In the heyday of Railroading, railroads were built to connect small town to big cities. When the heyday came to an end, many of the railroad lines were abandoned. On many of the lines, the rails were removed. Some of the abandoned routes were lost to time allow trees and plants to grow on the old railroad bed. Some of the railroad beds eroded over time. Some of the railroads were eventually recovered and became an excursion line. Then there were those that were made into hiking and biking trails. Some of the trails were paved while some were left with dirt. Among those ‘rail trails’ is the Western Maryland Rail Trail in the western region of the U.S. state of Maryland.
What is the Western Maryland Rail Trail? Yes, it is in the western part of Maryland beginning in the town of Big Pool near the historic Fort Frederick going west through the town of Hancock and ending eighteen miles west to the town of Little Orleans in the panhandle region of the state. The name comes from the fact that the railroad line was part of the Western Maryland Railway. The railroad paralleled the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which paralleled the Potomac River. The canal itself was never completed as the railroad gave quicker access to points west. With the automobile and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad running just south of the Western Maryland Railway (now owned by CSX Transportation) and the decline of many small towns, the railroad line was no longer used.
Today, you cannot ride the train along this line, but you can hike and bike along this line. You can feel the history of a railroad that once was.
John Cowgill: Stories of the Railroad 