The Marley Neck Branch mileposts decline numerically as the route proceeds generally southeast, the direction of this tour, left to right on this map.

The railroad has shifted the Marley Neck Branch's mileposts several times over the past 100 years. Since the westernmost of its mileposts 0 was here at BX (Brooklyn) Tower at one time in the past, this is where we'll begin the tour. The tower closed July 16, 1985, leaving the building to deteroriate for the next 25+ years until CSX razed it during 2014. Some references call this BA Tower.

From here the Marley Neck Branch proceeds behind the photographer into Curtis Bay Yard.

From the northwest corner of the yard, Marley Neck Branch traffic generally rides one of the three center tracks. The track with the tank and the track to its left both lead to CSX's Curtis Bay car repair shop.

The name "Curtis" was applied to this area in the original land grant dating to 1663.

The line of equipment waiting repair is marked off by this blue flasher.

Years before blue flashers came along, blue flags or signs like this were employed as a warning.

Link: meaning of blue flag

As seen from I-895, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway, Marley Neck trains are challenged to find an unoccupied route through Curtis Bay Yard.

Summer heat applies an artistic brush to this deep zoom back from the Patapsco Avenue vicinity to the I-895 bridge. After passing through Curtis Bay Yard, Marley Neck traffic uses either of the foreground tracks.

The dumper (red building) south of the yard turns full cars into empties that then pause at a lower level awaiting their next refill.

On the right, the Marley Neck Branch ignores the hubbub and focuses on its hazy, ultimate goal of the tall stacks of the Brandon Shores Generating Station over 4 miles distant. Its snaking route will require more than 6 miles of track.

CSX once designated this location BBR (Marley Neck) milepost 0 but has since renumbered the mileposts in the opposite direction.

Change for: Curtis Bay Branch at coal dumper

Looking back into the Curtis Bay Piers on this day finds maintenance crews, including the yellow crane at distant left, occupying the branch. The Marley Neck Branch skirts the west side of the coal operation.

B&O measured the distance into the branch; CSX now does the opposite, measuring from the branch's end at the power station. I favor B&O's approach since the end has the greatest chance of changing via extensions or cutbacks, and such changes do not alter the mileposts.

"Get a load of this!"

The truck is about to remove itself from the Marley Neck Branch at the Benhill Avenue grade crossing. Behind, black hills of coal tower at the piers.

This siding that peels east from the branch has been chillin' since these industrial concerns closed decades ago. Many buildings are spray painted "No Strippin" while a few are being renovated for new occupants. Economic cycles are inexorable.

The area looked quite different during the early 20th century. B&O crossed over a UR&E trolley at Birch Street near the southernmost reach of the trolley system.

Link: photo source

The same site looks like this more than a century later. A shack remains on the right, though of newer construction. No trolley tracks were to be found, but there is still a railroad bridge over Birch Avenue at the same location.

This is a closer view of the rail bridge.

The ramp that ends mid-air at distant center (zoom at left) was part of Baltimore Beltway's Key Bridge. The Dali accident one year prior destroyed Key's main span.

Link: accident's Wikipedia page

The bridge spanning Birch Street remains in good shape, but adjacent retaining walls were not, leading to the street's closure. The walls were repaired and street reopened around 2020.

Another siding peels left from the branch and in the past travelled through a building for loading/unloading without exposure to the elements, but now goes around the building to the water at Ferry Point.

The branch curves to the right, a curve we'll see from the opposite direction in the next photo.

Of this stretch, Eugene Leache writes:

"One major industry at Curtis Bay was the Standard Wholesale Phosphate and Acid Works, which during the 1930's and 1940's was the largest contact-process sulphuric acid plant in the world. It would become merged into Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation in the 1950's. As the plant's technology gradually became antiquated, it became increasingly uneconomical to run, and the plant was shutdown in the 1980's (as I recall). My father worked there from the late 1930's until the 1980's, less 5 years spent in the army, including service in the Pacific Theatre of WWII. He retired with the salubrious title of 'Superintendent of the Acid Works'.

"The plant's main office was at 5501 Pennington Ave - I assume that the chemical works were in close proximity. Although my memories are hazy, I recall my father talking about railcars - and it seems reasonable that some feedstocks were shipped in by rail - though I know that liquified sulphur was also brought in by marine tanker. And I imagine that finished chemical products would likely have been shipped out by rail as well.

"The plant also produced agricultural fertilizers: I don't know if bulk product was shipped, but bagged fertilizer was, and it would have been a candidate for rail shipment as well. Notes:

• "1. Standard Wholesale Phosphate and Acid Works was owned by George Armistead Whiting, a direct descendent of Major George Armistead, who commanded Fort McHenry against the British in 1812.
• "2. Re liquified sulphur shipments: the plant either had been serviced by and/or was scheduled to be serviced by the tanker Marine Sulphur Queen, lost with all hands off the coast of Florida in February 1963."

Link: more site history

What appears to be a nicely-kept private home sits on the left. To the home's southeast, a steady stream of heavy trucks pause at this grade crossing then roar as they accelerate and pound across it. To the east, petroleum tanks ooze. To the south, Valley Proteins, an animal rendering facility, emits a stench so ungodly that if The Burger King visited he'd immediately abdicate to vegetarianism. Oh, and on the north, the Fantasies strip club lets out its partiers at 2 AM.

The railfan at the home gloats, "Yeah, but look! I have trains running past my window! Sometimes."

After two miles of industry, the branch finally sees green trees beyond Pennington Avenue . Note the concrete slabs cater-corner, remnants of the previous grade crossing materials. Trucks crush the pavement into submission in short order.

Thirty vertical feet of fill, the most significant along the branch, were needed to span Cabin Branch Creek. This may not be the original bridge, see below.

This 1927 photo shows a more exposed Cabin Branch bridge at upper left, one not likely to have been concrete.

This grade crossing reveals vestiges of double-track days. More fully erased is a siding that had peeled off to the right into a tank farm, as seen in the 1927 aerial photo above.

It looks like a culvert, but it's a pipeline. Adjacent newer pipes dispense with the formality of concrete and simply run under the tracks.

In Part 2 we'll go where Streetview and Streetside vans do not for a look closer at the old bridge ahead, an in-service swing bridge, plus miles worth of other items the Marley Neck Branch has in store, most of which you can't see anywhere else online...