sound similar, but I couldn't find anything like a YouTube video with a good sounding starting sequence in it.

Like you, I'm looking forward to hearing all this live, and if WMSR uses the right whistle, you'll likely hear what is the most haunting hooter you ever heard. . .one that would be perfect for a "ghost train" at Halloween!

Just to needle (-scale) TRAINS, shouldn't "tri-cocks" be "try-cocks" ?

It's been reported in local (Baltimore and Union Bridge) rail historian circles that the WMSR has approached the Western Md. Ry. Historical Society about borrowing certain pieces of locomotive hardware to install or reproduce for use on the soon-to-run 1309--as they previously did with 734.

I didn't ask too much, but I trust the sources. Read into it what you will.

Not neccesarily.....there are usually three of them. I would prefer test cocks myself.
Keith