Steam Saturday: WMSR Memories

The inside of Helmstetter’s Curve on the Helmstetter’s farm.

Over the years from 1989 to 2010, I visited the Western Maryland Scenic Railway at least 10 times with family and friends.

On six of those trips I was on Carl Franz photo specials. The visits were a variety of spring, summer and fall events.

The weather conditions were a combination of great, fair and lousy. I will highlight the best in four installments.

This report is the June 6, 1999 special I attended with Dave McKay and Marty Surdyk. The second in a couple of weeks will be the Oct. 18, 1999, fall special I attended with Jeff Troutman. Early next year I’ll continue with the best of the rest, then finally my favorite night photography photos.

All of thse images were made in 16 miles between Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Out on the line at a location known by the photographers as the gravel pile.

Different angles on the outside of Helmstetter’s Curve.

At the station in Cumberland, Maryland.

Dave McKay and Marty Surdyk

Famed Helmstetter Farm for Sale for $1.1M

The farm located on a well-known curve on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad is for sale.

Trains magazine reported that Helmstetters’ Farm in Corriganville, Maryland, is on the market.

The asking price is $1.1 million. That includes a farmhouse, barn, and 125 acres of property split by the railroad and the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.

The property is listed with Charis Reality Group.

Real estate agent Steve MacGray told Trains that members of the Helmstetter family are looking to retire from farming.

The farm has provided a background for countless photographs of WMSR trains and is widely known as Helmstetters’ Curve.

Although MacGray said properties adjacent to active rail lines usually are difficult to sell, the proximity of the Helmstetter estate to a rail line and bike trail might be selling points.

“A lot of times, people will ask to be as far away from the railroad as they can be, but being a scenic railroad, it’s a different case,” he told Trains. “The railroad’s location is actually an integral part of the of the asking price for the farm. We also have people who want to be as close to the bike trail as possible, so it’s a very attractive property.”

However, MacGray said more than likely success in selling the property will hinge on finding someone who wants to farm.