cumberland shoe hospital

Cumberland, MD this morning through the very dirty window of the Amtrak #30 train.

It's a really interesting trip that I haven't taken in a few years, with the western Maryland and West Virginia portion the most interesting part. Seeing so much stuff I never would have imagined was there reminds me of how much we will never see.

As one example, the weird little camps between the railroad right of way and the upper Potomac near a small rail yard west of Martinsburg, WV. I think the white dots you can see hints of in this image are the places.

They're little riverside camps, accessible only by the dirt path (not graded at all - clearly not a road) that runs alongside the tracks. Some just have a lean-to shelter with no walls - but all the exact same style of shelter. Some have old, unpleasant-looking trailers. One actually had two cars there. They all have signs with desginated lot numbers that increase going upriver, so this is clearly something a little more than ad-hoc squatting. I'm thinking maybe something to with rail employees?

Can't even imagine what I could google to find out more...now that I've talked about them for paragraphs in a barely related image, I will try to get a picture of one next Monday on the train ride back home.