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Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad

defunct American railroad which operated in Western Maryland

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ1143723 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P) was an American railroad which operated in Western Maryland. Primarily a coal hauler, it was owned by the Consolidation Coal Company, and was purchased by the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1944.

The line ran from Cumberland, Maryland to Piedmont, West Virginia, at both points interchanging with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The railroad's shops were located at Mount Savage, Maryland, also the location of its headquarters. On the way to Piedmont the line passed through (and under) Frostburg, Maryland, where the C&P station stands today as the western terminus of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

History

The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company was incorporated on March 4, 1850, with a charter from the Maryland General Assembly. The early charter date reflects the prominence of Mt. Savage as an early foundry of iron rail and manufacturer of locomotives in the United States. The first iron rail rolled in the United States was produced at Mt. Savage in 1844.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad” is defunct American railroad which operated in Western Maryland. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cumberland, Pennsylvania and Railroad, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1944, 1850, 1844—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1850-01-01. For this dossier, Cumberland, Pennsylvania and Railroad is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “defunct American railroad which operated in Western Maryland” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1143723. VIAF identifies the subject as 125686556. The Library of Congress control number is n2003046878. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1850 and 1844.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.