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A Whole Trainload of UD’s Favorite Novel!

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This is the same thing UD saw this morning as she walked home along the CSX tracks from the Garrett Park post office.

An all-Herzog train!

Margaret Soltan, March 3, 2017 11:17AM
Posted in: snapshots from home

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10 Responses to “A Whole Trainload of UD’s Favorite Novel!”

  1. Stephen Karlson Says:

    Helping the B&O Link Thirteen States to the Nation.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Stephen: I knew you’d know what I was looking at.

  3. Polish Peter Says:

    Horseshoe Curve is an amazing place, and not only because Herzog ballast trains (http://hrsi.com/)come by with regularity. It’s a gorgeous setting, an engineering marvel (ascending the Allegheny Front using a sweeping curve around a valley), and a spectacular show when multiple trains converge from both directions. It must have been really amazing to see in the 1940s and 1950s during the last days of steam. The image by Grif Teller at the link here captures its character in the early days of diesel power:
    http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-5AA

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Polish Peter: I hadn’t yet figured out precisely where Horseshoe Curve is – many thanks.

  5. Stephen Karlson Says:

    The Herzog rail-grinding train is even more impressive than the ballast train, particularly in action at night! And CSX, the successor to Baltimore and Ohio and several other railroads, is bringing in Hunter Harrison, who is not claiming he’ll Make CSX Great Again.

    To Polish Peter’s observation about the last days of steam … there’s a new steam spectacular coming to Cumberland, Maryland, sometime this summer. There’s an altitude-gaining curve near there, too, and closer to Bethesda than Horse Shoe is.

  6. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Stephen – I’ve already copied and pasted your second paragraph to Mr UD – we both like Cumberland a lot, and this is a great reason for us to go back this summer. Thanks – didn’t know about the new train.

  7. Polish Peter Says:

    Apropos steam engines: Poland had hit rock bottom in the summer of 1984, and diesel fuel was scarce. My colleague and I were taking the train from Włocławek to Łódź, and they had brought out the steam locomotives again. As we rode along on a hot summer day with the windows open and ash and soot flying in, he said “We have it great here. In the U.S. you’d have to pay a lot of money to ride behind a steam engine, and here we get to do it for the price of a regular ticket!”

  8. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Polish Peter: Love it – I’m reading your account to Mr UD now.

  9. Stephen Karlson Says:

    Might want to check for updates before you go, as Western Maryland Scenic suffered a landslip last summer. (http://wmsr.com/) But they’re planning to roll out a YUUUUUGE steam locomotive sometime this summer, and if the line to Frostburg is restored, they’ll likely have the bicycle rental arrangement in place, take the bikes up the hill on the train, bike downhill to Cumberland on the paralleling scenic trail. Plus I was impressed with the food to be had in downtown Frostburg, where the train turns.

    A correction on the rail grinder. None by Herzog. They make for some spectacular watching, but stay well back! Happy trails.

  10. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Stephen: Will do.

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