Hancock/B115.5


Hancock/B115.5

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At Hancock, Maryland the Western Maryland had another stretch of double track used for the meeting and passing of trains. The passing siding stretched from the signals at the East End along the B114.4 to the signals at the West End of Hancok at the B116.8. When the West Sub was taken out of service to through traffic in May, 1975, the rails at Hancock remained in use up till 1987. There was a pulp wood business here that had at one time supplied the Westvaco Mill at Luke, Md. When the business was gone CSX pulled the rails up. The rails stretched from a few miles west of Hancock to Big Pool Jct. The line was sold and purchased by the Maryland DNR. This section of the West Sub is now part of the Western Maryland Rail Trail.


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The following sequence of photos are of eastbound AJ-2 and westbound AJ-3 passing on the WM at Hancock, MD. My father happened to catch these two trains while he was taking photos on the B&O across the river in West Virginia and heard the WM trains approaching. (photos by Mason Cooper)



F7 59 takes a train west thru town passing the Hancock Station with no boarded up windows yet. Earlier photo of this station had a roof over the windows on the sides. The support for the braces for the side roof can be seen on the walls, spaced out evenly. (Thanks to Jim Coshun for photos)

WM's Hancock Station and tracks still down, photograped in 1977. (Don Biggs photo)

Looking west and east from the WM right-of-way at Hancock, MD. At this time no railtrail was planned, the right-of-way was closed to the public and only allowed to be used for emergency services.

The famous wreck at Hancock in 1911 behind the hotel. This is an old postcard of the wreck submitted by Warren Hart. The same area/hotel is also seen in the two photos below.

Rich Polk has photographed westbound Western Maryland train AJ-3 passing the hotel at Hancock. Later I took a photo looking west at the hotel which had burned years prior to this photograph.




On May 10, 2001---Governor Parris N. Glendening has announced the Board of Public Works approval of $1,423,600 for improvements to a portion of the Western Maryland Rail Trail in Washington County. As the second part of a three-phase project, a 9.5 mile long, 10-foot wide paved trail will be constructed with gravel shoulders along the old Western Maryland Railway right-of-way in the city of Hancock. The route will connect with the recently completed first phase, a 10.5 –mile trail that begins at Fort Frederick. The final phase will add 2.5 miles to the trail and a 50-vehicle terminus parking lot to complete the Hiker-Biker Trail recommended by the Maryland Greenway Commission.

Later in August the Governer Paris N. Glendening announced that construction of Phase 2 of the WMRT will begin in May 2002 and will be completed 10 miles west to Woodmont by the start of summer 2002.




WM's Hancock Station while still in passenger operation. WM business car #203 is on the end of a westbound passenger train as it leaves the station on May 21, 1952.

WM's Hancock Station photographed in April 1981 by Jack Brown.

Construction of the WMRT west at Hancock.

Looking east from the station shows the water tank and water spout. This photo was taken on April 2, 1953. Later, the line had been abandoned and construction of the WMRT east of Hancock was nearly completed.


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