Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 734

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad No. 734, also known as Mountain Thunder, is an SC-1 class 2-8-0 “Consolidation” type steam locomotive originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916 for the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I) as No. 18. It was renumbered to 34 in 1925. No. 34 was used to pull heavy iron ore trains for the LS&I, until it was retired in 1961. The locomotive was subsequently sold to the Marquette and Huron Mountain Railroad, where it was stored in a sideline alongside other LS&I steam locomotives. In 1971, No. 34 was sold to the Illinois Railway Museum for static display.

In 1992, No. 34 was acquired by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (WMSR), who renumbered it to 734 and cosmetically altered it to resemble a Western Maryland (WM) 2-8-0. For the next twenty-three years, No. 734 pulled the WMSR’s tourist excursion trains and photo charter trains between Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland. Since 2016, No. 734 has remained out of service for a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)-mandated rebuild, and the WMSR set the restoration of former Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) 2-6-6-2 No. 1309 as a higher priority. As of 2024, the WMSR is raising funds to perform an extensive rebuild on No. 734.

Design and revenue service
No. 734—initially numbered 18—was one of three heavy 2-8-0 "Consolidation" types (Nos. 18-20) constructed in 1916 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, in response to booming iron ore train traffic on the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I) in Upper Michigan, before and during World War I. Nos. 18-20 were classified as SC-1's, and they were designed with 26x30 in cylinders and a working boiler pressure of 200 psi, and they were rated at a tractive effort of 55,900 lb.

The locomotives were also built with 88 in diameter boilers, resulting in their domes being squat and bells being mounted aside from the top—it led to LS&I crews nicknaming them  Hogs . The LS&I assigned the SC-1's to replace three smaller 2-8-0 locomotives in pulling strings of empty hopper cars up a 1.63%-grade to iron ore mines in Ishpeming and Negaunee. After being loaded with ore, the hoppers would be towed down the grade and onto a large ore dock at Presque Isle, where the ore would be loaded into vessels for shipping across Lake Superior. No. 18 would also operate sparingly between ore-shipping seasons.

In 1924, the LS&I was reorganized after merging with the Munising, Marquette and Southeastern Railway (MM&SE), and all locomotives the railroad retained were renumbered. A fourth SC-1, No. 44, was obtained from the MM&SE, and all the SC-1's were renumbered as 30-33, with No. 18 being renumbered to 30. The following year, in 1925, Nos. 30 and 31 were renumbered again as Nos. 34 and 35, when the LS&I purchased two additional 2-8-0's second-hand. Sometime during the 1930s, all the SC-1's were modified to have their tractive effort boosted to 60,484 lb. By the end of the 1950s, No. 34 continued to operate on the LS&I solely as stand-by power for diesel locomotives.

First retirement
In July 1963, No. 34 was purchased by the then-new Marquette and Huron Mountain Railroad (M&HM). The M&HM had also purchased ten other 2-8-0's from the LS&I, including the rest of the SC-1's, but only three of them (Nos. 19, 22, and 23) were used for their tourist and freight operations. The SC-1's had been revealed to be too heavy to operate on the railroad's light-weight trackage, so No. 34 was left in storage near Marquette. In 1971, No. 34 was sold to the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) of Union, Illinois, where it was subsequently put on display. In 1985, the IRM acquired fellow SC-1 No. 35, resulting in No. 34 being deemed redundant to the museum's collection. In 1991, No. 34 was traded to a private IRM member alongside a combine car, in exchange for Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) No. 2707.

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
Beginning in 1991, the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (WMSR), which operated excursion trains on former Western Maryland (WM) trackage between Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland, was being reorganized to operate their own equipment and control their own maintenance costs, and one of their main goals was to operate their own steam locomotive. After the railroad's plans to purchase a newly-built China Railways SY had fallen through, the WMSR reached an agreement to purchase LS&I No. 34 in early 1992. In honor of WM's original fleet of 2-8-0's, the SC-1 was repainted in WM "Fireball" freight colors as No. 734, and the locomotive was shipped with this livery from the IRM to Cumberland in July.

No. 734 was moved inside the WMSR's former WM shop complex in Ridgeley, West Virginia, where restoration work took place. The boiler was initially found to be in good condition, but the firebox sheets had to be replaced. Crews worked thoroughly to make the SC-1 resemble a WM H Class 2-8-0, with the cab side sheets being replaced with ones with WM-style windows, and the Worthington BL feedwater heater being replaced with a cross-compound air pump. The railroad also acquired a CSX maintenance-of-way tender, which was formerly paired with a New York Central (NYC) 4-8-2 "Mohawk", to replace the locomotive's original LS&I tender and to boost its coal and water capacity. In July 1993, restoration work was completed, and No. 734 began pulling the WMSR's regular excursion trains on August 4.

As No. 734 continued to operate, the WMSR earned the locomotive the nickname "Mountain Thunder", and retired WM steam crews and historians favorably compared it to scrapped WM H Class locomotives. On July 20, 1997, No. 734 pulled ten CSX hopper cars for a WMSR photographer charter, which was organized by Carl Franz. The locomotive was subsequently used to pull freight trains for additional photo charters in the following years. In 1998, the locomotive was modified with an automatic coal stoker, allowing for easier labor for the fireman during the summer months. Also in 1998, No. 734 was filmed for a television commercial that promoted the Pontiac Montana minivan. In July 2003, during that year's National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) Convention, an Amtrak excursion ran from Baltimore to Cumberland, and passengers were transferred to the WMSR for a trip between Cumberland and Frostburg behind No. 734.

In September 2013, No. 734 participated in an event that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the WMSR's operations, and tank locomotives Viscose Company No. 6 and Flagg Coal Company No. 75 were shipped to Cumberland for the occasion. By 2013, WMSR had pushed No. 734 beyond its operating limits, and it resulted in many critical components being mechanically worn out, including the running gear. With No. 734 only capable of pulling seven loaded passenger cars unassisted on the WMSR’s steep grades, while the railroad required longer and heavier trains, the WMSR decided to acquire a larger steam locomotive to restore and operate, and it led to the acquisition of C&O mallet No. 1309 in May 2014. In February 2016, No. 734 took part in a final photo charter for Lerro Productions, before it had to be removed from service to undergo a federally mandated 1,472-day overhaul. The overhaul had been postponed by the WMSR, while crews focused on rebuilding No. 1309 and repairing the railroad's line into Frostburg, which had been damaged by a landslide.

In April 2021, after No. 1309's restoration had been completed, the WMSR announced that they would evaluate some options about No. 734's future. The railroad stated that No. 734 would require a lengthy and expensive rebuild, due to its poor mechanical condition, and that it would be useful for lighter off-season service and as back-up power for No. 1309. Crews began to cosmetically stabilize the locomotive, around this time. In March 2022, the WMSR launched a fundraising campaign to perform a complete evaluation on No. 734 for the rebuild to eventually begin.