This SD80MAC is looking sharp as it poses for the first known photo of CSX 4594 in fresh Dark Future paint after the unit was inherited from Conrail (CR 4410). Alas, the shine would wear off soon as this unit derailed in 2009, then was scavenged for parts until scrapped in 2014.

Link: 2012 parting out

On that north side, Amtrak 18 zooms past the 84 sign. As seen in the next photo, 84 Lumber operates a store within the disused west yard, sandwiched between the eastbound and westbound tracks.

Amtrak 18 leads a train west into an early autumn sunset.

Link: 2009

The 84 sign in the distance is not a milepost, but this nearer 76 is. Found at many milepost locations are whitewashed rails pounded into the ground as sturdier markers.

This is the now-disused west side of Brunswick Yard. It had handled eastbound traffic and included facilities such as pens to hold cattle given freedom from their cramped cars for a night. Another pair of tracks traverse on the north side of the yard, unseen about 500 feet away on the left.

There's trackside lumber here, but it's not part of the 84 Lumber seen on the prior tour page. Brunswick's West Yard lies fallow for the most part.

Several piped culverts sneak under the tracks in this vicinity, all dating to construction that opened Brunswick's west yard in 1907. Debris has piled up over the decades, and threatens to block the input end of this culvert. Rather than dig out the debris, it looks like CSX has planted some tripod-like devices to help keep the inlet open... but perhaps they are just debris, too. Another culvert nearby has wooden planks serving this purpose.

Autumn colors start early in the Appalachian Mountains. Here eastbound CSX 5205 bears down on milepost 77 as a weary CPL signal hangs on.

All the masonry culverts and bridges in the Brunswick vicinity were lengthened to support the yard, so this one dates to approximately 1907.

The prior pictures on this page have followed the eastbound tracks on the south side of the yard. Now we jump to the westbound tracks. A short distance ahead the eastbound and westbound pairs of tracks meet. If the tracks appear to be climbing, it's because they are.

Upon the demise of the railfan home back at OML mp 45, these homes at Knoxville became the closest to B&O trackage between Baltimore and Harpers Ferry. Grab a lawn chair and watch the trains roll by (if you have permission, of course).

Tracks that separated back at mp 73 rejoin up ahead. If you saw that part of the tour, you should be able to guess what the sign reads.

Brunswick says, "Get on the stick!"

Shrubbery on the left obscures the fact that until the mid-1900s B&O maintained Knoxville Station there.

The caged stone and disconnected pipe imply this culvert is/was recently worked upon.

Show me a unique culvert, like this one that dumps onto trackside, and it gets into the tour. Maybe I should have been a wastewater engineer. I did have the good fortune to meet Abel Wolman, a legend in Baltimore water engineering, and quite a character. Wolman had an entertaining story ready to tell on just about any topic, and was a much sought after public speaker.

Mini-contest: you can get your name here if you are the first to identify the name of the bridge (blocked out in image) that has this plaque listing Abel Wolman. Click the image to enlarge.

We have a winner! During 2013 Steve Schuler was the first to correctly identify this as Ilchester Bridge that carries Ilchester Road across the Patapsco. The plaque would be visible from the automobile seen in this Old Main Line photo.

Drivers on US 340 (right) can see the signal bridge that guards crossovers as we approach Weverton.

Link: 1988

This forlorn foundation is all that remains of the B&O's Weverton "VO" Tower.

Links: 1987, 1987

Today's Weverton marks the remains of an ill-fated planned factory town of B&O Superintendent and entrepreneur Caspar W. Wever. Knowing the C&O Canal and B&O were building through, Wever snapped up the land in 1832, then played the two companies off each other to maximize his profit.

But the location proved too remote, and Wever's rents too high, so the site remained under-utilized even to Wever's death around 1847. An 1852 flood followed the next decade by the ravages of the Civil War destroyed what little hope remained for the project.

Links: 1976, Weverton history

I believe B&O's stylish Weverton Station was located trackside of the red house. The first station was erected in 1868, and the larger one followed in 1888.

Here, B&O's Washington County / Hagerstown Branch had split off to the left and followed Israel Creek north to Hagerstown, Maryland. Passenger service to Hagerstown ended in 1949, and the tracks were pulled up in the 1970s.

Though the CSX Metropolitan Subdivision currently ends here, we'll continue west, along the Cumberland Subdivision.

Links: Hagerstown Branch, 1983, 1987, 2004

This attractive 1833 marsonry arch over Israel Creek has been lengthened, likely in the early 1900s in support of Brunswick Yard.

MD 180, Keep Tryst Road, seen through the railroad arch gets an arched masonry bridge too.

Looking downstream reveals the C&O Canal also relied on a masonry bridge, one with a flatter arch.

Eastbound passengers led by Amtrak 157 will be sped past milepost 79 and over Israel Creek in a moment.

A few minutes later, a freight rumbled west with CSX 4747, CSX 7810, and CSX 6249 in the lead.

The YL sign on the right marks the western boundary of Brunswick Yard.

A busy rail moment indeed as CSX 8521 meets and greets its westbound brethren.

The hills and river squeeze the two competitors into tight quarters. From left to right: the Potomac River, the C&O Canal tow path, the algae covered Canal, the railroad, the hills.

The Appalachian Trail follows the canal towpath for about a mile here.

Looking back... as if exposed by an archeological dig, layers of various stone and concrete reveal the railroad has been busy here for a long time. Yhe first route was forged through amidst an 1833 cholera outbreak.

The signals are gone, but their concrete bases live on. Dozens of these disused stands now act as CPL graveyard markers along the routes toured by this site. Railroad personnel often assign names, some official, some not, to the signals to make them easier to identify; Zach Kaiser reports this one had been named Millers Bend.

Just beyond the bend ahead is Sandy Hook.