CPL signals give CSX 815 and CSX 555 the green light to drag some coal out of the mountains. The extra digits help identify signals where they are mounted back-to-back. Since the time of this photo, CSX replaced these CPLs with in-line signals.

This had been single-track territory until the 1890s.

Links 1995, 2011

B&O built the Met to minimize curves at the expense of changes in elevation, which means the track rises and falls with the terrain much more than it does along the Old Main Line. As a result, heavy trains need the help of pusher engines; this time CSX 5013 and CSX 135 perform that duty. This view looks back to the Chestnut Street grade crossing as the engines move away from the camera.

Rather than curving here, a 1908 USGS topographic map has the railroad continuing straight west to roughly the present-day intersection of Meem Avenue and Floral Drive before turning northwest there. I have yet to find anything to confirm such an alignment. If correct, it would reflect just one of many early 20th century realignments B&O did to straighten the line between Gaithersburg and Dickerson.

The Montgomery County Fairgrounds got a rusty 1300-foot long siding to call their own.

A multi-span bridge traverses multi-lane Interstate 270.

Link: I-270

Not even number twenty-three shortages could stop CSX from replacing the concrete milepost with one cobbled-together. As at many Met mileposts, the concrete version has been left as so much litter. The milepost-on-rail, oldest of the twenty-three family, is buried too deeply to shake its head.

Quince Orchard Road had crossed at grade in this vicinity.

By a half hour later, CSX 5013 and CSX 135 have detached from one coal train and now head west in search of another to push.

A disconnected spur hopes for a new life east of the Metropolitan Grove MARC station.

A shallow arc (blue arrows) is evidence of the Met's original, single-tracked alignment near Metropolitan Grove station. When this section was double-tracked between 1900 and 1930, it was straightened, and the arcing cut of the original alignment left to return to nature.

The middle blue arrow points to the likely location of a culvert that has been removed by development after this photo. The rightmost blue arrow points to an original culvert that remains extant, though in poor condition, as seen in the next photo.

The north side opening of this crumbling culvert is a fair distance from the existing alignment, indicating it had served the original alignment. The other end of this culvert appears to have been extended south to support the existing alignment.

As dusk approaches, MARC 15 prepares to push a DC-bound train out of Metropolitan Grove station.

Game Preserve Road is the only place along the Met at which you can legally drive under one of the line's single-stone-arch bridges. This one is numbered 25A and was likely extended for double track around 1900.

A detector array watches for dragging equipment and other troubles. During 2012, CSX relocated these detectors about a mile and a half east.

The railroad calls this location Clopper, Maryland, named for Francis Cassatt Clopper who owned a grist mill in this vicinity. He encouraged B&O to construct the Metropolitan Branch, presumably because he wanted mill products hauled in/out by rail. What he failed to consider is railroads would facilitate much larger and more economical mills than his, such as ones in the midwest. Francis was a distant cousin of A.J. Cassatt of Pennsylvania Railroad fame.

Links: 1985, Clopper Mille ruins, Cossart descendants

Just east of Waring, this multi-arch stone bridge dates to the Loree-era when B&O was under control of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It replaced a steel trestle over Great Seneca Creek. New bridges after this period generally returned to steel as their main material.

Harwood saw C&O 7427 and B&O 3556 glide westbound over the triple-arched viaduct prior to its 75th birthday. Before 1906, B&O had relied upon the original single-track wooden trestle here.

After C&O but before CSX, there was the Chessie System. Chessie was a holding company for C&O, B&O, Western Maryland and a few smaller roads. At the time of this photo, these locomotives had not yet been repainted into Chessie livery.

Link: viaduct under construction

At photo time, CPL signals were identified by direction, milepost, and 100s of feet, a scheme likely leftover from B&O. This signal is signed W24-52, W for westbound control, at mile 24, plus 5200 feet, 80 short of a mile. Indeed, milepost 25 is close behind.

I guesstimate grade separation arrived here around 1940. Waring Station Road received this newer bridge during 1986.

The open area on the left indicates it had been the location of Waring Station.

B&O 6939, a model GP30, coasts a train down to Washington. At peak, the Met had been lined by utility poles hosting on the order of 100,000 glass insulators.

This fine, probably-not-original stone arch carries the tracks over Gunners Branch. The interior arch is made of brick. Outlet portals from a dam at Gunners Lake can be spied through the arch.

CSX engines numbered over 9000 are not often seen leading a long train. As of 2022, the unit was still toiling for CSX. The overpass represents Great Seneca Highway.

Great Seneca Highway says, "CSX who?"

A crane gets PC 278717 back on track after a winter mishap. The "Super Cushion Service" slogan identifies the boxcar on the left as one of Southern Railway's.

NYC 159014 and another boxcar wait near Germantown Station (nearer) and Liberty Mill (farther). The mill opened around the same time as this station (sources vary on the year).

Link: 1958

B&O built a station for Germantown in 1878, but rapid growth demanded this larger E. Francis Baldwin design that dates to 1891. Silos of Liberty Mill tower behind. The station would be destroyed by fire during the 1970s before the revitalization MARC would bring.

Link: 1985

In this more recent view, the reconstructed station looks more model than real. MARC passenger waiting shacks have been nicely designed to match the station's 1891 architecture.

Link: station history

Modelers asked for a photo of this side of the station.

The paint color is different but otherwise the rebuilt station's exterior closely mimics the original. The interior, however, is significantly different.

Warning flashers like those found at grade crossings were installed to alert platform dwellers about approaching trains. For reasons unknown to me, the flashers were later removed.

MARC 60 is a model E9A that began life with Illinois Central. Trailing the lead engine is one of the few B units (cabless) that wore CSX paint.

Links: photo source, E9A photos, CSX FP7A photos

Sadly, the freights don't stop to pick up passengers.

MARC commuter service calls the Met its Brunswick Line. More people boarded MARC at Germantown during 2019 than at any other Brunswick Line station outside Washington.

Before Liberty Mill could ship out flour via B&O, it had to grind it, and before that the incoming grain had to be weighed. About 40 years have elapsed since last use, but this weigh station remnant survived.

The Germantown-Neelsville Road overpass was a convenient perch for train and mill views. Note the train height limit bar over each track. Also note the tracks neck down to one as they approach the camera. Double tracking behind the photog (west of Germantown) would come later.

Link: source photo

The Liberty Milling Company converted from diesel engines to electricity in 1950. These wood buildings burned down in a 1972 fire.

Link: mill history
Detour: disused original alignment west from Germantown at this site

Ever wondered how track ties that mark culvert locations get their pearly whites? Well, here's the paint crew at work (note the white pail) as an eastbound mixed freight rolls by.

I was initially puzzled about why is there a culvert under what appears to be a high spot. The answer is the high spot represents fill added by B&O when in 1927 it straightened the Met, here moving it slightly north of the original.

This is the culvert with the freshly painted tie. The unique tilework is erosion control.