This planned virtual tour of the Northern Central Railway begins in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, and follows the red tracing about 16 track miles generally north to Cockeysville, Maryland where at present the old rail line has been converted into a trail. The abandoned Greenspring Valley Branch will also be toured west to Owings Mills. This first of several tour pages covers roughly the first mile of NC track from downtown Baltimore.

The B&S built the Italianate-style Calvert Station at Calvert and Franklin Streets during 1849-1850, not far from the modern location of Mercy Hospital. The building, like many railroad structures in the vicinity, was constructed at an angle to Baltimore's street grid. This makes them easier to spot in old aerial photos.

Numerous train sheds and freight warehouses dotted the area around the station. In general, NC facilities occupied the west bank of the Jones Falls, while those of the Western Maryland Railway (WM) were found on the east bank.

One of NC's few Baltimore's buildings to survive into the 21st century is the freight warehouse seen behind the station at distant left. Beyond it, emblazoned with Pennsylvania Railroad Company lettering, was NC's Grain Elevator #2.

This is much the same view almost a century later, however nothing but Calvert Steert remains at the station's site to anchor a then-now photo comparison. The station was torn down as it neared its 100th birthday to make room in 1949 for headquarters of The Baltimore Sun newspaper. The Sun remodeled the facility during 1981, then departed it for smaller quarters at Port Covington during the 2010s.

That is Calvert Street in the foreground. If the photographers for both the 1930 and 2020 photo seem to be standing on higher ground, that's because they are. Land rises sharply both north and particularly west of this location.

Elevated trackage over Guilford Avenue can be glimpsed beyond the gutted remains of the station. Calvert Street was one-way southbound at photo time, but automobile traffic now rolls the opposite direction.

That elevated trackage began in 1893 as part of the Lake Roland Elevated Railway, the country's first electrified elevated train line. The elevated portion, necessitated by the NC's tangle of tracks below, was only eight city blocks long. The line followed Roland Avenue, among other streets, on its way to Lake Roland. Though it began as an independent rail company, it eventually became part of Baltimore's streetcar system.

Links: Lake Roland Elevated, 1936, riding the El, a first

Passengers boarded trains at this shed immediately behind Calvert Station.

A small number of Catonsville Short Line trains ventured this far east.

Change for: this site's Catonsville Short Line tour

This is a reverse view of the shed as seen from under the elevated streetcar line.

Though this is roughly the same view as the prior photo, nothing of the station or shed survives. A few concrete automobile parking blocks happen to echo the alignment of tracks inside the shed.

By chance one day during 1935, the Baltimore Sun captured the site of its then-future headquarters in this photo that looks east. All the buildings not aligned with the street grid belong to various railroads. Calvert Station's bright exterior is partially visible at left as a streetcar passes in front. Western Maryland structures stand in the distance.

At right about a dozen bridge supports extend into the distance. That's the Orleans Street Viaduct, which now carries US 40, under construction to better connect east and west Baltimore. Streetcars riding the elevated line would manage to squeeze under.

Links: source photo, then-now 1955-2019, ~1940

As The Sunpaper's brick building went up in 1949, the elevated railway came down. This view looks north along Guilford Avenue during 1949 or 1950.

The newspaper chose this location in part because rail service simplified the delivery of mass quantities of paper from Canada and New England. The Sun did not print a December 25, 1950 edition because that was the day they moved here from Sun Square (Charles and Baltimore Streets). Note that high-resolution versions of many Sun photos can be purchased via their web site.

Link: source photo

This GM Hopkins map captures the area around and north of Calvert Station immediately before the WM arrived on the scene. The Jones Falls flows north to south through the middle, with the NC mostly on its west bank (left).

At map time, NC branch trackage followed Monument Street east then Central Avenue (off map) south to reach Jackson's Wharf at Baltimore's harbor. Later aerial photos do not make clear when service ended on the branch, but that might have been around 1960.

This 1894 map includes the WM's trackage, mostly on the Jones Falls east bank (right). On the west side, XXX crosshatching indicates elevated tracks.

After electricity reduced the usefulness of water power, many streams like the Falls became considered a nuisance, suitable only for wastewater.

This photographic view covers the same area as the two maps above. It dates to after The Fallsway covered over the Jones Falls. Several decades later I-83, the Jones Falls Expressway, aka JFX, would be squeezed through as well.

The same view about a decade later shows the Orleans Street Viaduct in place, and the NC Train Shed getting a new roof.

By 1972, I-83's southward progression reached Eager Street, just off the top edge of this photo. The NC's warehouses and yards did not need to make way for I-83's reach to Fayette and President Streets until around 1980.

This, the tallest of the surviving railroad structures in the vicinity, is easily seen from the Orleans Street Viaduct. Its location east of I-83 is a hint this is not of NC heritage but rather WM. The WM's Hillen Station complex, which included WM headquarters, had occupied this area.

Link: Hillen Station 1950

Circa 1900, the most direct walking route west from the WM's Hillen Station to the NC's Calvert Street Station included the Center Street bridge. Few photos exist of the Jones Falls in this vicinity prior to The Fallsway being built over it. This one looks north from where High Street now meets The Fallsway. Towering in the distance is the aforementioned NC/PRR Grain Elevator #2.

Link: photo source

Freight Warehouse A, on the west side of the Falls and I-83, is the largest of NC's surviving structures. Before Calvert Station was demolished around 1948, the adjacent Freight Office began double duty as a passenger depot. The building was shortened to make room for the widening of Centre Street. That explains why the masonry of the building's south end does not quite match that glimpsed in the older photo above.

As seen from Centre Street, the former warehouse is in use as a health club. The Freight Office, the flat-roofed building on left, was modified during 1946 for passenger use.

The 1860-built warehouse is one of few surviving examples of composite timber and iron roof construction of the mid 19th century. The roof structure is comprised of a series of tricomposite trusses with timber top chords, wrought iron tension rods and cast iron compression members.

General Electric Streamline model traffic signals, like this one at Guilford Aveune and Monument Street, had been common in Baltimore. They date to the mid-1950s, following the May 1951 removal of the last of the elevated streetcar structure. The few Streamline signals that endured into the 2000s have been swapped out for LED-type signals.

Note the street-level tracks. They still exist, paved over for the most part.

Link: GE Streamline signals

This interior view was captured while the building was being modified to support passenger service.

Tracks at street level are NC remnants that re-emerge wherever pavement thins. NC trackage had continued a few blocks south of Calvert Station to a flour warehouse at Pleasant Street that as of 2020 is a self-storage facility.

This photo was snapped from the same Guilford Aveune and Monument Street area as the prior.

From Mikes to bikes. Mike is shorthand for the 2-8-2 steam engine type known as a Mikado (public domain photo of a B&O Mikado at right).

Links: 1900, 1900, Fallsway construction 1914

Prior to becoming a parking lot for adjacent Maryland State Government offices, WM trains ran here, while NC's did so on the left through what it called Madison Yard.

Many scenes for season 5 episodes of The Wire were filmed in this vicinity; this is the only place in Baltimore that octagonally-shaped support poles for an elevated highway can be found, so when you see them in The Wire you know where McNulty is doing his thing.

Links: looking east 1914, Fallsway construction 1914

Rails remained in use here into the 1990s, and are visible in scenes of The Wire filmed during 2007. Some of the last deliveries were of newsprint to the Baltimore Sun. As of 2020, only crossties remain at this spot north of Madison Street.