Article on the Maryland Midland

Here's an article that appeared in The Frederick News Post (Frederick, MD) on Sunday, October 13th. It's an interesting read about the Maryland Midland, which is a shortline headquartered in Union Bridge, MD. The MMID uses about 70 miles of the old Western Maryland line, running between (roughly) Baltimore and Blue Ridge Summit, PA.

Thought you might be interested!

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Short line in for long haul
by TARA E. BUCK


Engineer Dave Hart, with his hand on the throttle, runs the train as it nears Graceham Road east of Thurmont. (Staff photo by Doug Koontz )

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UNION BRIDGE, MD -- Fuzzy dice hang in the windshield of Engine 302 of the Maryland Midland Railroad. It seems fitting, since the engine was built nearly 40 years ago, in another era.

But unlike many of the regional railroads of that time -- the famed Pennsylvania Railroad, the Western Maryland Railway and the old Chessie System -- the Maryland Midland, formed in the mid-1980s, turns an annual profit at about the $7 million mark.

With only 67 miles of track, the Union Bridge company continues to fill the needs of some of the area's oldest industries. Woodsboro's Laurel Sand and Gravel still moves its stone thanks to the Maryland Midland. Lehigh Portland Cement Co., as well, ships its product out by the local rail.

Lehigh's Union Bridge plant is expanding and modernizing, which will have the effect of doubling its output to 2 million tons, plant manager Dave Roush said. A significant portion will be shipped out by rail.

"With Lehigh's plant expansion, we'll have a pretty bright future," Dave Hart, Midland's manager of transportation, said recently with a smile.

While discussing the bygone "good 'ol days" of railroading, Mr. Hart does indeed have something to smile about.

His company, a short line surrounded by the large conglomerate, or "Class 1," CSX, has a bright future on lines once deemed unprofitable by the Baltimore giant, along with another big mover, Norfolk Southern.

"We saw nice increases in business from two or three years ago," Mr. Hart said. "We're shipping major commodities -- finished cement, aggregate stone and lumber."

For Laurel Sand and Gravel, Maryland Midland has shipped "7,000 tons alone, this year," Mr. Hart said. "And that's controlled (by Midland) from pickup to delivery."

At 100 tons of stone per car, the Maryland Midland engineers are busy from 8 a.m. to midnight.

Vicki Warner and Dan McMaster, engineers in training under the keen watch of engineer Dave South, know the company's rails mile by mile.

The intricacies of the tracks' grades, ever-so-slight to the eye, require an almost second-nature timing to "let out some air" from the brake lines. At the approach of a switch -- the lines of track that veer off from the main lines where cars are attached or removed from the train -- they slow the long line of cars with skill not unlike that used by pilots landing aircraft.

The hardest part?

"Knowing all the ups and downs," Mr. McMaster said, referring to the tracks' grades.

Two locomotives power Maryland Midland's business each day and offer a combined power of 4,000 horsepower. The company owns six in all.

While the big guys like CSX run 6,000-horsepower engines that Mr. Hart says "do everything but run themselves," Midland's locomotives also are equipped with some pretty nifty technology.

The big blue and orange engines were rebuilt after being purchased on the used market. That market is down now and there's "a great supply out there," Mr. Hart said. That suits him as Maryland Midland is always looking for new opportunities and possible expansion.

"Last year we did 10,000 carloads of business, which beats our previous record," he said. "Soon we could be looking at 16,000 to 17,000 carloads."

The Midland's prospects look good, as a profit is generated continually on its short span of tracks. Only about 500 such "short lines" are left in the United States. And Mr. Hart and the company's 25 or so employees are proud of their success.

Ms. Warner, 45, was CSX's first female "brakeman" in 1988, but said left the company for a while after feeling she was treated differently in the traditionally male-dominated field.

Mr. McMaster once worked with Texas-based Hulcher Services, a company that in layman's terms mostly cleans up train wrecks, just so he could "get close to people that would get me in the railroad."

Neither of them profess the desire to work at "a class 1," which may offer better pay and the choice to unionize, but instead prefer the smaller rail -- a job that keeps them close to home and holds a reliable, 40-hour-per-week schedule. Both have children and agree their true priorities are greater than their job.

Hopping on the train at 4 p.m., the pair switch off from engineer to conductor/brakeman each day.

Sitting about 12 feet above the rails and going through some areas of the county most people have never even seen, the engineers are living many children's dream job.

Even adults in a Westminster restaurant situated smack-up against the tracks look up from their dinners to wave as the locomotive rumbles by.

Mr. South, too, always loved the rails. As he worked in an office completely unrelated to railroading, he would venture in his free time to Cumberland and other old railroading havens to photograph trains.

"I just loved trains," Mr. South said. "And I've got pictures of things now that are no longer."

He admitted that at one time he would have liked to have worked for a bigger railway, "but not now."

Mr. McMaster never wanted to work with the big haulers.

His job with Hulcher, cleaning up wrecks anywhere from North Carolina to Maine, "kept me busy, but kept me away from home." The New Oxford, Pa., resident said, "I can't say I've seen it all, but I've seen all I wanted to see."

He has trained as an engineer with the company since July 2000 and enjoys the work.

In the mornings the train heads northwest through Thurmont, picking up empty cars and filled ones to deliver as far away as Blue Ridge Summit, Pa. At night, empties are dropped off at the Woodsboro quarry, cars loaded with stone are picked up, and the same switching maneuvers are done through to Finksburg.

The personal touch that small businesses pride themselves on is just as prevalent at Maryland Midland as it is with most of the country's remaining short lines, Mr. Hart said.

"We specialize in service," he said. "And we deliver when and where you want it."

Mr. South said he's all too familiar with the kind of service the major companies provide.

"There was one guy (an engineer), we used to call 'turtle' because he was so slow" in running the trains, he said. "He went to CSX and they told him he was too fast, that he needed to slow down."

While there's no races being won by Midland's engines -- the top allowable speed on the company's lines is 25 mph -- the crews work steadily and get their drop-offs and deliveries done before midnight. It takes about an hour to get back to the company's Union Bridge yard from Finksburg, their last stop of the night.

"I'm working 4 to midnight," Ms. Warner said. "I know when I'm coming and going. They say 'less is more.' I get more here" than from a larger railroad, she said before jumping off the train as it slowed to a near stop at the quarry.

She hefts over a "switch" that allows the train to back onto a side stretch of track, then radios the number of car lengths Mr. McMaster must reverse the train to hitch onto the cars loaded with stone.

"Five," the radio crackles.

"Five more," Mr. McMaster acknowledges while easing the train backward so it can couple up with the new line of cars.

The exchange continues, counting down, till the train is in place, right down to when Ms. Warner bleeps in "Stop."

"Stopping," Mr. McMaster calls back.

 

It was really nice to read about MMID because there are nowadays seldom possibilities for small shortlines to survive.
Moreover, the article gave an impression that the company has a more familiary environment than the big ones.
Very interesting reading, thanks

 

Glad you liked the article. I'm happy to share it. I have a soft spot for this shortline -- namely because it's close by and because it uses the line that I'm a big fan of...The old Western Maryland Railway

Here's a link to Maryland Midland's website:

MMID

 

Originally posted by BoxcabE50:

I recall a photo of that same house in an issue of Railpace Magazine. Just a nice little house beside the tracks, eh?

Once I'm able to take some time off from work, I'd like to railfan the MMID for a day or two.

Boxcab, I'd love to get a hold of a copy of that video where the MMID appeared! Could you tell me what the title was?

 

Boxcab: Thanks very much for the info!

- Jerry