Railroad Silver

[Delmiro Fain]

MontgomeryPreservation, owner of the Silver Spring B&O Railroad Station, in 2002 returned the station to public use as a historic site that, by its architecture, furnishings and activities and services to the public, reflects the proud history of Silver Spring and Montgomery County.

The station is a unique venue where passing trains remind one of its historic use and set the stage for railroad-theme events. With the restoration of the station to its 1945 opening day appearance, visitors again can enjoy this transportation landmark. New amenities include a handicapped-accessible entrance and restroom, air-conditioning, the restored 1945 passenger waiting room furniture, and historical exhibits.

This brick structure was built in 1945. The westbound depot now owned by Montgomery Preservation Inc. housing railroad artifacts with former baggage area leased for commercial use. MARC passengers no longer board at this facility. In 2003 a new facility was opened about 1/4 mile west of this location adjacent to the Silver Spring Metro station. Photo taken 2003.

The B&O Railroad Station is Owned & Operated by Montgomery Preservation Inc., a Countywide Independent Non-profit Preservation Organization. This train station is the only building in downtown Silver Spring listed on the National Register of Historic Places

MPI's Mission is to preserve, protect, and promote Montgomery County's

rich architectural heritage and historic landscapes. The Station is available for rent. Call 301-431-0088 for rental information.

The legends of railroading are filled with crack passenger trains speeding down the mainline to fame and glory. But, the golden age of railroading had another, more unsung hero in the numerous branchline trains that tied the small towns of a once more rural America to the outside world. These small workhorses had a sometimes eccentric and always fascinating appeal that is captured on our rustic track and equipment. Experience steam branch-line railroading behind our 1912 steam locomotive on a 3.4 mile round trip excursion into history.

There usually is not much financial motivation to fake railroad silver. However, there have been odd occasions where scammers have tried to add railroad marks to regular commercial use silver. The vast majority of antique railroad silver you see is in fact old and authentic.

We are looking to buy any and all antique railroad silver. We are of course interested in rare and unique pieces. However, we are also buying entire collections. Just send us pictures whatever you are looking to sell. Be sure to include pictures of any relevant markings. It is also helpful to have dimensions of the silver. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Silver City, Pinos Altos and Mogollon Railroad (SC, PA&M) was a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge railway serving copper mines along the Continental Divide[1] in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico. The communities of Silver City and Pinos Altos developed as 19th century miners recovered easily extracted gold and silver from ore deposits of the area. Standard-gauge Santa Fe Railroad reached Silver City in 1886, and SC, PA&M was incorporated 24 August 1889 to build a railway north to Mogollon, New Mexico. Construction was limited to 5 miles (8.0 km) of grading[2] until Wisconsin-based Comanche Mining and Smelting purchased the railroad and the Pinos Altos mining claims of George Hearst in 1903[3] after horse-drawn ore transport became uneconomical. The Silver City smelter burned shortly after purchase, but was rebuilt with three blast furnaces and a reverberatory furnace to handle 225 tons of ore per day.[4] Two Shay locomotives were moved to Silver City in August 1905 from the Gilpin tramway of Gilpin County, Colorado.[5] The railroad was built through iron and limestone mines on Chloride Flat west of Silver City.[4] The limestone was used as a flux for smelting the copper ore.[2]

The railroad climbed 1,100 feet (340 m) using 48 bridges or trestles with 15.4 miles (24.8 km) of track at grades of 1.5 to 6 percent to cross the 6 miles (9.7 km) from Silver City to Pinos Altos. The Continental Divide summit was at an elevation of 7,311 feet (2,228 m) near Pinos Altos. Ore was carried in 33 ten-ton capacity drop-bottom hopper cars built in Silver City[6] from riveted or bolted steel channels, angles and sheets. The railroad also built ten wooden flatcars which were modified upon occasion to serve as excursion cars, lowside gondolas, a steam-powered derrick for recovering derailed cars,[4] a corrugated steel boxcar, and a tank car to carry boiler water for the locomotives.[7] There was also one caboose.[2] Two new locomotives were purchased while the older locomotives handled construction trains. When regular service was established on 4 July 1906,[4] the newer locomotives pulled trains of nine or ten ore cars from the mines to ore concentrators and smelters in Silver City.[8] Mining equipment was transported back to the mines in empty ore cars.[9] No railway air brakes were fitted, and a runaway ore train derailment on 7 February 1907 killed the locomotive fireman and a visiting representative from Lima Locomotive Works.[4] The older locomotives shunted cars around the smelters and transported slag from the smelters to disposal sites. Another larger locomotive was purchased in 1907. A 25 miles (40 km) southwesterly extension was considered to reach Burro Mountain.[4] A 7-stall engine-house was constructed in anticipation of two more locomotives, but operations ceased on 10 October 1907[4] after the price of copper dropped 50 percent within a few weeks. Comanche Mining and Smelting merged with Minnesota-based Savannah Copper Company in 1908.[2] The line operated briefly after copper prices recovered in 1910,[10] and was scrapped in 1913.

It's never been easier to get started in model railroading! Bachmann's Your First Railroad Track Pack contains all the track you need to build the layout featured in the included DVD, Building Your First Model Railroad. Hosted by actor and model railroad enthusiast Michael Gross, the easy-to-follow video will quickly get you on track for fun with the World's Greatest Hobby!

Steam coming out of the top and bottom of the locomotives

Steam out of the top would have pop off from the steam generator, from below the engine would have been from the steam trainline connections. There should also have been steam coming from the rear car's steam train line connection.

I bet it is pretty close to impossible to decouple those Budd cars, or and rail car for that matter, when the slack is pulled tight.

With slack stretched, the pin can't be pulled. While a train is in motion on anything other than a up grade, slack will be moving within the train. True engineers are controlling how that slack moves.

Wasn't it because when they build the depots on the original single track line, they built them all on one side and then when they double tracked, they didn't feel like moving or demolishing the depots so they just laid another track and added a platform? I don't remember exactly why they didn't just use the depot for the other direction...

Justin, remember it's a movie and movies tend to be removed from true life. People have noticed anomalies such as six shot revolvers that fire 27 times without reloading, changes of clothes from one scene to the next and then back again on the third, etc. Hollywood, FWIW, knows very little about railroads and cares less, so just enjoy it and disregard the inaccuravies. BTW, SILVER STREAK was an excellent movie...

When the movie "Silver Streak" was made my Dad was a dispatcher. They used various locations in southern Alberta and southeastern BC. (See Kootenay Central's stories about it.) Dad would tell us a lot of stories about the goings on. It took a number of months as I recall to make the movie. The one thing I do remember is when he told us about how the train crews caught on to the movie making biz. At first nobody wanted to do it so younger guys got the jobs, but the movie making business is a lot of hurry up and wait and the amount of waiting coupled with very little work soon had guys at the top of the list taking those jobs. Those jobs were set up the same as MOW work train jobs and they paid real well.

An interesting tie in to current times is that when the train comes into the city before it gets to the terminal tracks mentioned by Carl, the real train is coming into Calgary NB on the Macleod Sub. A lot of the houses in the movie have been replaced by commercial buildings. But near the end of that sequence, say within a handful of city blocks, is where the Holiday Inn I mentioned staying in on the Trackside Lounge thread in early November is now located. It has got to be a decade since i last saw that movie but now I am wondering if the 42nd Ave. crossing where I saw the large covered hopper isn't in the movie. Now I am going to have to look for that movie myself. Oh well.

Any resemblance between a movie and the real world is strictly coincidental. Dad (flew combat in the 8th AF) used to point out numerous inaccuracies in both the movie and TV series "12 O'Clock High", but we all enjoyed them anyway, it's still Dad's favorite movie. I'm ready to tear my hair out with some geographic and place name inaccuracies in movies and TV series set in Chicago, but if the plot line and acting is good, I can live with it.

If you decoupled the cars would the breaks apply and bring the remaining cars to a stop.

A normal air brake system would have stopped both ends of the train.

Yes, but the weight of the locomotives would cause the head-end to travel further, especially if the units were still under power.

I bet it is pretty close to impossible to decouple those Budd cars, or and rail car for that matter, when the slack is pulled tight.

With slack stretched, the pin can't be pulled. While a train is in motion on anything other than a up grade, slack will be moving within the train. True engineers are controlling how that slack moves.

However, even passenger coaches have some slack--otherwise they could not be uncoupled (and if you watch closely in the movie, you can see the slack adjusting just before he pulls the pin).

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