Western Maryland Railway

Christopher Marston measures a drum inside the gear house that sits atop the Western Maryland Railway lift bridge Tuesday at the C&O Canal in Williamsport. The National Park Service is rehabilitating the bridge.

For Maugansville resident Harry Hamby, the Western Maryland Railway was special. The retired engineer notes that "we were a family railroad! Anybody that worked there will tell you that. We would sort of look at one another. " As far as railroading, Hamby, who retired with 33 years of service, said, "I liked it! I did! I loved railroading. It seemed like each day was a little different!" From the Cracker Barrel

The Robert McCauley Historical Lecture Series at the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown will begin its 36th year today. Randy Anderson, local railroad historian, will present the second part of the history of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad-Weverton to Hagerstown branch in meeting room B/C beginning at 7 p.m. Last year, he covered the southern portion of the line. The presentation will complete his talk about the line from Keedysville to Hagerstown Station, including a connection with the Western Maryland Railway and the Security Branch, which served industries including the cement plant.

FREDERICK, Md. - The Frederick (Md.) Police Department on Thursday charged a Frederick woman with the Monday stabbing of Donald Brown Jr. Roseann Copeland, 22, of the 600 block of North Bentz Street was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, police said. Brown was charged with second-degree assault. C&O Canal National Historic Park is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who stole a historic sign from the Jerome Telegraph Office, according to a written statement from the National Park Service.

Some 800 riders will spend Saturday traveling by train to Oakland, Md., for the Autumn Glory Festival, on a trip sponsored by the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum and the Hagerstown chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. This may be the last year for the Autumn Leaves Excursion to Oakland, according to museum President Bob Tracey. The trip is offered as an annual fund-raiser for the museum and draws passengers from as far as Boston, Chicago and the province of Saskatchewan in Canada, Tracey said.

HAGERSTOWN -- It was Christmas 1954, and Bob McCourt was hoping to find a Davy Crockett toy rifle under the tree. Instead, his parents gave him a Lionel locomotive, fueling a lifelong passion for trains. "When I opened that box, it was love at first sight," he said. "I quickly forgot about that rifle. " Today, McCourt still has the black locomotive and much more. "It's become a bit of an addiction," the Hagerstown resident said. "Some people have trains in their basement.

They are grown men playing with toys. Those toys, model trains, remind them of childhoods spent watching the big trains like the Western Maryland Railway chug by their neighborhoods. The model trains they play with bring joy not only to their faces, but to those of the thousands of children and adults who stop by each holiday season to see the large winter train layout at the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum. The hours of detailed work it takes to set up the huge layout are worth it when they hear the children's oohs and ahhhs and see their eyes light up, John Dawson says.

What now is known as the City of Hagerstown was founded in 1762. Founder Jonathan Hager, a German immigrant, named it Elizabeth-Town, for his wife. Hager is said to have laid out about 520 lots, each nearly a half-acre. His 200-acre homestead now is City Park. Hager died Nov. 6, 1775, during an accident while helping to construct Zion Reformed Church on land he had donated. In 1776, the area became the county seat of Washington County. The name changed to Hager's-Town after it was incorporated on Jan. 26, 1814, according to the Maryland General Assembly's library.

The sound of metal wheels running on tracks, the smell of smoke puffing out of the locomotives and the sight of car after car chugging by. "When it comes to trains, everybody's a kid," said Blaine Snyder, one of five Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum members who updated the model train layout for this season's Trains of Christmas. The O-gauge layout received approximately 6,000 visits last holiday season, said Bill Knode, museum spokesman. Visitors cram into the room, lined up against the near wall to watch the exhibit, which stretches about 8 feet high and nearly fills the room.

HAGERSTOWN -- It was Christmas 1954, and Bob McCourt was hoping to find a Davy Crockett toy rifle under the tree. Instead, his parents gave him a Lionel locomotive, fueling a lifelong passion for trains. "When I opened that box, it was love at first sight," he said. "I quickly forgot about that rifle. " Today, McCourt still has the black locomotive and much more. "It's become a bit of an addiction," the Hagerstown resident said. "Some people have trains in their basement.

The sound of metal wheels running on tracks, the smell of smoke puffing out of the locomotives and the sight of car after car chugging by. "When it comes to trains, everybody's a kid," said Blaine Snyder, one of five Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum members who updated the model train layout for this season's Trains of Christmas. The O-gauge layout received approximately 6,000 visits last holiday season, said Bill Knode, museum spokesman. Visitors cram into the room, lined up against the near wall to watch the exhibit, which stretches about 8 feet high and nearly fills the room.

CASCADE - Up South Mountain, on the west side of Raven Rock Road, tucked in among a bunch of mature trees stands a massive stone and shingle house on a 9-acre property straddling the Washington/Frederick county line. Great, green-tinged stone foundations grow out of the mountain with massive stone piers supporting the broad, 132-foot-long porch that wraps around the house. The house faces east and is five bays wide with broad eaves, a standing seam hipped roof and dormers with the same metal hipped roofs.

Christopher Marston measures a drum inside the gear house that sits atop the Western Maryland Railway lift bridge Tuesday at the C&O Canal in Williamsport. The National Park Service is rehabilitating the bridge.

What now is known as the City of Hagerstown was founded in 1762. Founder Jonathan Hager, a German immigrant, named it Elizabeth-Town, for his wife. Hager is said to have laid out about 520 lots, each nearly a half-acre. His 200-acre homestead now is City Park. Hager died Nov. 6, 1775, during an accident while helping to construct Zion Reformed Church on land he had donated. In 1776, the area became the county seat of Washington County. The name changed to Hager's-Town after it was incorporated on Jan. 26, 1814, according to the Maryland General Assembly's library.

They are grown men playing with toys. Those toys, model trains, remind them of childhoods spent watching the big trains like the Western Maryland Railway chug by their neighborhoods. The model trains they play with bring joy not only to their faces, but to those of the thousands of children and adults who stop by each holiday season to see the large winter train layout at the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum. The hours of detailed work it takes to set up the huge layout are worth it when they hear the children's oohs and ahhhs and see their eyes light up, John Dawson says.

The Robert McCauley Historical Lecture Series at the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown will begin its 36th year today. Randy Anderson, local railroad historian, will present the second part of the history of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad-Weverton to Hagerstown branch in meeting room B/C beginning at 7 p.m. Last year, he covered the southern portion of the line. The presentation will complete his talk about the line from Keedysville to Hagerstown Station, including a connection with the Western Maryland Railway and the Security Branch, which served industries including the cement plant.

What is now known as the City of Hagerstown was founded in 1762. Founder Jonathan Hager, a German immigrant, named it Elizabeth-Town, for his wife. Hager is said to have laid out about 520 lots, each nearly a half-acre. His 200-acre homestead is now City Park. Hager died on November 6, 1775, during an accident while helping to construct Zion Reformed Church on land he had donated. In 1776, the area became the county seat of Washington County. The name changed to Hager's-Town after it was incorporated on Jan. 26, 1814, according to the Maryland General Assembly's library.

They work on the railroad no more. And they certainly weren't just working to pass the time away, as the song goes. There are still signs of Hagerstown's railroad heritage, like the Hagerstown Police headquarters that still looks like the train station it used to be. But decades ago, when the now razed Hagerstown Roundhouse complex was bustling with activity and automobiles backed up for blocks as trains went down what is now Burhans Boulevard,...

HAGERSTOWN A plume of smoke billows from the throat of Engine No. 2 as it rumbles during the night across a bridge in Arcadia, Va. In the shallow waters below, a young boy is fishing, oblivious to the train's air compressor pistons that surely are hammering out a loud rhythmic beat. It's the 1950s, and the dramatic, black-and-white photograph captures a nostalgic period in American history. It is one of many images by O. Winston Link - known for his nocturnal photography of steam trains and railroad towns - currently on exhibit at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts.