Until torn down in 1994, B&O's JD Tower had stood in Hyattsville at the northern limit of the Alexandria Branch wye with the main line. This view looks south (railroad west) from Queensbury Road in Riverdale. Note the extra arm left of the left CPL signal; that was called a doll post, and it reminded train operators of a non-standard signal application there.

JD Tower had been on the left. The leftmost track leads to the Alexandria Branch. A wye exists ahead.

By 2004 CSX was transitioning from CPLs to their new inline signals. This was one of the few places at which the post for the new signals was installed, but old signals were re-mounted and kept a bit longer.

The utility poles are the right trace a former trolley route.

Change for: trolley tour at this site

This 1930s-built bridge was awkwardly squeezed within the Alexandria Branch's wye into order to grade separate the intersections of Rhode Island Avenue, Baltimore Avenue, and Decatur Street. A utility pole of the Alexandria Branch wye is visible at ground level of distant center. The bridge was replaced with a newer version during 1988.

The George Bowen Quality Building Materials building lasted into 1990s, remodeled into a brick exterior structure of Associated Builders. Bowen (1892-1941) was a president of the University Park Company that subdivided land along US 1 in the College Park area.

Link: LoC source photo

That's the newer grade-separation bridge at top. Track reballasting supplies were being pushed onto the Alexandria Branch...

... by CSX 593 and CSX 389.

For this view we've jumped southwest along the main line to the other leg of the wye. According to topographical maps, this leg of the wye was added decades after the other. Note the JD sign at left.

JD Tower may be gone, but its name lives on. The main is on the left, Alexandria Branch wye on the right.

Link: B&O 5040 1948

During the 2010s CSX rebuilt stretches of the Alexandria Branch, double tracking it in places. Lots of reballasting was needed, and this hopper of leftover rocks sat here unmoved for over 2 years.

The hopper is resting on what's left of track that had served the B&O's Hyattsville Station, which had stood behind the hopper.

This 1884 version was the B&O's largest station between Baltimore and Washington. The area is named for Christopher Hyatt who in 1865 established a store in this vicinity. The station endured into the 1950s, a smaller storage building endured adjacent into the 1980s.

Links: 1940s, Maryland Historical Trust (PDF)

The modern view of the same location finds little of the station except a concrete foundation and some stairs surrounded by weeds.

The southwest leg meets Baltimore Avenue at grade...

... while the northeast leg meets Decatur Street at an awkward crossing.

Deep zoom finds crossovers that were installed during the 2010s. In the foreground is a bridge over the Anacostia River.

Here's the bridge during its single-tracked, CPL-signalled days.

Link: 2006

Though not easy to see in this view, CSX built an entirely separate single-tracked new bridge adjacent the old.

The post in the foreground is part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail.

What had been a grade crossing with MD 450 was grade separated during the 2010s via the Gwendolyn Greene Britt bridge. Britt was a Maryland State Senator.

South of the Britt bridge, several small grade crossings were allowed to continue, including this one that was double tracked around 2013.

Its signs seem to be trying to tell us something about stopping for trains.

Links: 1990s, 1990s

Look, it's not a train, whew, no need to stop then.

We stopped anyhow to watch various MoW units parade past the grade crossing.

BR stands for ballast regulator.

This is a Plasser American tamper...

... model GRM 3000.

Though this route was single tracked for decades, this 1950s-era B-W Parkway overpass left room for double track below, and the space was finally used by CSX during the 2010s. The more distant overpass carries a ramp to Kenilworth Avenue.