The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As detailed in earlier postings, a humble narrator left HQ in Pittsburgh in the early morning hours and piloted the Mobile Oppression Platform along a southeastern vector towards the panhandle section of Western Maryland, and specifically the City of Cumberland where my ‘turn around’ point was. Throughout the morning, I had kept “11:30 a.m.” in mind, since that’s when the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad would be offering a tour on their heritage railway with its historic rolling stock. There’s also a fairly large CSX railyard in Cumberland, but halfway through the morning I had decided that I’d be coming back this way again and would leave that one for ‘next time.’ This location is about 85 miles from HQ, which ends up being about a two hour drive if you don’t make multiple stops along the way, as I did.

I wasn’t going to be riding with WMRR on this day, but plenty of other people were. The Heritage RR operation offers fairly regular excursion tours between its 1913 Cumberland Station and the community of Frostburg. During the holiday season, they use an actual steam engine and fashion the trip along a Christmas theme as “The Polar Express,” as you’ll see in this particularly well shot YouTube video from Blue Comet Productions.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After finding a solid place to leave the car, one set out on foot and got busy. As mentioned, this wasn’t the day which I’d be purchasing a ticket and riding on the thing. Saying that, they have California Zephyr Dome cars in addition to executive lounge cars attached to the engine, as well as an ‘open car’ about which their website description offers the caution that you WILL get cold, wet, and dirty while riding in. That’s the photographer centric one, as there are no windows. You can also pony up a few extra bucks if you want to ride in the locomotive engine with the engineer at the head of the snake.

The origins of the Western Maryland Railroad date back to 1852, and like all history associated with rail – there’s a complicated series of corporate owners, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and incremental expansions which you can sort out for yourself at this Wikipedia page. Ultimately, in 1973, the WMRR was incorporated into the ‘Chessie System’ which would later merge with an outfit called Seaboard Coast Line Industries in 1982. The combined outfit would rebrand itself in 1987 as CSX.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After the merger in 1987, CSX abandoned the Cumberland to Frostburg tracks and several municipal entities (including Cumberland and Frostburg and the counties they reside in) foresaw creating a tourist attraction so they purchased the corridor and several of the yards and facilities owned by the WMRR in 1988. It runs regularly scheduled tourist trips in modernity.

Right on schedule, at 11:30 a.m., the guy with the flag arrived and stopped automotive traffic. The signal bells started ringing, and the train blew its horn. Me? I was standing on the concrete of the C&O Canal’s tow path (described yesterday), which adjoins the rail tracks.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The steam engine which they’re so famous for was in the shop, and the WMRR was instead running a diesel engine at the front of the train. It’s a General Electric Dash 8-32B model #558, which used to be a part of Norfolk Southern’s fleet, and has been leased from that entity to the WMRR as of September of 2022. It’s painted in WM’s color way and heraldry.

My original intention for this leg of the day trip was to linger around Cumberland for a while, and see what I could get at the nearby CSX yard, but I’d been actively ‘doing my thing’ since 5 in the morning and was beginning to feel fatigued.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying that, I’d actually had a full morning. I was at The Great Cross in Jumonville, the Youghiogheny River Lake, and there were a couple of other stops I had made along the way which weren’t all that productive. I still had a two hour drive to get back home, and unlike the morning journey, this time I’d have to contend with traffic and worst of all – school buses. It’s eminently logical to legally forbid the bypassing of school bus traffic, but when you find yourself behind one on a one lane country road… you’re just screwed.

I’m definitely coming back to Cumberland, and plan on riding with them on that Polar Express dealie. Unmentioned in this post, so far, has been the presence of the Great Allegheny Passage bike and pedestrian pathway. The GAP is the same trail that starts in Pittsburgh, which I’ve mentioned many times. An absolutely terrific number of people were observed unloading road bikes to take advantage of the trail, in the municipalities parking lot, where the Mobile Oppression Platform was waiting for our return trip to Pittsburgh.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After the WMRR rode out of view, I returned to the car, and changed up my camera gear to traveling mode. A quick stop at a gas station was accomplished where the car was fueled up, where I got some much needed coffee, and away we went. On the way home, I stupidly followed a route, suggested by Google Maps, which added a half hour and about thirty miles onto the trip. By the time I was back in Pennsylvania’s Uniontown section, that salami sandwich I had eaten for breakfast was utterly metabolized and I needed a lunch break. McDonald’s, if you’re curious. Here’s a tip – the double quarter pounder is a Big Mac without the special sauce (which you can request they add) and it’s about $5 cheaper than the flagship sandwich.

One of my practices while traveling is to uncharacteristically eat such forms of fast food, since doing otherwise means that you’re kind of throwing the dice as far as food poisoning goes with unfamiliar roadside restaurants. McDonald’s corporate is famously hardcore in terms of enforcing health and safety rules on their franchisees – in terms of “quality,” food storage and cooking temperatures, and facility cleaning standards, so… it ain’t good for you – at all – but McDonald’s ‘fills the hole’ and probably won’t give you a case of the squirts. I learned this lesson about grabbing an ‘on the go’ meal when I was still drawing comics, and had to drive to and attend comic conventions all over the country to promote the books.

After washing the fry and burger grease off my hands, it was time to finish the trip back to Pittsburgh. I think I walked back into the house at about 3:30 p.m.

Whew. Back tomorrow, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.