This video was originally produced in 1991 by Maryland Public Television, and is now available at the Facebook page for the Western Maryland Scenic. This is a public page, and should be available without being on Facebook or any other limitations.

Hard to believe so much is now history--was it that long ago? Did things change that much?

https://www.facebook.com/WMSRailroad/vi ... 7552978149

ALLEGANY ... just like the county name in Maryland.

Tim W.

Unexpectedly, I have just spent a great time visiting two old friends. The Late Jack Showalter and 1238! Jack was a railroader's railroader and I am proud to have known him. Before we meet up again I hope to one day see 1238 back in steam again doing what a steam locomotive was intended for.

1238 along with it's sister engine 1286 now reside in Manitoba, Canada on the Prairie Dog Central Railroad. As far as I know there are no immediate plans to restore either engine to operation.

It's not really the Allegany Central of Maryland, but rather an overview of railroading in Virginia. Yes, O. Winston Link is there, as are the N&W's "Big Three."

But what might be the jewel of this film is toward the end, with what must be some rare footage of Mr. Showalter's operations out of Staunton, Va., at about 52 minutes in.

Have fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESjuWevZNAw

The original Allegany Central, which is now a bike path?

I'm not sure the original Allegany Central is even a bike path.

It's possible my story isn't as accurate as it should be, but my understanding is that the original AC was on the Hot Springs branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio. This line ran from a connection with the main line at Covington, Va., to Hot Springs and the Homestead Hotel; the station was across the street from the big resort. The terminal included a coal unloading facility for the hotel's heating plant, and a turntable to spin the locomotive around.

Power for this branch in steam days was a heavy 2-8-0, No. 701, which survives on display in a park in Covington. It was nicknamed "The Merry Widow" because for years it was the only locomotive on that service except when it was in the shop for the usual things needed for steam power. Photos on the branch show the relief power being 2-6-6-2s, older versions of C&O 1309 at WMSR today, apparently just pulled out of whatever was on the ready tracks at Clifton Forge, the eastern terminal for the branch run to Hot Springs.

The service was interesting too in that it was a mixed train with Pullman cars! That was how people got to the resort in through cars from New York City. What was most amazing about this was that this mixed train was running almost to the eve of Amtrak.

In heavyweight days, the cars on the branch were a pair of 6c-3dr Pullmans apparently assigned to the Pennsylvania and painted Tuscan red. After 1950, those heavyweights were replaced by C&O owned Pullman-Standard 11-dbr cars (five cars in the series, one of them named Homestead, for the hotel at Hot Springs) that included things like a removable window in one of the rooms to allow a stretcher case to be handled to the resorts for the healing effects of the hot mineral waters at Hot Springs and at the Greenbrier at White Sulfur Springs in West Virginia. These cars, and others that typically came from the PRR, plus an ancient heavyweight combine for the coach and baggage trade, made up the passenger accommodations for the mixed to Hot Springs, along with any freight cars going there and a caboose bringing up the rear.

"The Merry Widow" was replaced by two EMD Geeps that were among the heaviest, if not the heaviest units of their type on the C&O. They were among the few C&O Geeps to have both dynamic brakes for service on the branch's steep grades and steam generators for train heating.

This was to become the route for the original AC--except that the branch ran next to a golf course connected with the resort. Well, you know golfers, they can't stand outside noises because it breaks their concentration, and those moneybags have more sway with management and politicians than we weak rail enthusiasts, so the branch was abandoned on the portion through the course. The other end involved the C&O's main line and a huge paper plant at Covington.

The end result was that Mr. Showalter wound up having to build his own station up the branch beyond the paper plant somewhere, and lay in a run around track at the end short of the golf course. In other words, he had a railroad running from one weed patch to another weed patch. He hung on for years, but eventually had to close up.

Years later, he got a sort of second chance as a contract operator on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad; this is the operation profiled in the video that opened this thread.

I don't know the circumstances, but for some reasons he contract wasn't renewed at some point, and he and his pair of Canadian Pacific G-5s went wandering again. This time he got the chance, when CSX still allowed such things, to run main line trips out of Staunton, Va.; this is the rare footage in the second video. Operations were between Staunton and Clifton Forge on one day, with the engine turning at the now demolished shop complex on a turntable for the trip back to Staunton. The next trip was from Staunton to Gordonsville via Charlottesville, where there was, and I think still is, a wye at the junction of lines to Washington, DC via Orange, and to Newport News (and in the past, Phoebus) via Richmond and Williamsburg. This ran perhaps one season, and then Chessie-CSX decided they needed a huge bump in insurance coverage.

That would be Mr. Showalter's last operation. The locomotives were stored for a long time at Broad Street Station in Richmond (which is now a science museum). After Mr. Showalter's death, the locomotives were sold, and as noted in other posts, are back in Canada.

EDIT: "The Merry Widow" also happened to be a former Hocking Valley Railroad 2-8-0. As noted, it survives today as the last existing Hocking Valley engine.

http://www.rgusrail.com/vaco701.html

The 701 has been discussed here in the past.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11884&start=15

My experience with the Allegheny Central is an interesting one day event. i was at Cass for the spring three day event at the time and noticed A small almost Burma shave sign for the railroad. so on Sunday rather than take another trip on Cass i went and investigated. found the locomotive for the day being steamed up (the 1286 was warn and the stack partially capped) and was invited up into the cab by the fireman. when Jack showed up he asked me to help with the switching, which i did and was rewarded with a cab ride for the day. an interesting experience at the age of 19 that i didn't forget, and later got me further involved with preservation.

Hello!

J3a-your quote

Are you sure about that? I lived in Richmond when Jack was forced to discontinue operating out of Charlottesville (not Staunton), and as I recall, I'm pretty sure he stored his equipment on a siding in Verona, not at the science museum in Richmond.

Regardless, thanks for the memories!

Maybe you are right, that sort of thing happens when you're going on memory and don't have things to look up to confirm stuff!

In any event, thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you've enjoyed the memories and the videos, too!