Maryland And Pennsylvania

Donald Griffith Hughes, a retired engineer who operated steam and diesel locomotives on the old Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, died of cancer Wednesday at his Parkville home. He was 86. Born in Cardiff in northern Harford County, he moved with his family to West 31st Street as a child and attended city public schools. Officials of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad hired him in 1940 at age 20 - below the normal minimum age of 21 - because his father and father-in-law worked for the line, which operated between Baltimore, Towson, Bel Air and York, Pa. He began as a fireman on steam locomotives and became an engineer in 1947, working both passenger and freight trains.

As grandfathers, fathers and sons commence working on the annual Christmas garden, still a major component of a Baltimore Christmas for many families, ancient orange-colored boxes denoting the Lionel imprimatur or model trains of Ives or American Flyer manufacture have in recent weeks been unpacked from attic and basement storage where they have quietly rested waiting yet another holiday's call to duty.Others will be getting into the hobby for the first time this year. They will be lining up for advice, model locomotives, cars, houses, scenic supplies and a myriad of pieces and parts at M.B. Klein's on Gay Street in Baltimore, which has kept miniature Royal Blues, Broadway Limiteds, Night Owls and slow freights chugging and whistling under Christmas trees and across layouts since 1913.

The County Council has asked Parks and Recreation officials to take another look at their proposal for a six-mile-long hiking, biking and equestrian trail along the old Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad bed after several questions raised at a public hearing Tuesday went unanswered."

McCormick & Co. Inc. acknowledged yesterday that it has initiated a search for a site for a potential $21 million distribution center in Maryland and Pennsylvania, a move which could touch off a bidding war between the two states.The Hunt Valley-based spice manufacturer's potential 600,000-square-foot facility, which it hopes to have operational in December, would consolidate various distribution points into a single location to improve efficiency. Roughly 150 existing McCormick employees will be affected.

Police in Maryland and Pennsylvania continued to search today for two men who severely beat a Baltimore County police officer and stole his pistol.The incident last night off Interstate 83 near Maryland Line prompted a manhunt in the two states for two men in a stolen beige Chevrolet Monte Carlo, bearing Maryland dealer's tags.Police said they think the men crossed into Pennsylvania, a few hundred yards away from the scene of the attack.Baltimore police, officers from Baltimore and Harford counties, and state police from Maryland and Pennsylvania joined in the search.

A game bunch of new high school graduates from our state is hard at work in Hershey, Pa., practicing for the final Big 33 football game Saturday night (7 o'clock) between Maryland and Pennsylvania.With the Maryland team having lost its sponsor, the game will pit Pennsylvania against Ohio, starting next year. That's why the Marylanders' jerseys bear the words: One Last Time.Judging by reports from the practice sites, Maryland has its work cut out."The Pennsylvania roster looks like a Who's Who," says Ed Yonni, University of Maryland grad, Harrisburg stockbroker and longtime member of the Big 33 committee.

A Baltimore County police officer was severely beaten last night and his service pistol was stolen after he made what was believed to be a routine traffic stop on a rural road east of Interstate 83 near Maryland Line, police said.The incident triggered a manhunt in two states -- Maryland and Pennsylvania -- for two men in a beige Chevrolet Monte Carlo, reported stolen in Baltimore and bearing Maryland dealer's tags.Police said they believed the car headed north on I-83 across the nearby Pennsylvania line.

A Silver Run citizens group, angry at the lack of progress in the cleanup of a nearby landfill suspected of polluting their water, last night demanded that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allow them a voice in the project.About 75 residents -- from the Carroll County and Pennsylvania communities near the Keystone Sanitation Landfill -- attended the sometimes heated meeting with EPA officials at a church in Silver Run."We've been left out of the process," said Susan Hardinger, president of People Against Contamination of the Environment Inc. "We've put ourselves on the line.

In late autumn, the pastures at Jason and Donna Myers' dairy farm outside of New Windsor look as serene as they have for generations, but there was a new indication yesterday that times are rough down on the farm -- and that things may get worse before they get better.The Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore, the state's leading agriculture lender, reported that it set aside $2.5 million to cover potential loan losses in the future. As an indication of how much things have changed over the past year, this compares with $400,000 for loan losses in the same quarter of 1990.

From The Sun July 21-27, 1841July 23: A large hog yesterday in Bond Street observed a sack of loaves on the pavement, and having cruised about some time for something of the kind, brought himself along side and seized it as his prize.July 27: Susan McCrury resolved on Saturday last to quit the intoxicating bowl, and to make sure work, determined to fortify her resolution with the solemnity of an oath.From The Sun July 21-27, 1891July 22: A meeting of the Druggists' Protective Association was held yesterday morning to consider the telephone monopoly.

Her four-story, custom-built house sways, and when the wind rises, Deborah "Susie" Burgers and her family get out. Annalee Francis paid $45,000 for lumber, then had to hire an attorney to settle a lien after her builder failed to forward the money to the lumber company. She and her neighbors spent hundreds of thousands of dollars extra to complete their new homes after their builder abandoned the job. "This was going to be my dream house, and it's cost me a fortune," Francis said. "I have no retirement fund, no savings, and my credit cards are maxed out."

The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad operated for 80 years, beginning in 1884. The little railroad ran from Baltimore to York twice daily. Stops in Harford County included Forest Hill, Highland, Bel Air and Fallston. With the lack of good roads, the Ma and Pa, as it was called, allowed local businesses and farms to prosper through the barter and sale of their products. The Ma and Pa marked the beginning of a period of prosperity for Harford County. As roads and automobiles improved, the railroad industry suffered.

Starting Sunday through June 8, more than 20 area arts and cultural organizations will present activities and events exploring the rich history of maps and map-making. Among the highlights: Mapping Science at the Maryland Science Center explores how maps are used in astronomy, biology, paleontology and earth science, and features planetarium shows and displays about the role of satellite mapping technology in expanding understanding of our place in the universe. Literary Mount Vernon, a self-guided tour sponsored by the Maryland Humanities Council, touches on notable writers and artists associated with the neighborhood, including such figures as Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken and Tupac Shakur.

In the fall of 1736, on the Maryland/Pennsylvania border, there occurred a series of incidents often referred to as Cresap's War. The charters of Maryland and Pennsylvania, granted 50 years apart, had failed to precisely define their border between the colonies. This led to periods of conflict between the neighbors for much of the 1700s. On Nov. 24, 1736, Sheriff Samuel Smith of Lancaster, Pa., and a party of 24 men arrested Thomas Cresap and imprisoned him in Philadelphia. Cresap - a Marylander who settled in Wrightsville, Pa., asserting that the Maryland border ran just north of Philadelphia - caused local unrest, once instigating an incursion of Maryland militia to evict German settlers from around York.

Maryland tobacco farmers receive $13 million settlement Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced yesterday that the state's tobacco farmers received a $13 million settlement resulting from an agreement reached in the wake of the 1998 case against the nation's largest tobacco companies. "This decision protects our farmers from the tobacco companies' efforts to deny them the benefits bargained for in the trust agreement," Gansler said. That trust agreement was formulated to ensure that farmers affected by the settlement against Philip Morris, USA, Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and others would be compensated for their losses.

Donald Griffith Hughes, a retired engineer who operated steam and diesel locomotives on the old Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, died of cancer Wednesday at his Parkville home. He was 86. Born in Cardiff in northern Harford County, he moved with his family to West 31st Street as a child and attended city public schools. Officials of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad hired him in 1940 at age 20 - below the normal minimum age of 21 - because his father and father-in-law worked for the line, which operated between Baltimore, Towson, Bel Air and York, Pa. He began as a fireman on steam locomotives and became an engineer in 1947, working both passenger and freight trains.

Last train service from Bel Air On Aug. 31, 1954, a train on the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad left Bel Air Station for the last time. Known affectionately as the "Ma and Pa," the railroad scaled back operations until 1959, when it folded, ending a railroad that during its 80 years of existence did much for the agricultural and economic development of Harford County. As early as 1867, a company was chartered to build a railroad from Baltimore to Philadelphia through Bel Air and crossing the river at Conowingo.

The last Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train stopped in Bel Air on August 31, 1954. Affectionately known as the Ma & Pa, the railroad connected Baltimore and York, Pa., over a circuitous 77 mile route. Its earliest predecessor, the Maryland Central Railroad, was chartered in Maryland in 1867 for the purpose of building a Baltimore to Philadelphia line via Bel Air and Conowingo but laid no track. The first actual construction on the route of the Ma & Pa began in Pennsylvania with the Peach Bottom Railway which completed a narrow gauge line from York through Red Lion and Delta to Peach Bottom on the Susquehanna River between 1873 and 1876.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Anti-gambling leaders from Maryland met yesterday with their Pennsylvania counterparts, hoping to establish a defensive perimeter against the expansion of gambling in the Mid-Atlantic. "If it passes in Pennsylvania, it's going to pass in Maryland," Del. Curtis S. Anderson, a Baltimore Democrat, said after a two-hour meeting with lawmakers and activists in the state capitol here. "If we can stop it in Pennsylvania, we can stop it again in Maryland as well." The activists hope to form a coalition of states comprising Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to keep out casino-style gambling.

MARYLAND'S gambling foes weren't the only ones celebrating when legislators rejected casino-style gambling for the second year in a row. In Pennsylvania, it was welcome news to state Rep. Paul Clymer and other anti-gambling activists engaged in their own fierce fight against proposals to open Maryland's northern neighbor to 12 huge slot machine emporiums. "The victory in Maryland helps us enormously," says Clymer, a Republican. "It allows us to tell our constituents, `Look, Maryland has said they can survive without slots.