Western Maryland announced today on Facebook that they have secured a long-term lease of the Georges Creek Railroad and plan to offer freight and passenger service over the line. Few hard details yet, just a quick press announcement.

https://fb.watch/pB2kmzIVKU/

Well that’s one way to solve the turntable problem; get rid of it and just run trains to Westernport…

I kid I kid.

To add to this, they also announced that they have purchased ex-Western Maryland chop-nose GP9s no. 25 and no. 39, which were stored on the Georges Creek

Somebody brought up an interesting point:

There's no direct connection between the two rail lines anymore.

Though in theory you COULD have built south from Frostburg, that's not likely anymore. The only live connection to another rail line is at the former WM yard at Luke, west (RR direction) of Westernport.

I have to say I'm feeling a little conflicted on this. On one hand its always good to have more space to scenic rail trips; but on the other hand WMSR has not been the most "careful" with finances this last decade or so, and has been forced to overhaul their own aging infrastructure due to state or county complaints. Is the railroad really up to the task of taking on a second line?

WMSR now has competent management, with prior experience in heritage and shortline railroad operations. Enough said-

Correct.

The tracks are intact to a point south of Borden Shaft, MD (different from the nearby Borden Tunnel), and WMSR just released a map showing the intact trackage to that point. There’s a lot of repairs to even get to the end of track there because of the washouts.

Past that, according to Google maps there’s about 3-4 miles between the end of track on the Georges Creek Railway, and the Frostburg depot on the WMSR. And yes, there are a few buildings on the ROW not far south of the “west” portal.

Lot of obstacles if they ever did have the ambition to connect the two sections. And even if they did, I’m not sure what the clearances are on the C&P tunnel below Frostburg, or the condition or even if there’s any impediments in that tunnel.

The first question to ask would be "Why?" What would they gain from extending it. I think the current run to Frostburg is perfect for the typical rider. People generally aren't interested in all day long trips. The Frostburg run is already 4.5 hours with a 90 minute layover. Once you add in drive time, that's already an all day adventure for most people. Why go longer?

Also my concern. I'd really hate to see them overextend themselves. Just looking at the motive power department, their steam locomotive is temporarily out of service with unexpected mechanical issues, their other steam locomotive reportedly needs quite a bit of work to be made operational, one GP30 is out of service in need of heavy maintenance, the other GP30 has reportedly become a parts donor, and the F40 is now also out of service. That leaves them with just the two B32-8s at the moment. And now they are adding the two Georges Creek GP9s into the mix, one of which hasn't run since it was in the Knox & Kane enginehouse fire.

I'm curious to see if there's gonna be any steam excursions

The website currently says the 2024 Frostburg Flyer will be diesel powered. Of course that could change.

Satellite photos reveal there are more than "a few" structures on the ROW south of the west portal. It looks like you have to run down a street in front of them to avoid demolishing them. Not too crazy, plenty of railroads did that in the past, but I wonder how well the current people would take to the idea.

Then there is the matter of crossing I-68. That would involve tunneling under two large fills for its eastbound and westbound lanes.

I don't know what the conditions are, or if there are restrictions on the ROW that would be a problem, but another approach to "reconnect" would be to relay the line from Ridgely to Westernport that paralleled the B&O. It would be a lot longer than the few miles from Frostburg, but maybe a lot fewer severe (and expensive) obstacles.

Alternately, and at the risk of someone asking what I've been drinking or smoking (and I wouldn't blame them!) would be to do it all--relay the parallel line AND restore the connection through the tunnels. That would give you a "loop" railroad, hopefully with more access to developable property and a way to get rid of the complaints from people who think a round trip is really a trip around, and who squawk about seeing the same scenery twice!

I believe he meant on the new Georges Creek division.

Maybe I'm drawing connections where there aren't any, but they said discussions to lease the GCK started two years ago. Wasn't that about when they started entertaining the idea of bringing #734 back?

Well, there's one additional locomotive that wasn't listed in a prior post, as this was just announced today in the McHugh Facebook group: