Tonoloway/B125

Tonoloway/B125




Above is a map of the WM along the Potomac River at Tonoloway, Md. Tonoloway is not a town name it was just a name along the RR. Great Cacapon overlook is at the river bend on the map and seen in the two photos directly below. There is a photo taken on October 18, 1970 of the Nickel Plate steam loco #759 with the Blue Mountain Express excursion at this location in the WM book "Fireballs and Black Diamonds", page 274. Today the right-of-way is in great shape (except for the lack of track). The bridge at Polly Pond was at one time the end of the WMRT. The NPS has kept the trees cut back from where the track used to run, but the pole line is being torn apart each spring by the growing trees that have consumed the area.


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Looking west into the cuts along the canal just west of Longs Hollow/Polly Pond. These photos are about the B125.6. This section was planned and opened as Phase 3 of the Western Maryland Rail Trail officially on 5-19-05.

This WMRT sign was located along Deneed Rd. during construction of Phase 2 just east of here at Longs Hollow. From here you could drive down the right-of-way a little east to the former end of the WMRT in 2002. On May 19, 2005 Phase 3 of the WMRT was opened west from Polly's Pond to the former site of the Pearre Station.

Here is a photo of the cut through the hillside in March 2002, looking west from the bridge at Longs's Hollow. Notice how the access road curves to the right around a raised area on the roadbed. This raised area was once the end of the track west from Big Pool, where the contractors had originally stopped the track removed east from South Cumberland in 1978. The second is during construction of the WMRT when I drove my car down the right-of-way before construction. Third photo is looking west from the bridge at Polly's Pond down the newly opened Phase 3 of the MWRT on May 19, 2005.

An early photo of the Tonoloway area during operation of both the C&O Canal and the WMRY.

Don Biggs got on the WM at Paw Paw and drove the right-of-way east to this point where the contractors had stopped the track removal. (1978, Don Biggs photo)

Ray Wongus took this first photo of the WM tracks at the bridge in 1984. This was about the end of the WM rails from Big Pool Jct. that were left in place after abandonment in 1975. This is bridge No.125.3, near Tonoloway at Long's Hollow. There once was a small pond on the other side of this bridge, which was used to by canal boats to rest and turn.

The first phot was take of the bridge from the C&O Canal Towpath and shows water still in the canal. The water was later drained from Polly's Pond to keep flooding under control in the area. When Phase 3 of the WMRT was built the WM bridge was restored.

Looking east at the B125 milepost. This location was near the current end of the WMRT in Spring 2003.


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