Southern Downtown Baltimore including Bailey's Wye,
Bush St, Carroll Interlocking & the B&O Transportation Museum

In General
Map
Sights
Pictures
Bailey's Wye
the Last Hurrah
USGS Maps
Floobydust

BALTIMORE HOMEPAGE
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RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME

In General


Location / Name:
Baltimore City, NO County

What's Here:
B&O's former Camden Station
The Former B&O Warehouse
Bailey's Wye
MARC's Camden Station
Light Rail Hamburg Street station
Light Rail Camden station
Light Rail Convention Center station
Light Rail Baltimore St station
The B&O Transportation Museum
Greyhound Bus Terminal
The Orioles Stadium
The Ravens Stadium

Data:
GPS Coordinates: as needed
Phone A/C: 410
ZIP: 21201

Access by train/transit:
MARC
Light Rail - 4 stations on this map

The Scoop:

Well, this page is a bonus with two maps because of Bailey's Wye.

The wye is important enough that I made a separate detail map, especially since it WAS filled with CPL's (they were replaced in 2014).

The B&O Transportation Museum is important, as it chronicles the first railroad of the United States.  They have made an effort to make the museum as "B&O" as possible, to the dismay of many of us because they got rid of a GG-1 and a South Shore Little Joe :-(.  They have recovered quite well from the 2006 roof cave-in from a heavy snowfall, altho a lot of stuff that was on display is not anymore because they don't want to put stuff on the outside wall of the roundhouse anymore (to most of us, they lame reasons - I asked them why - one reason was the "moisture" around the wall, but there are still items they feel are necessary along the wall).

The B&O's main station is also here, Camden Station.  The last time you could actually go into the station while it was a station was back in the 70's.  At least it is still with us.

The southern portal of the Howard Street Tunnel is on this map, between Camden Station and Bailey's Wye.  The tunnel was extended several hundred feet in the late 80's when they ran I-395 into downtown Baltimore.

Last but not least as sights go, the Greyhound Bus terminal is just south of Bailey's Wye.

The area just south of the wye on Warner street has changed a little bit since the casino was opened, but it shouldn't really have any impact on visiting the wye.

Please note, my stuff isn't copyrighted, so if you wanna steal something for use elsewhere, please just give me credit, TNX
If you need higher resolution pictures for something else, email me,
the ones posted here aren't useful for using in books or printing much larger than a 3x5, if that.

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

Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
https://www.railroadsignals.us/railfanguides/baltimore/baileyswye/index.htm My page, just for the wye



Map


The map above is in PDF format here

The map below is from approximately 1877, when they had a roundhouse in the middle of Baliley's Wye.
Back then, it was almost all street running, anyone have a time machine? :-)




Sights

Camden Station
the B&O Transportation Museum
Howard Street Tunnel
Greyhound Bus Terminal
ex WM Spring Garden Bridge
 


  Camden Station

GPS Coordinates: 39.28505, -76.619918


  The B&O Railroad Transportation Museum

GPS Coordinates: 39.28576, -76.631956

         


  Howard Street Tunnel - Southern Portal

GPS Coordinates: 39.281072, -76.619283


  Greyhound Bus Terminal

GPS Coordinates: 39.271085, -76.627246


  Former WM Spring Garden Swing Bridge

This bridge used to take the Western Maryland Rwy into it's main Baltimore yard, Port Covington.  After the WM was absorbed into the Chessie System, the yard was deemed unneeded, and was plowed up.  The area is now an industrial and shopping area :-(  It's one of three swing bridges in Baltimore.

 


Pictures


  The light rail going over Baileys Wye.

  MARC turnaround leaving for DC around 6pm.

 Coming into Baltimore from DC, passing under the CPL's at Ridgely St.


Shot from the wye, a freight is backing up into Riverside, and is approaching Leadenhall St.

            A local freight with an SW at both ends coming out of Riverside on a nice sunny afternoon in July.

  SB CSX freight, the signals just below at 1 are to my back.  2005


Signals



Pleae note: all of the BO CPL's were replaced with colorlight signals in 2014.


  

Not sure when these signals were modified, the right one from 2005 shows the signals before the change.

 

 


  

Looking south from this location, 2005.

 


  

Although the one below is not numbered on the map above, it sits between location 1 and location 2.
  


  

 


  


  

???


  

  


   Shown below as location 1


Bailey's Wye
and it's signals


I have moved this section to a page just for the wye itself:
https://www.railroadsignals.us/railfanguides/baltimore/baileyswye/index.htm


   EB Wye approach at Ridgely St, west of the wye

   

All of the multiple heads are marked with the lens colors from top (L) to bottom (R).
Don't let the blue wires above fool you, they are not eithernet cables,
It is a special wire, looks to be about 12 gauge, instead of the large aught size stuff used by the B&O.
Best time for detail shots, while it's still on the ground.
These pictures are from Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013.

               

   



   WB MARC control at Ridgely St, west side of the wye

      These pictures are from Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013.


  WB Riverside control along Stockholm St, south leg of the wye


The grade crossing on Warner Street.


A passing Light Rail train, and the view from here looking towards Riverside.



   EB/NB CSX traffic into the tunnel, north side of the wye, west leg


  WB CSX traffic, on north side of the wye


   EB Riverside control on the north side of the wye

Signals on the east leg of the wye, for EB movements coming out of Riverside and heading east to Wilmington and Philadelphia joining up with the main line. 
Snapped off a DC bound MARC train while there.







  EB Riverside control along Stockholm St, east side of the wye





  Leadenhall St




Shot from Leadenhall St, a local makes its way back to Riverside as a mainline freight heads towards the Howard St Tunnel to head north, er, east :-)



Historical USGS Maps


These maps come from the University of Texas Library at: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/maryland/

Baltimore Quadrangle, 1898.

Baltimore quadrangle, 1902.
We can now see the Western Maryland coming into town, going to Port Covington.
A lot of growth has taken place in four years!


Floobydust


Bonus picture, captured this on the way home after stopping at Baileys :-)


You can still find some of these fellas around, altho they are fast disappearing too!



Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.  This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! 

By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is 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!  Please be NICE!!!  Contact info is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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Last Modified: 21-Mar-2020