A transfer coming out of Riverside, looking west from Bailey's Wye.
Notice the CPL's in the picture.
RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.
Todd's Railfan
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A
transfer coming
out of Riverside, looking west from Bailey's Wye.
Notice the CPL's in the picture.
This guide, as all of mine are, is map oriented. There are a several other web sites and guides around for Baltimore, but most don't go into much detail except for several excellent CSX Tours. You'll find other links in the link section. If you prefer text versions of guides, they exist too, but they aren't much help if you get lost.
PLEASE NOTE: As of May 2013, most of the B&O CPL signals in the Baltimore area have been replaced. For now, Baileys Wye is safe, but for how long is anyone's guess. CSX is in the process of replacing the CPL's north of Baltimore on it's way east to Wilmington. If you want CPL pix, go out and take them now!!!
So... Baltimore... What do you think of when you think of Baltimore and Railroads?
Baltimore was the home to quite a
few railroads actually:
The first
railroad in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio
RR
The Western Maryland Rwy, which later became part of
the Chessie System
The Canton RR
The Patapsco & Back River RR
The Northern Central Railway, which later became part
of the Pennsy
The Baltimore & Annapolis RR
The only railroad that serviced Baltimore, and did not call it home, was the Pennsylvania
RR.
More in the history section below.
For the signal fan, Baltimore has a
wide variety of railroad signals, mainly, CPL's (Color Position Light/B&O), PL's
(Position Light/PRR), and color light signals (WM). As of early 2012, we
are quickly losing the CPL's, so go out and get your pictures NOW!
Today, the B&O is now CSX, the passenger
portion of the Pennsy is the Amtrak Northeast Corridor
(NEC)(via the Penn Central), and the freight portion became
Norfolk Southern (via the Penn Central and
Conrail).
Most of the Western Maryland is now CSX, except for the line going through Union Bridge, which became the Maryland Midland RR.
The MTA Light Rail system took over the B&A RR right-of-way on the south side, and the Pennsy's former Northern Central branch on the north side (Conrail/NS freights used to run on the branch until the MTA double tracking project began in 1995).
The state run Canton Railroad still services a few local industries and offers a break from the big Class one's....
Last but not least, over on the southeast side of town at the (former) Beth Steel plant is the Patapsco and River RR.
Another railroad that we lost back
in the 1990's, is the Baltimore & Annapolis RR,
which was taken over by the MTA when they headed south to Cromwell.
Baltimore has been fortunate in this day and age of consolidations and "trimming
the fat" that it has not lost much in the way of railroading action.
One exception is the former Western Maryland's Port
Covington yard. Other than that, Baltimore pretty much still has all the
track it had 40 years ago.
Although not heavily emphasized by railfans, there is plenty of railroad action in Baltimore. There is plenty of CSX action available all day long, and Norfolk Southern can be found most of the time, but generally not on the Corridor until after 10pm (except for a few locals). There are plenty of stations, structures, and what-nots to take in, if you're into that kind of thing. And don't forget to get shots with those B&O CPL signals in them, for they are a disappearing breed. Soon they will be like semaphores!!!
A note which I feel rather strongly about... if you are a railfan, go out and take pictures of everything. The reason I say this is because as a youngster in my late teens and 20's (in the late 60's and into the 70's), I didn't get out as much as I should have. One reason was being poor while you're of college age, and back then, you didn't have the digital format, where you could take thousands of pictures for next to nothing. Print pictures were pretty crappy, and slides weren't all that cheap. So it was tough trying to go to school, have a part time job paying a buck seventy-five an hour, and then paying three bucks for a roll of slide film and another 2 or 3 to get it developed.... ouch! Also, I went up to Connecticut back in 1994 with several other railfans, and one of them didn't particularly care to take pictures of the CT Centrals old dilapidated engines with multiple paint schemes showing through. Too bad, for the railroad disappeared, and he has precious few pix of the stuff we saw!
Another reason..... look at the merger chart below. Around the edges, most (but not all) of those railroads were around when I started taking pictures (1964). They were the major roads of the 50's and 60's. Now all we have is pretty much the railroads in blue. There are some "larger" shortlines, and many short shortlines, but overall, the action just isn't like it used to be.... go out and take those pictures!
Getting around and knowing where to go is the worst part of being in a strange town, trust me, I have been there many, many times in places like Minneapolis, Portland OR, Boston, Kansas City, St Louis, Los Angeles, and especially Chicago. I usually keep notes and hand drawn maps of most of the places I visit, but it takes an immense amount of time to transcribe those hand drawn notes into something really useful, like what you see here. Some of the maps included in this website were done quickly and lack all of the information included in the first three.
Pictures are always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given! Contact info is here
A couple of notes about the
Baltimore Guide that appeared in the June 2003 issue
of Railpace .... If you
look closely
at the USGS maps for the downtown area in the article, you will notice they are
out of date:
-- I95 and I395 are
missing.....
-- I83 does not come down to President
St......
-- Riverside yard is shown with a roundhouse (that
disappeared in the early 80's with the construction of the Ft McHenry
tunnel)......
-- Same thing with the Canton yard on the other
side of the harbor - it was drastically altered with I95 coming thru and their
shops was torn down...
-- The Pennsy Orangeville yard and
roundhouse is long gone......
-- The Light Rail is not shown
at all.....
-- The Western Maryland Port Covington yard is
now an industrial complex......
-- The small yard at Camden
Station is no longer there, as are the tracks leading up to the B&O Railroad
museum......
A word of caution in this post 9/11 era.......
Most railroads, because of the Homeland Security crap and the FBI, are weary of anyone that asks questions about their operations or trains locations. Unless you know someone that works for a particular railroad, do not expect much cooperation in most instances.
For instance..... The Maryland Midland used to be friendly, now they are not. You're not supposed to take pictures of government buildings, so technically, you can't take pictures at Penn Station.
As for railroads around Baltimore, the NS "Nazi Southern" cops are the worst (I have taken a lot of heat over the use of that term, but most NS people use that term for their own employer). In places like Philadelphia and Allentown, they have been known to ticket railfans for stepping on the property at a grade crossing! (CP Rail's cops are pretty nasty too). The Beth Steel Police can get pretty ignorant, but that stems mostly from the industrial espionage aspect of taking pictures.
So far, I have never been bothered by the cops on the MTA for taking pictures, but numerous operators have. In the spring of 2011, a big "thing" broke out where a guy was harassed by the MTA police, and it turns out he works for the ACLU. The MTA is still trying to figure out what to do, but their Public Information Officer said photos were OK... there is no official policy on their website yet. Lot's of other transit companies have policies against taking pictures on the property, like the MBTA in Boston (where I had an operator complain to a ticket agent once and they chased me off).
There are exceptions, like the Minnesota Commercial in St Paul MN -- you can still go in and sign a waiver and take pictures on the property.
Railroads like the CRANDIC in Cedar Raids IA, they don't like railfans, so don't waste your time going by the office. Worse yet are railroads like the Georgetown in Georgetown TX (small mining RR north of Austin) -- they just plain HATE railfans, and are willing to call the police if you even step foot on their parking lot to go in the office and ask if you can take pictures -- again, don't waste your time. (I do know of one fellow that did manage to get them to let him take pictures)
So just be careful, and use common sense. Make a best effort by staying on public property. At least ask someone in an official capacity before deciding to go on railroad property. We want everyone to have a good time, cause I'm not available to get you out of jail!
Hi, I started a new Yahoo group for the railfans interested in the Baltimore Railfan scene. The previous Baltimore railfan group seems to have reached an impass, in that the creator has "left the building" as they say.... new members can't join the group, and if you didn't have an unmoderated status, it will never change :-(, making it impossible for the list to grow and flourish.
If you are in anyway interested in what's going on in and around Baltimore, please consider joining the group.
I'm looking for good pictures to use on the homepage, please submit your pictures to me, my contact info is here
You may find the group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theBaltimoreRailfan/
If you go to the MTA's website and go searching for their photo policy, you will not find one. So I emailed them via their website and got an invitation to call them. On Thursday, March 31st, 2011, I spoke with a fellow by the name of Terry Owens at the MTA regarding the MTA's photography policy. He is their Chief Public Information Officer.
After I introduced myself and told him what I was "into", I dived into the lack of a photo policy on their website. I explained to him that I didn't want myself or others to run afoul of the MTA police and wind up like the fellow taking pictures on METRA property a few years ago. I also told him that I was "yelled" at by one Light Rail operator for taking pictures at the Timonium turnaround, where she stated that it was against the law to take pictures of trains according to the Department of Homeland Security.
He assured me that it was OK for individuals to take pictures of trains on any MTA property, but it would still be a good idea to call his office to "let them know you're going to be out there", which is comparable to SEPTA's policy. I hope that the public information office is as well connected to the MTA Police department as SEPTA's is.
I also tried calling the MTA police department directly via the phone numbers listed on their website, and never got a call back. SEPTA one, MTA zero (I did the same a few weeks ago trying to clarify the SEPTA photo policy, and someone answered the phone when I called them).
The phone number for his office is 410-767-3932, but he is a hard man to get a hold of to speak with in person.
He also told me he would do what he could to get the photo policy posted on their website.
Joeseph Korman has numerous transit systems photo policy's listed somewhere on his website at: http://www.thejoekorner.com/indexfrm.html .
New in 2003
Last Updated:
05/18/2013