Cumberland Terminal

Cumberland Terminal
Type	Freight Terminal
Route	Sand Patch Grade
Location	Cumberland
State	Maryland
Country	United States

Cumberland Terminal is located at the junction point of what were three of the Baltimore & Ohio’s most important routes – the mainline from Baltimore; the railroad’s original crossing of the Alleghenies (known as B&O’s Cumberland Division West End), and the newer Sand Patch Grade steel path across the Alleghenies to Pittsburgh and beyond.

History

B&O’s earliest facilities at Cumberland dated to the 1840s and by the turn of the century the importance of Cumberland to B&O operations was expansive. Along with nearly constant growth of the yards there, in 1919 B&O opened its massive Cumberland back shop which, along with a 31-stall roundhouse, served every need of the railroad’s classic steam power. After decades of tending the likes of B&O’s great S-class 2-10-2s, the Cumberland back shop made the transition to caring for diesels in the 1950s, and during the latter years of B&O independent operations Cumberland was the railroad’s primary system-wide locomotive repair facility.

Well into early 1960s, the B&O continued to expand Cumberland’s freight yard facilities as well, handling east- and westbound hump and classification work there. With the coming of the Chessie System (a combination of B&O; Chesapeake & Ohio, and Western Maryland), the Cumberland back shop shared major locomotive work with C&O’s Huntington (West Virginia) shops and most eastbound classification work at Cumberland was discontinued in the 1980s.

Present Day

Today, Cumberland remains a vital and vibrant terminal on CSX, so much so it has merited status as its own subdivision – the Cumberland Terminal Sub. CSX continues to operate the terminal’s expansive westbound hump and classification yard (it is one of about a dozen hump yards still in service on the present-day 21,000-mile CSX system). And while the locomotive facilities today primarily handle running repairs rather than heavy remanufacturing, the shops – known as the Cumberland Locomotive Maintenance Facility – remain absolutely humming. In fact, in 1996, CSX invested more than $7 million in transforming the Cumberland shops into a highly efficient “service center” that inspects, repairs, and services hundreds of diesel locomotives a month. Indeed, even the shops’ venerable steam-era turntable and roundhouse (albeit trimmed to eight stalls) still helps tend the needs of CSX locomotives.

From railroad-direction east to west, today’s Cumberland Terminal begins near the location known as Mexico and closed but still-extant “M” Tower. From there, the terminal’s receiving yard stretches to the site of the operating West Hump Tower and adjoining hump and classification yards that serves as the heart of the freight-handling facilities. Tucked along the south side of the classification yard are a car department repair facility and pair of secondary yards (known as the “hopper yard” and “C yard”). On the south side of the railroad and near the west end of the terminal complex, are the bustling locomotive maintenance and servicing facilities, which include the original back shop as well as a modern serving facility known as “the pit.” Beyond the yard complex and east of Viaduct Junction (where CSX’s Sand Patch Keystone Subdivision and its Mountain Subdivision diverge) is Amtrak’s Cumberland passenger station, which sees the daily visit in each direction of Amtrak’s Superliner-equipped Capitol Limited.