Baltimore Railroad History

The first charted railroad in the United States was the Baltimore and Ohio RR. It had it's start in downtown Baltimore, and ran southwest to Ellicott Mills, now Ellicott City. This was the track where the B&O had the famous "test" between a horse drawn train and the first steam powered train, pulled by the Tom Thumb. It's a good thing that the railroad management decided to go with steam :-)

From Wikipedia..... The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (reporting mark BO) was the first common carrier and Class I railroad in the U.S. as well as one of the oldest. During its peak years, the railroad extended as far east as Staten Island New York and as far west as Illinois. Most surviving trackage today is operated by CSX Transportation; trackage on Staten Island is operated by the Staten Island Railway as a branch of the New York City Transit Authority.

The Western Maryland Railway (reporting mark WM) was an American Class I railroad which operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. I t was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation. The WM became part of the Chessie System in 1973, although it continued independent operations until May 1975 after which time many of its lines were abandoned in favor of parallel Baltimore and Ohio Railroad lines. In 1983 it was fully merged into the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

On May 27, 1852, the Maryland General Assembly granted a charter to the Baltimore, Carroll & Frederick Rail Road to build a line from Baltimore northwest through Westminster, west toward Hagerstown MD. The name of the enterprise was soon changed to Western Maryland Rail Road (WM). The line was opened as far as Union Bridge in November 1862, and it was seized briefly by the Union army during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Construction resumed in 1868. The line reached Hagerstown in 1872 and was extended a few miles to a connection with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at Williamsport in 1873.

In 1881, WM leased a line north to Shippensburg PA, and in 1886 established a connection there with a predecessor of the Reading Company (RDG). Also in 1886, WM gained a branch north from Hanover PA to Gettysburg PA, that line was soon extended southwest from Gettysburg to meet WM's main line at Highfield MD. The main line was extended from Williamsport and Big Pool MD, and across the Potomac River to Cherry Run WV, where it connected with the B&O. The B&O, WM, and RDG joined forces to operate a through freight route between Cumberland MD and Allentown PA via Harrisburg PA.

WM's stock was largely owned by the city of Baltimore; the city also held its mortgage bonds. By the turn of the century WM's debt to Baltimore was substantial, and the city was seeking a buyer for the railroad. Bids were submitted in 1902. The Fuller Syndicate, the company representing George Gould, was the lowest bidder but guaranteed full payment of WM's debt, extension west to Cumberland, and creation of a major tidewater terminal at Baltimore. On May 7, 1902, the city accepted the Fuller Syndicate's offer. The WM immediately built the marine terminal, Port Covington, and began construction westward along the Potomac (where all the good locations had been taken by the B&O, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the National Road). The line reached Cumberland in 1906. There it met the Cumberland & Piedmont Railway, which with the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg Railway (WVC&P), another Gould railroad, formed a route southwest from Cumberland through Elkins to Durbin and Belington WV. In 1907, Gould acquired control of the George's Creek & Cumberland Railroad (GC&C), which had a line from Cumberland north through the Cumberland Narrows.

B&O and RDG had broken their traffic agreement with WM in 1902, with the result that coal from Gould's WVC&P bypassed the WM and went instead over trackage owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which at the time controlled B&O. The rest of Gould's empire was in trouble as well, and in 1908 the WM entered receivership, as did the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. The Western Maryland Railway took over the WM at the beginning of 1910 and immediately began construction of an 86-mile (138 km) extension northwest from Cumberland to a connection with the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad at Connellsville PA.

When the Gould empire collapsed, John D. Rockefeller acquired control of the WM. Because the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) merger plan on 1921 grouped WM with B&O, B&O bought Rockefeller's WM interest in 1927 and soon increased its WM holdings to 43 percent. Frank Taplin, who controlled the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway (P&WV), protested B&O's action. The ICC charged B&O with violating antitrust laws — in its effort to carry out the ICC merger plan. PRR interests acquired the P&WV in 1929 and offered to purchase WM, but the B&O refused to sell, eventually placing its WM holdings in a nonvoting trust.

WM began dieselization in 1949, starting with the eastern end of the system, farthest from the coalfields it served. Passenger service - which consisted of coach-only local trains - lasted barely long enough to be dieselized.

As merger plans formulated, WM could see its traffic disappear. The planned merger of the New York Central Railroad (NYC) and the PRR (the ill-fated Penn Central) could throw traffic from the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (part of the NYC system) onto the PRR. Rumors circulated that the Norfolk & Western Railway wanted the WM as part of its system, which would have been ideal due to existing coordinated WM-N&W run-through agreements and WM-N&W connections in Connellsville PA and Hagerstown MD. However, this was not to be as the B&O owned 42.88% of the WM (purchased in the 1920's), and following the C&O acquisition of the B&O in the early 1960's, plans were drawn up to combine C&O, B&O, and WM into the Chessie System. C&O bought the remaining WM stock which B&O did not already own and B&O and C&O applied to control WM, which the ICC subsequently approved in 1967.

There was little evidence of the C&O-B&O control until 1973, when the Chessie System was incorporated to own the C&O, B&O, and the WM. WM's single track paralleled B&O's double-track line and had easier grades and better clearances, but the expense of maintaning the line and building connecting lines outweighed any savings that might result in lower operating costs. That same year, WM's Port Covington coal terminal was abandoned in favor of B&O's newer pier in Baltimore. Gradually, B&O absorbed WM's operations, and in late 1983, B&O officially merged the WM. The B&O itself merged with the C&O in 1987, which itself became part of CSX Transportation.

Today..... Much of the original WM west of Big Pool has been abandoned including the 2,375-foot (724 m) summit of the Allegheny Mountains and the Eastern Continental Divide near Deal, Pennsylvania. In addition to CSX, portions of the former WM are now operated by Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad, the Maryland Midland Railway (MMID), Western Maryland Scenic Railroad and York Railway. Other portions are now rail trails. A portion of the former WM roadbed in Baltimore is now used by the Baltimore Metro Subway (Wikipedia got this wrong, as the Metro NEVER used any of the WM R-O-W, The Metro instead, ran parallel to some of the WM line down around Northern Parkway and Cold Spring Lane, and it's elevated at that!). The CSX is still using the WM trackage..... Todd

In Allegany County MD, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park includes the Western Maryland Railroad Right-of-Way, Milepost 126 to Milepost 160, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

More info here

From Wikipedia:

The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark MPA), familiarly known as the "Ma and Pa" (AKA the M&Pa), was an American short-line railroad between York and Hanover PA. It operated passenger and freight trains on its original line between York PA and Baltimore MD, from 1901 until the 1950s. The Ma and Pa was popular with railfans in the 1930s and 1940s for its antique equipment and curving, picturesque right-of-way through the hills of rural Maryland and Pennsylvania. Reflecting its origin as the unintended product of the merger of two 19th-century narrow gauge railways, the meandering Ma and Pa line took 77.2 miles (124 km) to connect Baltimore and York, although the two cities are only 45 miles (72 km) apart in a straight line.

Passenger service was discontinued on August 31, 1954, and the section from Baltimore to Whiteford MD (just south of the Mason-Dixon line demarcating the Pennsylvania-Maryland border) was abandoned in June 1958. Most of the remaining original railroad line was abandoned by 1984. The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad acquired a former 19-mile (31 km) Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) branch line between York and Hanover in the 1980s, now operated by a successor corporation, York Railway

The 1800's..... The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad was formed from two earlier 19th-century 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railways: the Baltimore & Delta Railway, later the Baltimore & Lehigh Railway, and the York and Peach Bottom Railway, later the York Southern Railroad. Construction of the Baltimore & Delta Railway started in 1881, and passenger trains between Baltimore and Towson MD began on April 17, 1882. Later that year the company was merged into the Maryland Central Railroad. The line was extended northward to Bel Air MD on June 21, 1883, and the following January, the line was completed to Delta PA.

In Pennsylvania, the Peach Bottom Railway was incorporated in 1871. The railway's Middle Division laid narrow gauge track between York and Red Lion by August 1874 and completed its line southward to Delta in 1876. It went bankrupt in 1881 and was reorganized as the York and Peach Bottom Railway (Y&PB) in 1882. The Y&PB merged with the Maryland Central Railway (successor to the Maryland Central RR) in 1891, becoming the Baltimore and Lehigh, and the new company operated trains on the combined track between York and Baltimore.

Both railroads struggled with light freight traffic and financial difficulties in the 1890s. Because of their narrow gauge construction, the Baltimore & Lehigh Railway and York Southern Railroad could not interchange freight cars with other lines. The two companies finally converted to standard gauge between 1898–1900 and subsequently merged to form the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad on February 12, 1901. The result was the circuitous, 77.2-mile (124 km) "Ma and Pa" route between Baltimore and York, compared to the competing Pennsylvania Railroad's more direct 56-mile (90 km) distance between the two cities on its Northern Central Railway division. The completed line had grades up to 2.3 percent and 55 sharp curves of 16–20 degrees (most mainline railroads seldom exceed six degrees, and even the former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad's mainline through the Rocky Mountains does not exceed 12 degrees).

The 1900's..... Following the merger, the Ma and Pa operated through passenger and freight trains between York and Baltimore, as well as local trains at each end of the line, hauling mail and express, slate, marble, anthracite coal, lumber, furniture, and agricultural products to market. Particularly on the Pennsylvania Division (Delta–York), slate from Delta and manufactured goods from Red Lion and York were mainstays of the railroad's outbound freight traffic in the early years. On the Maryland Division, inbound anthracite coal deliveries accounted for a significant volume of carloadings, along with milk from the many dairy farms in the area. One early morning train from Fallston boarded more than 1,100 gallons of milk daily and was dubbed the "Milky Way". The line was profitable and traffic volume was such that additional locomotives were necessary.

The Ma and Pa acquired two 0-6-0 Baldwin switchers in 1913, #29 and #30 (pictured), called "jewels of engines, in some respects the most attractive the road had", by writer George Hilton in The Ma & Pa – A History of the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad. The next year, three 2-8-0 "Consolidations" by Baldwin were added to the roster, providing more powerful locomotives for the Baltimore–York through freights. At its peak, the railroad had 16 locomotives and 160 pieces of rolling stock, with 573 employees.

With increasing competition from trucks and automobiles in the 1920s, passenger volume began to decline along with less-than-carload freight, such as milk from the many dairy farms along the Ma and Pa's pastoral route. The Ma and Pa substituted more economical, self-propelled gas-electric passenger cars for steam-powered passenger trains in 1927–1928. Carload freight volume increased in the 1920s, however, as more industries located along the line, and earnings were strong enough for the company to declare dividends in 1930 and 1931. The Ma and Pa's relative prosperity ended with the economic downturn during the Great Depression, which cut the railroad's gross revenues by half from 1932 to 1935.

In the mid-1930s, the Ma and Pa became an early favorite of railfans, attracted by its hilly, curving line through rural Maryland and Pennsylvania. The railroad offered several popular fan excursions pulled by its elderly steam locomotives.

Following the end of WWII, the Ma and Pa acquired four diesel locomotives for more economical operations, but traffic declined significantly. When the Ma and Pa's mail contract was cancelled by the U.S. postal service, the railroad discontinued all passenger service on August 31, 1954. One person on the last passenger train recalled that many riders came from as far away as Boston MA and Washington DC to participate in the historic event, along with members of the National Railway Historical Society. The picturesque line's last steam engine dropped its fire for the final time on November 29, 1956.

The lack of traffic on the railroad's 44-mile (71 km) Baltimore–Whiteford Maryland Division in the 1950s was particularly acute. One of the last major shipments to occur was Indiana limestone for the construction of Baltimore's Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in 1956. The Baltimore–Whiteford segment in Maryland was finally abandoned altogether on June 11, 1958, leaving only the stone abutments where the tracks crossed York Road in Towson on a steel girder bridge. A local group of history buffs placed a bronze plaque on the west abutment in 1999, commemorating the departed railroad's place in Towson history.

In the 1960s, the Ma and Pa Railroad continued to solicit business along its line for its remaining 34.8-mile (56.0 km) Whiteford–York segment, almost entirely in Pennsylvania. In 1964, it added a siding 905 feet (276 m) long near Red Lion to serve a new cigar box factory. In 1971, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad was acquired by Emons Industries. Primarily hauling slate from a quarry at Delta, and furniture from a factory in Red Lion, the Ma and Pa's Pennsylvania Division continued in operation until June 14, 1978, when the line was further reduced to the 9-mile (14 km) York–Red Lion section. The Red Lion freight station was closed on November 1, 1980. When the Pennsylvania town's furniture manufacturer shuttered its doors in 1984, the Red Lion section of the railroad was also abandoned.

Today..... The Emons-controlled Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad acquired 19 miles (31 km) of a former PRR branch line between York and Hanover, Pennsylvania in the 1980s. In December 1999, Emons merged its M&P subsidiary with another area short-line, Yorkrail, forming the York Railway. In 2002, Genesee and Wyoming gained control of the 42-mile (68 km) York Railway, including the former M&P Railroad trackage between York–Hanover. The York Railway currently serves 40 online rail customers and connects with the Norfolk Southern RR (in York) and CSX (in Hanover).

A small, 3-mile (5 km) fragment of the original railroad line still exists between Laurel and Muddy Creek Forks in York County PA, maintained by the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad Preservation Society. Founded by enthusiasts and former employees in 1986, the group has restored the Muddy Creek Forks station and also has a small collection of rolling stock there. The preserved Red Lion station is now a museum operated by the Red Lion Area Historical Society. Another section of the Ma and Pa's old right-of-way was converted in 1998 to a rail trail in Harford County, Maryland. Now 6 miles (10 km) long, the MA & PA Heritage Trail through Bel Air is used for hiking and biking.

In Baltimore, near Pennsylvania Station, Ma and Pa track remnants and the old roundhouse, freight shed, and yard shed are still around. The Baltimore Streetcar Museum now operates in this area, and uses the freight shed for storage of old streetcar parts and shop machinery.

In York County, the Muddy Creek Bridge, Delta Trestle Bridge, and Scott Creek Bridge-North were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

The whole story is here

Last train thru Towson MD on June 11th, 1958, photo by Charles T. Mahan, who just recently passed away (2102), I went to graduated HS with his son Dick.
When I moved into Towson in 1966, the freight shed was still there across the street from the original Towson Library.

In 1972, the B&O RR, the Chesapeake & Ohio Rwy, the Western Maryland Rwy, and the B&OCT all became merged into one entity called the Chessie System. Engines retained some former identity in the form of a small B&O or WM under the engine number on the cab.

In Short - from Wikipedia..... Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and several smaller carriers. It was incorporated in Virginia on February 26, 1973, and it acquired the C&O (which controlled the other companies) on June 15. On November 1, 1980, Chessie System merged with Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form CSX Corporation. However, the Chessie image continued to be applied to new and re-painted equipment until mid-1986, when CSX introduced its own paint scheme. The B&O and C&O were not legally merged out of existence until 1987, when the company's official successor, CSX Transportation was founded.

Headquartered in Cleveland OH, the Chessie System was the creation of Cyrus S. Eaton and his protégé Hays T. Watkins, Jr., then president and chief executive officer of C&O. A chief source of revenue for the Chessie System was coal mined in West Virginia. Another was the transport of auto parts and finished motor vehicles.

The signature symbol of the Chessie System was its "Ches-C", a large emblem incorporating the outline of the C&O's famous "Chessie" the kitten logo. The Ches-C was emblazoned on the front of all Chessie System locomotives, and also served as the "C" in "Chessie System" on the locomotive's flanks, and on other rolling stock. The Chessie System itself did not own any locomotives or other rolling stock, rather, equipment would be placed on the roster of one of the three component railroads. While all three companies shared a common paint scheme of yellow, vermillion, and blue, actual ownership of the equipment was denoted by the reporting marks C&O, B&O, or WM.

CSX took over the operations of the Chessie System railroads in 1987, when it merged with the Seaboard System. CSX's operations in Baltimore have changed little over the years, with few exceptions... one being the WM/B&O interchange track in Westport, and the other the loss of the former WM Port Covington Yard.

Starting in ernst in the late 2000's, CSX embarked on a CPL replacement program. The Halethorpe Tower/St Denis area converted around 2008, Carroll interlocking went away in 2012, as well as Curtis Bay interlocking, and the Bailey's Wye area is complete as of 2014.

The second railroad to start-up in Baltimore was the Baltimore & Susquehanna Rwy, which started in downtown Baltimore, and headed north to Pennsylvania. It was charted on February 13th, 1828. The state of Pennsylvania did not want to allow a railroad being built for/from Baltimore to tap the resources of southern PA, so they did not initially approve the railroad coming into the state. The B&S, after reaching Cockeysville to tap the quarry, applied to Maryland for a change to it's plans. It split off at Relay (later Hollins to avoid confusion with a town of the same name on the B&O in SW Baltimore County), and then headed off towards Westminster MD, in hopes of being able to get to Gettysburg. In the process, they created what was called the Green Spring Branch.

In the beginning, railroads did not use the common wooden tie, and experimented with stones to support the rails. The B&S was one of four or five railroads to use these, and my page on marble stringers is here.

On March 14th, 1832, the PA legislature finally authorized the construction of the York & Maryland Line RR, to connect with the B&S. The line between York and Baltimore was completed by 1838, and travels through some really beautiful countryside.

On March 10th, 1854, the MD legislature approved the merger of four railroads into the Northern Central (the B&S, the Y&ML, the York & Cumberland RR, and the Susquehanna RR).

The Pennsy acquired controlling interest in the Northern Central in 1861, in an effort to compete with the B&O. After that, it was operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the PRR.

The line between Baltimore and Harrisburg was double-tracked by World War 1. This line came to and end in September 1972 with Hurricane Agnes ripping through the area - at this point, the line had been in operation for 134 years.

The line had one local passenger train, called the Parkton Local, which ran from roughly xxx to 1959, and went from their station downtown to the northern Baltimore County town of Parkton, which today is conveniently located off I-83 at exit 34. The depot there remains today as head of the NC Trail.

The only railroad in Maryland that became part of the Penn Central railroad system was the Pennsylvania RR. The merger of the PRR, the New York Central, and the New Haven RR happened in 1968, and all freight and passenger operations continued under the Penn Central flag.

The Penn Central fumbled along with passenger service, losing money from the beginning. Being that passenger service over most of the United States was in poor shape, and losing money, Amtrak was formed in 1971 and took over the Penn Central's passenger operation on the Northeast corridor. The last passenger train between Baltimore and Harrisburg via the Northern Central, a single E unit and a coach, was the day before Amtrak took over on April 30th, 1971.

On May 1st, 1971, the federal government took over the vast majority of passenger operations from railroads across the country. This included the PRR/Penn Central's operation on the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston. Passenger service on the B&O was not included in this deal, probably because Amtrak considered it a duplication of service. Amtrak today, is still obviously still going strong, and the NEC is one of the few "lines" that pays for itself. They continue to invest heavily in infrastructure by upgrading the track, the overhead wire, and the signaling system.

In 1974, Maryland's MDOT gave the B&O a subsidy to help keep the Camden Line service alive. In 1975, Maryland agreed to fund the entire operating deficit, and agreed to buy new rolling stock. Maryland finally assumed all operations of the commuter service in 1982, over the former B&O line between Baltimore and Washington DC.

The MARC named arrived in 1983, after it assumed commuter operations from Conrail.

MARC is considered the fastest commuter rail service in the United States, but only because the Penn Line operates on the Northeast Corridor. Even though MARC bought a couple of the Acela type engines, it still mostly runs diesels on the Penn Line.

Ahhhh, the railroad we all love to hate. When the Penn Central, and most of the other Northeast railroads started getting into financial trouble in the mid 1970's, the government's solution was the formation of Conrail. Conrail was incorporated on October 25th, 1974, and assumed operation of the bankrupt railroads on April 1st, 1976. It took over the Penn Central, the Reading RR, the Central RR of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley RR, the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, the Erie-Lackawanna, and the Raritan River RR. Conrail itself, as large as it was, felt the strain of a lackluster economy, and on June 1st, 1999, was divided up into two parcels, with about 40% of it going to CSX, and 60% of it going to Norfolk Southern. In areas where the government felt the market would be too lopsided, they left Conrail intact in northern New Jersey, south Jersey/Philadelphia, and in the Detroit area in what they call Conrail Shared Assets Operations, and ownership is both CSX and NS.

Conrail also inherited commuter operations of it's predecessor railroads except for MARC, but in 1983, finally gave them up.

The oldest segment of what became Conrail was the Granite Railway Co., built in 1826 to carry granite blocks for the Bunker Hill Monument in West Quincy, Massachusetts. Nearly 150 years later, scores of railroads in the Northeast and Midwest had been acquired or merged into six different lines: Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh & Hudson River, Lehigh Valley, Penn Central, and the Reading.

In the early 1970s, one by one, these six railroads entered bankruptcy. Although there were many reasons for the economic difficulties they faced, chief among them was competition from trucks, subsidized by the federally-built Interstate highway system, and an archaic system of economic regulation which prevented railroads from responding to the needs of the market. As freight revenues declined, railroads deferred maintenance, allowing tracks and equipment to fall into poor condition, and as service levels deteriorated, more business went to trucks. Requirements to run money-losing passenger service added to the rails decline.

The federal government, recognizing the national economic importance of the six railroads, responded by creating Conrail and appropriating the funds needed to rebuild tracks, locomotives and freight cars. While Conrail succeeded in rebuilding the railroad, the problem of severe economic regulation remained. With the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980, many of these constraints were loosened, giving railroads more freedom to compete with trucks. Later, other legislation transferred the burden of operating money-losing commuter rail service from Conrail to state agencies. In the 1970s, Congress created Amtrak to take over intercity passenger service from the nation's freight railroads.

By 1981 Conrail began its financial turnaround. After June 1981, Conrail would no longer require federal investment, and finished the year with the first profit in its history.

With Conrail continuing to succeed in providing high quality service for its freight customers and improving its financial outlook, the federal government sold its ownership interest in Conrail through what at the time was the largest initial public stock offering in the nation's history. This March 26, 1987 transaction, with added cash payments from Conrail to the U.S. Treasury, produced about $1.9 billion for the taxpayers and returned the Northeast-Midwest rail freight system to the private sector as a for-profit corporation, as Congress had envisioned when it created Conrail as Consolidated Rail Corporation.

In the spring of 1997, Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX Corporation agreed to acquire Conrail through a joint stock purchase. The Surface Transportation Board officially approved the acquisition and restructuring of Conrail on July 23, 1998. The approved restructuring plan transformed Conrail into a switching and terminal railroad that operates on behalf of its owners, Norfolk Southern and CSX, in the Shared Assets Areas of Northern New Jersey, Southern New Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit.

PRR subsidiaries

Branches.....