Western Maryland Scenic Railroad No. 1309

Design and Construction

No. 1309 was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in November 1949 for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, a 2-6-6-2 compound articulated locomotive of a type commonly called a Mallet, in which two separate sets of driving wheels are mounted on a hinged frame so the locomotive can flex through curves while still delivering the pulling power of a much larger rigid frame engine. No. 1309 holds a specific and permanent place in American locomotive history as the last steam locomotive Baldwin ever built for domestic mainline service in the United States, marking the effective end of a company that had built steam locomotives since the 1830s.

Revenue Service, 1949 to 1956

No. 1309 was built specifically to handle C&O’s heaviest coal trains over the mountain grades of West Virginia and Kentucky, low speed, high tonnage work suited to the Mallet’s design strengths. It remained in that coal hauling role for barely seven years before the Chesapeake and Ohio, like most American railroads of the period, completed its shift to diesel power, and No. 1309 was retired in 1956, a short working life by the standards of some of its steam contemporaries.

Storage and Museum Display

No. 1309 was set aside rather than scrapped and eventually moved to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 1970s, where it went on static display and remained a cold, non operating museum exhibit for roughly four decades.

Acquisition and Restoration

In 2014, the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, a tourist line based in Cumberland, Maryland, acquired No. 1309 from the B&O Railroad Museum and began a lengthy project to return it to operating condition at its shop facility in nearby Ridgeley, West Virginia. The restoration took roughly seven years to complete. Cost estimates for the project vary across published accounts, with early budgets cited around 2.4 million dollars and later reporting on the completed project putting the final figure closer to 3.5 million dollars once the full scope of needed work became clear; funding came from a mix of grants, private donations, and public fundraising campaigns, including one run by Trains Magazine that alone raised more than 275,000 dollars toward the effort.

Return to Steam

No. 1309 moved under its own power for the first time in 64 years on December 31, 2020, a milestone that also marked the first operation of an articulated steam locomotive anywhere in the eastern United States since 1991. After further testing, including a run across the Potomac River under steam in November 2021, the locomotive entered regular excursion and holiday service, pulling its first revenue trains, fittingly, on a Polar Express themed run on December 17, 2021.

2023-2024 Piston Repair

Excursion operation exposed problems that the original restoration had not fully addressed: in late 2023, inspectors found issues with the locomotive’s pistons, and No. 1309 was pulled from service for extensive repair work on its pistons, cylinders, and running gear. The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad raised additional funds to cover the repair, and the locomotive was sidelined through much of the 2024 season while the work was completed.

Current Status

No. 1309 returned to test running and excursion service in 2025, resuming its regular schedule between Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland, on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad’s 17 mile mountain route. It is widely described as the largest regularly operating steam locomotive in the country and one of only a small number of operating articulated Mallet type locomotives surviving anywhere in the United States.

Recognition

As the last steam locomotive Baldwin built for domestic service, No. 1309 occupies a unique place in the history of American locomotive manufacturing, and its 2020 return to steam after 64 years of dormancy was covered nationally as a milestone moment for mainline steam preservation. It is worth noting that despite operating today under Western Maryland Scenic Railroad ownership and branding, the locomotive itself was built for and originally operated by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, not the historic Western Maryland Railway.