🚇🚂 Western Maryland steam engine #1309 leads the Frostburg Flyer passenger train westbound through the Brush Tunnel in Cumberland, Maryland, on it's way to Frostburg with newly acquired and freshly painted #558 on the rear. Locomotives: NIWX 558(GE B32-8, Ex- NS, built 1989) & WM 1309 (From Wiki: Western Maryland Scenic Railroad No. 1309, formerly Chesapeake and Ohio Railway No. 1309, is a compound articulated class "H-6" "Mallet" type steam locomotive with a 2-6-6-2 wheel arrangement. It was originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1949 for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) where it pulled coal trains until its retirement in 1956. It was the last steam locomotive built by Baldwin for the North American market. In 1975, it was moved to the B&O Railroad Museum for static display. In 2014, it was purchased by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (WMSR), who undertook a multi-year effort to restore it to operating condition."
"No. 1309 was built from a 40-year-old design, with mechanical lubricators, stoker, and superheater, the last of a series of 2-6-6-2s that the C&O began in 1911. A very similar design, the USRA 2-6-6-2, was chosen by the United States Railroad Administration as one of its standard designs thirty years earlier during World War 1.
"The engine is a Mallet articulated locomotive. This design was a compound locomotive where steam was expanded once in smaller rear cylinders and the exhaust captured and expanded a second time in larger lower-pressure front cylinders. While compound locomotives are more efficient than single-expansion machines, their extra complication led to very few United States railroads using them after the turn of the century. The added length of two sets of cylinders required the engines to be articulated to enable operation on tight radius turns common in mountainous areas in West Virginia and Kentucky coal country, which added even more complication. It also had two cross compound air compressors mounted on the smokebox door to supply enough air for frequent heavy braking needed in mountain railroading. While complicated and uncommon, the C&O had a long history with Mallets and they were ideal for slow speed work in West Virginia.
"The Chesapeake and Ohio ordered 25 of these engines in 1948 to pull coal trains. When coal production dramatically fell due to labor unrest in 1949, the order was revised to just ten engines (numbered 1300 to 1309), and 1309 became the last domestic steam locomotive built by Baldwin.
"Once in service, it will be the largest steam locomotive in regular scheduled service in the United States and take 2-8-0 No. 734’s place as the largest active steam locomotive in the state of Maryland. *(A much larger steam locomotive, the Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 was restored to operational status in May 2019 but is being used for occasional excursion service as opposed to regularly scheduled service.)" 9 24 22 © BaltimoreAndOhioRR.