Baltimore

BALTIMORE

M A R Y L A N D

© 2014 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Bill Metzger

0 2 milesScaleN

PRR CatonsvilleShort Line

Bailey’sWye

Bailey’sWye

RiversideYard

LocustPointYard

PRR ClaremontBranch

WM HillenStation

Mt. VernonYard andProduceTerminal

M&P

PRR CalvertSt. Station

Monument St.

Cent

ral A

ve.

Fleet St.

Eastern St.

Boston St.FellSt.

Pratt St.

Ligh

t St.

Key Hwy.

SeawallYard

B&OSeawallBranch

B&A

B&A

PRR UnionRailroad

PRR PBW Main Line

PBRWM

PBR

PBRPBR

Bethlehem SteelSparrows Point Works

WM FidelityStation

Howard St. Yard

ToPhiladelphia

To York, Pa.To Harrisburg, Pa.To Cumberland,

Md.

C&CB

P a t a p s c o R i v e r

Bear

Cree

k

C u r t i s B a y

Patapsco River

Gwinns Falls

B a c k R i v e r

C H E S A P E A K E B A YCo

lgate

Cre

ek

WalbrookWye

Fulton Jct.

Union StockYards

GeneralMotors

Curtis Bay Jct.

Mt. WinansYard

Mt. ClareShops

Mt. Clare A YardWestport

B&O CurtisBay Sub

B&O South

Baltimore

Industrial

Track

B&O Old

Main Line Sub

B&O Baltim

ore

Terminal

Sub

ThomasViaduct

B&O MountRoyal Station

B&OCamdenStation

SpringGardenDrawbridge

B&O

Wash

ingt

onBr

anch

How

ard

Stre

etTu

nnel

PortCovington

Union Tunnels

Pennsylvania Station

HillenJct.

PRR NorthernCentral Branch

PRR NorthernCentral Branch

PRR PresidentSt. Station

PRR PresidentStreet Branch

PRR PresidentStreet Branch

MHB

CB

USG

B&P Tunnels

CarrolltonViaduct

Clifford

Carroll

UnionCrossing

Canton Jct.

CantonYard

M&P passengerstation

CTN

CTN

CTNB&O Sparrows Point Sub

Northwest

Middle Branch

PRR

PBW

Main

Line

West Baltimore

B&O Mt.

Clare Sub

Penn MaryYard

BaltimoreTransit Co.

Shops

B&O/PBR Grays Yard

B&O Marley

Neck Branch

Coal PierYard

Coal PierReturn Yard

B&O BaltimoreTerminal Sub

B&O Philadelphia Sub

WM

Eas

t Sub

WM Tide Sub

WM WalbrookSub

Curtis BayOrdnance Depot

CampHolabird

WM

HighlandYard

Branch

Opened in 1829, the CarrolltonViaduct was the first stone masonryrailroad bridge in the United States.

Carrollton Viaduct

The first multi-span stone archbridge built on a curve in the U.S.It was opened in 1835.

Thomas Viaduct

On July 4, 1828, groundbreakingtook place for the Baltimore & Ohio,the nation’s first common carrierrailroad.

B&O famous Baltimore firsts

B&A Baltimore & AnnapolisB&O Baltimore & OhioC&CB Chesapeake & Curtis Bay (owned by PRR/WM) CB Curtis Bay (owned by B&O)CTN CantonM&P Maryland & PennsylvaniaMHB Municipal Harbor Belt (owned by city of Baltimore)PBR Patapsco & Back RiversPRR PennsylvaniaPBW Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington (owned by PRR)USG U.S. GovernmentWM Western MarylandElectrified trackageStreet trackageDrawbridgeRoundhouseInterlockingTug/carfloat/barge routes

Float bridge

PRR Sparrows Point Branch

“CG”

B&O MarleyNeck Branch

To Washington

To Washington

ToCumberland, Md.

The B&O celebrated its centennialhere with a massive free fairSept. 24-Oct. 8, 1927, which wasvisited by 1.25 million peopleduring the three-week run. Historicequipment from the B&O’s collectionwas restored for the fair and thesite was proposed for a permanentmuseum. However, the Depressionintervened and the collection wasultimately housed at the MountClare Shops, now the B&O Museum.

Fair of the Iron Horse

ToCumberland, Md.

To Annapolis

Fulton Yard

Hillen Stationwas WM Mile 0

ContinentalCan Co.

Relay

Orangeville

SparrowsPoint

B&O original Mile 0 (unmarked)

“HB”

“CX”

“Union Jct.”

“Waverly”

“Gwinns”

“Fulton”

“B&PJct.”

“CG”

“BX”

“Winans”

“Canton Jct.”

“Bay” PRR Bay View Yard

B&O BayviewYard

“HX”

Curtis BayYard

Catonsville

Baltimore yards and rail lines, 1948Ports and industry kept the Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and short lines busy

46 Trains MARCH 2014 www.TrainsMag.com 47

MAP OF THE MONTH

It was an act of sheer audacity that made Baltimore the cradle of American railroading. Baltimore’s topography of hills broken by short, steep valleys was exactly wrong for a canal, and the city’s outlet to the west, the National Road, was expensive and slow. So city leaders proposed a rail-road, the Baltimore & Ohio, to run more than 350 miles to the Ohio River, the first common carrier railroad in the country, at a time when the longest railroad in the U.S. was less than 10 miles long.

The B&O began building west from Baltimore in 1828, and invented the Amer-ican railroad as it went along. The builders didn’t always get it right the first time, ei-ther. To reach Baltimore’s docks, the B&O built tracks in the street. A year later, the Baltimore & Susquehanna (later the Northern Central, a Pennsylvania Railroad predecessor) also started in the street on its way north to Pennsylvania. The Philadel-phia, Wilmington & Baltimore, another PRR forerunner, came in from the north-east, also ending in the streets at the docks. The result was an operating nightmare.

Pennsylvania was the first to break the gridlock by buying the franchise of the Bal-timore & Potomac, which was chartered to run from Baltimore to Popes Creek, Md. Over B&O’s loud protests, PRR built a “branch” to Washington, D.C., arriving in 1872 and ending the B&O’s monopoly on the Washington trade. (That same year, the Western Maryland reached Hagerstown, Md., on its way to becoming a B&O com-petitor for western trade.) Another PRR subsidiary, the Union Railroad, built a se-ries of tunnels north and west of town that neatly connected its lines to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington.

Baltimore & Ohio, stuck with an un-wieldy arrangement of trackage rights, street running, and carferries, built its own line to Philadelphia in 1886, and improved its situation markedly in 1895 with the opening of the Baltimore Belt Line from Bayview to Curtis Bay Junction. The line connected B&O’s routes by way of the 1.4-mile Howard Street Tunnel, through which steam-powered trains were towed by elec-tric locomotives, the first in the country.

Ironically, Baltimore’s railroad tunnels, which helped eradicate the city’s railroad gridlock in the 19th century, have now be-come choke points on today’s Amtrak and CSX Transportation main lines. Both rail-roads have long-term plans to replace all of the city’s tunnels. — Bill Metzger

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