Does the Western Maryland Scenic’s loco 1309 run tender-first for half of the trip?
I haven’t been there myself but from what I’ve seen in videos there’s no tender-first running with 1309. It looks like standard operating mode is 1309 on the head end and a diesel on the back end. 1309 pulls on the way out, the diesel pulls on the way back, reason being there’s no way to turn 1309 and no run-around track for it to swap ends on the consist.
Anyone who HAS been there feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Is the turntable at Frostburg too short for 1309?
The problem is the approach angle profile. It has too much of a ‘kink’ to accommodate the long engine wheelbase, and there’s no (cost-effective for WMSR) way to re-grade it without realigning the whole pit as well as the bridge.
There was at least one long, detailed discussion of this on RyPN.