ABOVE: No. 729 does a caboose hop on the former Cumberland & Pennsylvania, crossing C&P Bridge No. 2 near Frostburg, Md. Below is the former WM main line, now a popular trail. LEFT: During the lunch stop on October 22, No. 729 paused with “WM No. 502” at the Frostburg depot. Both wear the colors of the Western Maryland even though neither worked for the “Wild Mary” in regular service.
side, an open spot with a long stretch of straight track near Corriganville. The train then backed to Brush Tunnel for a runby coming out of the 913-foot-long bore. From there it was on to Helmstet- ter’s Curve where John Helmstetter once again graciously allowed the use of his farm for photo runbys. After a se- ries of daytime runbys, the train sat on the curve for some “blue hour” twilight shots.
the past Pete has renumbered Norfolk & Western No. 475 to No. 382 — in honor of O. Winston Link’s work on the Abingdon Branch — on the Strasburg Rail Road and renumbered Denver & Rio Grande Western No. 489 to No. 485 — a locomotive that was scrapped many years ago — on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic). The renumbering was done with magnets under the locomo- tive cab windows, new number glass
alongside the headlight and a new numberboard. The numberboard was done in authentic WM style — No. 734’s regular numberboard, while classy, is not as the WM would have done it.
The first day’s trip ran with No. 729 leading a freight train, complete with a short string of WM-painted ballast cars directly behind the locomotive. A series of photo runbys were held at Sunny-
Another specialty of Lerro Produc- tions trips are elaborate night photo sessions; it was the work of O. Winston Link that got Pete Lerro interested in railroad photography. Once darkness settled in, the train went back to Brush Tunnel for photos at the west portal. Once that was done, the entire consist went into downtown Ridgeley,
W.Va. (directly across the Potomac River from Cumberland and home to WMSR’s shop complex). In Ridgeley a vintage car joined the scene for some interest- ing grade crossing shots before the night was over.
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