| Title: |
Chesapeake Beach Railway #1 idles with a passenger train at the District Line Station in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, on May 23, 1913. |
| Description: |
Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona Machine Shops in May of 1888 with construction number #1277, old #1 started life working for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad as their #119. Identified as a class D-7a by the PRR's management, the locomotive was consolidated into the Pennsylvania Railroads official roster in 1903 after the company decided to merge several subsidiaries including the PW&B. Numbered #5119 while working on the Pennsy, the locomotive was only owned by the company for about four years until the engine was sold to the Chesapeake Beach Railway in July of 1907. After delivery to the Chesapeake Beach, the locomotive was repainted and repaired at the Seat Pleasant shops and given the name Teddy along with the number #1. My theory on why the locomotive received that name is that the president of the road at the time of the engines purchase, Otto Mears, was originally from Colorado and lived in and around the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado. Guess who was known as the hero of San Juan Hill? None other than the 26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. (I know that San Juan Hill is in Cuba and the San Juan Mountains are in Colorado. Remember, just a theory.) Unfortunately, after the departure of Mears, the new management decided against continuing the tradition of naming locomotives, and so in about 1910, the name was removed with only the number (#1) remaining as shown in this 1913 photograph. Interestingly, even though the locomotive was purchased during the first decade of operation, the Chesapeake Beach had actually owned a previous locomotive numbered #1. This locomotive was inherited from the failed ventures of the Washington & Chesapeake Beach Railway which never actually ran a single train. Not much is known about this locomotive other than it was listed on the June 30, 1900, ICC Equipment Report. #1 served the railroad pulling passengers trains between the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Hyattsville, Maryland, station and the CB's own station in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, into the late teens and maybe even as late as 1924 until it was retired and scrapped. This photograph shows old #1 at the District Line Station in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, where the railroad interchanged passengers with the Washington Railway & Electric Company and the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway. This allowed an individual to travel from Baltimore all the way to Chesapeake Beach and only have to walk a few steps. This interchange was possible until both the CB and WB&A quit in 1935 due to the increasing demand and support of the personal automobile. |
| Photo Date: |
5/23/1913 Upload Date: 4/12/2020 6:31:50 PM |
| Location: |
Seat Pleasant, MD |
| Author: |
K. E. Schlatchler |
| Categories: |
Roster,RollingStock,Station,Steam,Passenger,Track |
| Locomotives: |
CB 1(4-4-0) |
| Views: |
223 Comments: 1 |
