Western Maryland Railway Station

Western Maryland Railway Station is a historic railway station in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland. It was built in 1913 as a stop for the Western Maryland Railway (WM). The building was operated as a passenger station until the WM ended service in 1959, and it continued to be used by the railway until 1976. It was subsequently restored and currently serves as a museum and offices, as well as the operating base for a heritage railway.DescriptionThe station was designed by Baltimore architect C. M. Anderson, and sited on a filled-in basin at the terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The building is a large commercial-style building that expresses the architectural functionalism of the turn of the 20th century. The brick structure is nine bays long and three bays wide, with two monumental stories on the west facade and three stories on the east. A one-story platform shelter runs along the west facade and extends out toward the tracks.HistoryThe WM began daily through-train passenger service between Baltimore and Chicago, by way of Cumberland, on June 15, 1913. For several years the premier trains on the route, the Chicago Limited and Baltimore Limited, featured Pullman sleeping car service. Other WM trains ran between Cumberland and Elkins, West Virginia. The number and variety of passenger trains decreased through the years of the Great Depression and aftwerward. The WM ended its passenger train service between Cumberland and Baltimore in 1953, and the Cumberland-Elkins trains ended in 1959.