A chilly night in Cumberland. It's a chilly night on the platform at the station in Cumberland, MD as a brakeman positions himself to marshal Locomotive #1309 to the standpipe for water. This image depicts C&O Locomotive #1309, a 1949-vintage Baldwin 2-6-6-2 which was built for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. She hauled coal trains for a mere 7 years before being retired to reserve and eventually to static display. The locomotive was hauled out of B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore in 2014, after being purchased by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad for use in tourist service. After a protracted restoration which consumed half a dozen years and a lot of cubic dollars, the engine runs today on a section of the old Connellsville Sub-Division from Cumberland to Frostburg. She is pictured here during a February, 2023 photo shoot organized by Lerro Photography, during which she was briefly decked out in the livery of her original owner, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.
Landscape photography is difficult due to the challenge of combining good light and good scenery. Good railroad photography enters another level of complexity since it requires the first two while there is a train in view.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
