Cumberland and Eastern Railway and Transportation Company

A Brief History

Being formed in 1889 as the Hagerstown and Eastern from a merger with a few roads to form a line between Hagerstown, MD to the Baltimore area via Hanover with a branch to Hanover Jct. In the late 1890's the Western maryland railway, which was in direct competition with the H&E made an acquisition to the road. They small line would be owned by the WM and would have trackage rights over the whole system along with WM support. The PRR and B&O got word of this and began to contest this. The road, wanting more trackage accepted a three way buy deal which saw the Pennsy, B&O, and WM buy the H&E. The first order was to pump the road with new locomotives. New baldwin locos went to the road including 20 brand new 2-8-2 mikados, some of the first heavy baldwins of that type made. The H&E would also get a new name after taking over a branch jointly owned by the Western Maryland and PRR. This branch would run from Cumberland, MD to Altoona, PA. This meant seeing H&E, now Cumberland and Eastern or C&E, cars on the west coast wasn't rare. The C&E would also help the WM build and operate the Connellsville sub and would partially own it. By time war came around, the old locos were worn, USRA brought grand new locomotive to the road and the railroad greatly improved its service postwar. by the 1920's the C&E was known for its fast service and little delays. The slogan for the road was also born in this era, being "The Gateway Route" after the WM's lurgan line became partially owned by the C&E.


C&E number 5, the Westerner blasts by a pair of FTs near Baltimore.

By 1931 though, the road was struggling after the stock market crash of 29, this is where the main cargo began to turn up, fruit. while the western lines were failing, the Hanover sub was starting to see new traffic in the form of fruit out of Gettysburg. Every other day, you would see a line of 30 or more reefers hit the rails. This made up for enough revenue to keep the railroad in fair shape. By 1941, when WW2 started, the road, with its 1918 locomotives, almost went bust. The shops were filled with locomotives with out of date parts and broken to the point of almost no repair. But hope was found later on. By 1946, the road decided by 1956 if steam had been abolished they would cut steam all together, they brought in an FT diesel set and started calculating the costs of reworking the roster. Fate seemed to like C&E steam as the roads that owned it were getting rid of steam. When the PRR, B&O, and WM were down with their steam locos, they simply sent some to the C&E. The most famous was the B2. 10 former B&O Q3s got red roofs, lima Berkshire tenders, white walls, and more to make the class. In 1956 7 were rebuilt to get new pilots.
The road opted to use these steam locomotives that were still in good shape instead of diesels. The 50's brought upgrades, some diesels, and lots of steam. The road was a famous one with railfans and by 1960, it was the most popular in Maryland. Sadly the road dieselized in 1966 and many great diesels followed. The railroad would loose its fruit trains in 1978 and with no other wing to fall under as the PRR, WM, and B&O had sold their shares. The C&E became part of chessie system in 1981. Bringing an end to a great railroad.

First kitbash: the C&E B2 (font is Consalas bold italic)

my guide on how to do a C&E Mike or a look a like: step one, clone NKP 587 and the B&O Q3, use the Q3 as the base, make a new folder titled bell and frame. copy the Q3 bell and texture files for it into this folder, remove the bell.im and .kin from the main folder and rename its location on the config. then take the bell brass texture file and make it white for the number board. Then remove the frame.im from the main folder. copy the 587 frame.im into the "frame" folder along with the texture files for it. once done rename its location in the config. if you want to add WW wheels, put the pilot and trailing truck in the right spot and clone the 587 WW drivers. open its config and put a position tag under where it says "wheel.im" or whatever the mesh is called in the config, set the position to "0,-0.8,0". put a new name in, and put the assets kuid as the drivers kuid on the mike. once all is done submit the drivers, then the loco and you are set.

I love what I'm seeing. As a though the Levi & Appalachian would like to have a stake in those negotiations to get access to Baltimore and give the C&E track right south and east into Appalachia and the south. Also this would give the C&E access to Cincinnati's Union Terminal (I have some open platforms I'd like to fill with more fictional railroads).

Dave

That would be awesome! the L&A i think would look pretty cool on this line, i say yes to this.

Even during the hard times, the railroad knew how to put on a show, here we see C&E L9 pacific number 290 slide around a curve leaving Baltimore. The steam program ran between 1968 and 1983. The program struggled in the last years of the eastern, chessie picked up on it and C&E 290 went all over the chessie system.

C&E train NEF44 (NorthEastern Freight) pulls into its crew change stop at Lukas Point.




At 6:24, SC19 (South Cumberland) passes on main 1.

One very common thing on the C&E was foreign power. Its 1968 and run through power from chicago to Baltimore is on Train SF222 (Special Freight) seen near big pool. The train would find its way to port covington early the next day after a long crew change in Hagerstown at 22:00.

Later Near Baltimore

The year is 1971

An empty coal train running west from Port Covington traces most of the C&E system. The consist is very colorful today with a D&H C420, WM F7B, C&EE GP35, C&E GP9, N&W GP9, PC C425, and a C&E GP30. WM had sent the F7 to run to Cumberland to be taken off for Elkins service.

The year is 1980. We are in the last year of operation of the C&E. By 1974 the chessie system wanted the WM to abandon all its parallel lines with the B&O, this would cause C&E to be disconnected from most of its lines. Thus in 1975, C&E spent the little money it had to but the WM west sub. The line was under operation until 1988 due to C&E keeping its own route even after being taken over by chessie in 1981. The last train that used the tracks was 1994, a rail train ripping up track.
The shots below see O21, an autorack train between Detroit/Kansas city to Baltimore. This was over 2 days, the second day had some great power. The odd balls are the two C&E units, the SD40, only one was owned by the road with an exchange with the C&O, and the 2 C30-7s. The C&E bought 20 C30s to replace their aging fleet of F7s and GP9s.

Vary nice ....The C&E looks like a really well run Railroad . I really like the Steam Shots . Your reskins ? coming along with ? the route?

Matt

yes, route and skins mine, i'll release as much as i can

10 years after a mixed lashup of locos of D&H, WM, PC, and more...

The year is 1981. The sad year for the C&E as these would be some of the last trains with the NYC inspired units. On this day 2 unknown trains race each other as an ACL lead chessie train slowly navigates the Cumberland sub.




By 1976, the C&E was struggling, but one key component to its success was the TOFC/Auto traffic. Once carried by the B&O, the service was switched to the C&E as C&E had better trackage in Baltimore via the former WM. The main reason the C&E West sub didnt go bottom up when going into chessie was the major traffic on the line from TOFC/auto. While the B&O from Cumberland to Baltimore was hauling around 50 million gross tons as the C&E was hauling 40 million. This meant if the B&O wanted to combine the C&E and WM trains on these lines, it would most likely mean quad tracks between Pittsburgh and Washington/Baltimore. This was not going to happen due to not enough space in many areas. In fact tunnels like indigo near little Orleans, MD became choke holds on the C&E as trains were tied at each end waiting. By 1988, the traffic had lowered just enough to combine services, and by 1989, the only trains running were rail trains ripping up track.

Dear CSX,
We wanted a heritage unit and you went and wrecked it, C&E cool, CSX not cool
Former C&E VP, Logan Eaterloop