Ghost Train #13013

The Story

A steam freight train is rounding a curve through a snowy rock cut beside a river with the old steam locomotive billowing smoke high in the cold winter air.  For a backdrop, the bare-limbed trees on Haystack Mountain are covered in recent snow. The old Western Maryland Scenic Railroad steam train is moving along the river like a ghost straight out of the past on this reenactment excursion. It pulls a mix of vintage freight cars through the steep-sided Cumberland Narrows to complete the effect of stepping out of a time machine straight into the winter of 1910.

The day of the shoot was typical January with cold and overcast, but those things certainly worked in this photographer’s favor to shoot an old steam locomotive in action. Despite having to be outside in it all day and some cold fingers, fifteen degrees made conditions just right to get a lot of smoke and steam. Shown here is a towering and dramatic 200-foot plume of smoke and steam and the cold enhanced every shot this way all day! Sometimes bright and sunny isn’t what you want to get ols steam train drama.

Taken along Wills Creek, the place is the Cumberland Narrows between Haystack Mountain and the river coming through Cumberland Maryland. This section is just before the long uphill climb through the high scenic mountains to Frostburg Maryland just sixteen miles away. You too can ride this train; see their website and schedule at www.wmsr.com.

If you enjoy this old-fashioned railroading in winter, you can see more smoke and steam from this locomotive in winter in The Crossing #12980 and Dawn Departure #13669.

Location: the Cumberland Narrows along Haystack Mountain and Wills Creek at Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland.