Between Terra Alta, West Virginia and Altamont, Maryland, the Mountain Subdivision crosses the rolling hills and valleys of the high Allegheny Plateau situated at the top of Briery and Backbone Mountains. This area is known as the Glades and often receives above average snowfalls and bone chilling temperatures during the winter months, much to the detriment of its residents and rail operations. From Terra Alta the railroad follows the valley of Snowy Creek towards Hutton, Maryland, often transversing the terrain on long fills and through hillside cuts. A large interlocking existed at Terra Alta until the closing of CA Tower in the mid 1980s resulted in its complete removal several years later. Currently little remains except for wide cinder paths near the middle of the town which mark the location of a wye that was used to turn helper power prior to the introduction of diesel locomotives in the mid 20th century. About a mile east of Terra Alta is the timetable location of Rinard which at one time was the eastern end of the old third track up Cranberry Grade. Following the third track's removal in 1973 the remaining segment between "CA" and Rinard was used as an extended siding until as previously mentioned CA Tower's interlocking was also removed resulting in the siding being taken up except for about 35 car lengths at Rinard. Today the stub end Rinard Siding is used by eastbound trains, usually Q316, which require mid train helpers to be cut out after the climb over Newburg and Cranberry Grades, along with coal drags that have stalled on Cranberry Grade which often requires the train to be doubled to Rinard with the first section stored in the siding. Near the neighboring community of Hopemont, the West End crosses a wide valley on a mile long fill called Freeland Straight which contains several short sections of track with a westbound grade ranging over 1%. One the eastern end of the Freeland Straight the Mountain Subdivision negotiates the mildly sharp Snowy Creek S curve which has been the site of many derailments throughout the years.
A 1998 view of the historic station at Oakland, Maryland, before its restoration.
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On the far side of the Snowy Creek Curves is another long section of tangent track that crosses over the state line between Cornith, West Virginia, and Hutton, Maryland. This section of the West End was rebuilt during the B&O's Reconstruction era to ease several sharp curves and a short but steep eastbound helper grade resulting in several large fills on the West Virginia side of the state line. From the "58 Cut" at Hutton, the Mountain Subdivision enters the Youghiogheny River valley and follows the small river for several miles until the railroad crosses over the Yough a mile west of Oakland, Maryland. Oakland is a bustling town in the Alleghenies that often attracts thousands of tourists each year to its Autumn Glory Festival, along with annual train excursions over the Mountain Subdivision from Cumberland. The town also sports a railroad oriented national historic landmark, the 1885 B&O Oakland Station which was recently repaired and restored in 2000 to its original splendor. East of Oakland the line continues across the Glades on a relatively smooth grade passing through Loch Lynn and Mountain Lake Park. Mountain Lake Park is the location of the only set of double crossovers between Piedmont and McMillian resulting in it often being used to route trains around work limits or problems on either of the two main tracks. As a result the Mountain Subdivision will often become a long DTC controlled single track line with no sidings during those instances between McMillian and Mountain Lake Park or MLP and Piedmont. Just west of the crossovers stands the unused "PK" Tower which controlled the interlocking until the early 1960s when the switches were converted to handthrows. The B&O station at Mountain Lake Park remains in splendid condition although as a commercial business it now serves customers instead of passengers. From MLP the Mountain Subdivision continues towards the summit of the Alleghenies over several large sections of tangent track. Shortly past the signal bridge at Fricks is the western end of the short but steep (1.5% max) eastbound Deer Park Grade between Deer Park and Altamont, Maryland. During the steam era a small helper station existed west of Fricks that provided additional power for eastbound trains up the four mile grade, although the introduction of diesels resulted in this helper station closing during the '50s.
However, Deer Park remains a helper grade for eastbound loaded coal trains over 90 cars which requires the Rowlesburg / Hardman Helpers to remain on for the shove to "AM" Tower at Altamont, while the more common eighty car drags will often grind upgrade in Throttle Eight without requiring the assistance of a helper. Altamont is quite literally the top of the world for the B&O and CSX, inaddition to two railroad grades as a result of its elevation at 2628 ft above sea level. Following the downgrading of the WM line through Spruce, WV, in 1997, Altamont now holds the title of the highest location of a mainline east of the Rocky Mountains. At one time "AM" Tower was one of the most busiest interlockings on the West End with its operators threading both eastbound and westbound trains and helpers together into the current of traffic. When the amount of trains began to decline in the late 20th century along with the need for westbound helpers up 17 Mile Grade, CSX decided the operator at Altamont was no longer necessary for operations. On December 29th, 1995, CSX closed AM Tower after transferring the control of its block signals to Jacksonville, Florida, while most of the tower's interlocking plant was removed from service along with the passing siding it controlled between Altamont and Wilson. Following the elimination of "AM", the segment between MK Tower at Rowlesburg and Z Tower at West Keyser became the longest section of the West End controlled by Jacksonsville prior to the closing of "D" and "Q" Towers to the west. Although this move to centralized control has reportedly benefited today's operations, CSX can unfortunately do very little about what faces eastbound trains on the other side of the summit at Altamont, for as train crews have repeatedly commented from the very beginning, its a loooong way down the Mountain to Piedmont . . .
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Photo by Jerry Doyle. The old B&O station at Terra Alta, West Virginia, was located between "CA" Tower and the wye. This structure was torn down in the early 1990s.
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A U878 eastbound coal drag is passing in front of the former location of the wye in Terra Alta. At one time a third track was also located to the left of the train, although it was cut back in the late 1980s to the short siding at Rinard.
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An "overflow" drag is heading east over the Cornith straight after clearing the eastern end of the Snowy Creek S Curve in the background. The entire length of the short W510 can be seen on this part of the WV - MD Stateline Straightline in this view from the new road bridge at Cornith, WV.
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Two AC powered units are leading an eastbound drag past the Oakland station in the spring of 2000. The station is being renovated at this time, made apparent by the boarded up windows and porta-john on the loading platform.
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The 2000 Fall Foliage Excursion from Hagerstown is laying over beside the Oakland station, while its passengers enjoy the festival in town. Two MARC units powered the P937, while CSX rolled out the red carpet for the train and passengers and also effectively turning the Mountain Subdivision into a single track line between Blaser and Cumberland for normal traffic.
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Photo by Alex Laughton. An eastbound train is laying over at Mountain Lake Park due to severe flooding and washouts on 17 Mile Grade to the east. For several weeks in 1990 when this photo was taken, one main track was out of service between Altamont and Piedmont for repairs, resulting in a major bottleneck between those two points.
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Photo by Rich Borkowski Jr. A westbound empty hopper train led by CW44AC #147 is rolling through Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, as "PK" Tower stands watch. The hand thrown crossovers in front of the tower are the only remaining double set of main track switches between Rowlesburg and Piedmont following the closure and downgrading of AM Tower and its interlocking.
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Photo by Terry Moore. Westbound Q317 has just topped 17 Mile Grade at the Summit of the Alleghanies at Altamont on a very cold January 29th, 1993. To the right is the concrete "Summit of the Alleghanies" marker that is similar to the one at Sand Patch, although the spelling is one letter differnt.
A westbound empty train gets a good report from the now inactive defect detector at Cornith. The Cornith, McGuire and Deer Park detectors were replaced in 1999 by the more modern Oakland detector.
Cornith Defect Detector
An eastbound coal drag crosses over the Oakland Defect Detector at MP BA232.7 and receives an all clear.
Oakland Defect Detector
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Copyright 1998-2001 © Northern WV's Railroads
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