The D, C, and B yards, among others, can be found on this roadway map. Note that north, the general direction of this tour, is oriented in the down direction. Despite its upside-downedness for tour purposes, the map can be handy for understanding the complex layout here.

For future reference, the key features are the "Metropolitan Sub-Division", aka the Met, running south-north through the middle, adjacent WMATA's (DC Metro's) "Metro Shop Tracks" that are far more numerous than depicted. Also note the "No. 1 Main" and "No. 2 Main" curving from/to the east (left); they connect with the ex-B&O Washington Branch, now CSX Cap Sub. All these are shown in photos below.

Roadway Maps like this and lots more cool B&O history materials are available from The B&O Railroad Historical Society.

The next photo looks down the map from its top from near the word Avenue toward the E Yard.

This was the scene a few years before Metro joined the fray. The photographer is standing on what had been the Met's main track through Eckington Yards. Now Metro occupies this stretch after it displaced the Met's main route to the east (right).

B&O's E Yard can be glimpsed on the left. In the distance, the T Street automobile bridge spans the tracks. It was removed to make room for Metro.

Link: DDOT source

E Yard was home to the main freight station. On this map, it's the building, or set of 3 buildings, at bottom left in the shape of the letter J.

This map suggests that in 1907 New York Avenue passed under the railroad, but I have found no confirming evidence. I doubt it did because there is a now-hidden creek sequestered under these tracks. The Met's original alignment here had tapped that creek for water for steam engines. Eckington Place follows the left edge of the map portion shown.

B&O did not forget its Freemason roots, running special trains for the 1923 Masonic Convention in Washington. Eckington's usual freight-only facility has made extra room for passenger trains, including temporary tracks. Waste buckets at the end of each car suggest at least some of these cars also provided berths for sleepy conventioneers.

The railroad even hauled out a few of its museum pieces, a few years before it would also do so for The Fair of the Iron Horse. The big sign hides those pieces, but you can see them in the second 1923 photo linked below.

Links: source photo, 1923, 1923

Change for: Fair of the Iron Horse tour at this site

A similar view 40-some years later and one block east shows a New York Avenue overpass widening effort in full swing. E Yard is off photo left, with a corner of its freight station making it into the photo. The tracks with catenary support poles belong to the Pennsylvania Railroad which, at photo time, was less than a year from being merged into Penn Central.

Links: DDOT source, ~1950

After another 40 years this was the appearance. WMATA's Brentwood Yard, which includes the building at left, largely occupies what has been the Pennsylvania Railroad's main freight yard in Washington.

I am uncertain precisely where Washington Terminal trackage ends and CSX's Metropolitan Subdivision officially begins, but it's in this vicinity.

Busy New York Avenue has worn out multiple generations of bridges over the tracks here. Pictured might be the second bridge at this location. The Washington Monument is the tallest pointy object at left, while on the right B&O's freight station can be glimpsed through PRR's wires.

Link: DDOT source

An abundance of visual clutter is one reason relatively few good photos of the freight station exist.

Link: DDOT source

This view pulls back to show much of E Yard on the distant side of the many foreground tracks to/from Union Station.

Links: DDOT source, ~1950

Looking from where Florida and New York Avenues meet finds the freight station nearing retirement. The buildings endured into the 1980s, and E Yard until about 1990.

Link: DDOT source

Metro's aging fleet - as of 2020, some cars were in service since the system opened in 1976 - gets the spa treatment here. Eckington's E Yard had been off photo left. The now track-free wide area at extreme left had been home to D and C Yards.

The ramp at distant left carries Metro's Red Line over the Met tracks which in this view scoot from the bottom right, curve around the right (east) side of the main repair building, then swing back left under the aforementioned ramp.

In the zoom at right, CPLs grace both sides of CSX's single-track connection between the Met and Union Station.

Here's a closer view of that same CPL signal. As of 2019, CSX's CPL replacement program had not yet reached here.

Ahead, Metro offers an employee benefit few other organizations can match: a private station, well, a private platform, per the sign shown at right.

Employees who instead drive to Metro's repair facility use this grade crossing, one guarded by typical gates and atypical traffic signals. The near track provides a connection between the Met and Amtrak's repair facilities at Ivy City which are behind the photographer. The next nearest track connects to the coach yard where Virginia Railway Express passenger cars are stored while waiting for the next rush hour.

Left of those two tracks but right of the fence is CSX's single Met track to/from Union Station. Farther left, the elevated line carries Metro over the Met. High on the embankment at right, the Met's wye connection curves to meet the CSX Cap Sub (ex B&O Washington Branch).

Before its removal during 1974, the T Street bridge had spanned overhead right about here.

Link: 1974

This reverse view from Metro's arc over the freight lines captures autoracks on the aforementioned curve. Despite the array of trackage here, I find no connection between Metro and the outside world. Conversely, Amtrak does connect with CSX in order to share the Met between Washington and the midwest.

After Metro invited itself into the middle of the yard, freight switching to/from Eckington took place here. The track on the left is the last vestige of Eckington Yard, most of which was behind the photog. The two on the right handle Met traffic.

Here at the north end of what had been Eckington Yard, Metro (right) tangos with the Met, first rising above, then dipping underground only to emerge about a mile ahead between what had been B&O's tracks. The overpass in the distance is that of Franklin Street.

Links: 1976, 1977, 1979