The Monocacy River might be the OML's most substantial water crossing. This bridge was a favorite target during the Civil War, and the B&O had to rebuild it many times. The original bridge was a covered wood variety, but wooden bridges were easily set afire, so the B&O tried iron Bollman bridges, but even they were not permanent.

Here are some entries from the B&O's annual reports of that turbulent period:

September 8, 1862: The splendid iron suspension bridge at Monocacy blown up by the enemy. The water station at Monocacy, including pump house and engine, also burned.

September 15, 1862: Commenced removing debris of Monocacy bridge. This vicinity was the camping ground of the Confederate army, and before operations could be commenced at the bridge, dead men, horses and cattle had to be buried.

September 17, 1862: Monocacy trestling commenced; crossed trains over at 11 AM September 21.

September 25, 1862: The water station at Monocacy was rebuilt during the month.

April 24, 1863: Monocacy River higher than for many years.

June 3, 1863: Rumors of an advance of the enemy; no freight trains ran west of Monocacy until night.

June 18, 1863: All the engines and cars sent from Frederick to Baltimore. Frederick train went into Frederick and returned to Plane No. 1 for safety, and went again to Frederick on morning of the 19th for passengers.

June 20, 1863: Frederick train went only to Mt. Airy; the enemy in Frederick.

June 21, 1863: The enemy at Mt. Airy. Track torn up at Mt. Airy and telegraph wires cut at midnight and repaired next morning.

July 2, 1863: Trains running to Frederick. (Further north, the Battle of Gettysburg was in full swing.)

January 21, 1864: Commenced the erection of the east span of the Monocacy iron bridge and completed it on the 25th.

Link to older picture: 1866 ad

Civil War book author Jerry Harlowe kindly submitted this photo of a heretofore unknown bridge design which spanned the Monocacy River. This view upstream is very similar to that of the prior photo.

Note the disused shorter stone bridge supports; those had been used by standard Bollman-style bridges. Until discovery of this photo in 2003, it had been thought the Bollman bridge had survived until replaced (around 1920?) by the bridge which still graces this location today.

Instead, the bridge seen here chronologically follows the Bollman design and precedes the current. If you compare this photo with the modern one, you'll note the modern one shows more stone supports have been added, ostensibly to support heavier loads.

Jerry reports finding the old bridge photos in an antique store in Frederick.

Here's a view from trackside of the 350-foot long deck girder bridge. Like most (all?) OML bridges, the Monocacy Bridge had been double tracked through the 1950s.

This photo, another Jerry Harlowe discovery, roughly duplicates the view of the modern photo above. Note the person standing on the left, as well as the light weight of the rails and bridge structure.

The crossbars on the sides of this bridge are reminiscent of those used in greater quantity on standard Bollman-style bridges. I wonder if this bridge might also be of Bollman-company origin, simply a later version of the original design.

Thanks for the contributions, Jerry!

The Monocacy River bridge has been rebuilt and updated more times than any other OML bridge. One update was performed less than 50 years after the Civil War, as evidenced by this date stone. It reads The Drake and Stratton Co. 1908 AD Contractors.

Drake and Stratton was an engineering company with offices in New York and Philadelphia that assisted many Northeast and Midwest railroads with bridge building tasks.

Time has erased much of what was Frederick Junction where the OML meets the 3.5-mile spur that leads into Frederick.

In 1830, the town of Frederick very much wanted to be on the OML, and had invested in the B&O accordingly, but the railroad decided to build an easier route through the valley to the south. Frederick thus wound up as the country's first branch line town.

This photo looks across the Y made between the OML and spur. The Frederick Junction Station sat within the Y near the lonely utility pole at photo center.

Links to older pictures: Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3

CSX upgraded the trackage here to support an extension of MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) passenger train service into downtown Frederick. The MARC trains share the segment west of this junction to Point of Rocks, thus bringing the first regularly scheduled passenger service the OML has seen since about 1950.

This new derail switch where the spur meets the OML was installed just days before the photo. The steel rail dates to March 2001, and the sticker says "Progress Rail Services Miscellaneous Rail" and gives a manufacture date of May 2001.

Following the spur north from Frederick Junction to Frederick reveals that MARC parks its commuter equipment in a small yard on the south side of the city. After I can gather enough pictures, I plan to devote a separate photo page to this spur.

Link: a MARC passenger reports on the trip between DC and Frederick

Back at Frederick Junction, new signals were installed to support MARC service. They are seen here just days after replacing CPL-style signals, and are still turned to prevent misinterpretation before they are powered up and checked.

The overpass is that of Urbana Pike, MD 355.

Steam and diesels meet at Frederick Junction in 1950, just prior to the ~50 year pause in passenger service. The photographer is standing under the MD 355 overpass, and looking the opposite direction of the prior photo.

Exhaust from CSX 207 and 229 blur the sky as they haul coal eastbound under I-270.

Special thanks to Dave Hiteshew for contributing many photos that fill in what had been gaps in the virtual tour west of Frederick Junction.

Information included with this snowy photo claims it was snapped near Frederick Junction, but determining its exact location was an interesting puzzle. In fact, I had begun to think that perhaps this was not in the vicinity of the Junction.

There appears to be an overpass in the distance, and the sun angle implies this view looks west. The pictured overpass cannot be MD 355 since the Monocacy River or Frederick Junction wye would be visible in the foreground, and I had (incorrectly) thought MD 355 was the only overpass in the vicinity during this time frame.

Reader Al Moran clued me in that US 240, the predecessor to I-270, was already in place by 1953, and the distant overpass was likely that road. He added, "The thing that really makes me think it IS Frederick Junction are the mountains in the background. When you drive down 15 and 340, that's what it looks like."

Additional research shows there had been sidings just west of Frederick Junction, and those sidings can be seen in this photo. Thus, the puzzle has been solved: the pictured location is between MD 355 and what is now I-270.

Link: I-270 info

All the box culverts west of Frederick Junction show signs of modification from their original form. This one uses an unusual type of stone, and has deterorating mortar at the joints, both signs that it was rebuilt after the 1830s.

Mile marker 55 works on its tan while its predecessor "mile marker on a rail" prefers the shadier spot on the right. In the distance is the I-270 overpass.

The bridge over Ballenger Creek suprises with its concrete lining, a style unseen along the OML since back near mile 9 at Avalon.

A rusty, but still operational spur serves the McKinney Industrial Park. Note the special timber enclosure to support the switch. Other spurs in this vicinity, such as one about a 1000 feet ahead, have been disconnected from the OML in order to reduce wear on the equipment and the chances of a derailment. Derailments happen at switches more often than at non-switch locations.

Bracing for that disconnected spur shows a casting date of August 1949.

The smell of fresh baked bread mingles with that of creosote outside the Thomas' English Muffin bakery. Several other industrial parks in this area receive train service.

Some sort of detector sits adjacent to the rails here. The name on the box is Harmon. Anyone know what it does?

Polished rails attest that several industrial parks in this area still receive train service. The OML's tracks are the ones on the right that extend to the grade crossing in the distance.

As the OML makes its way toward Tuscarora Creek, it enters several miles of rather non-descript, almost quiet terrain, at least as compared to the rocky cliffsides it weaves along while following the Patapsco River.

This view zooms from the Lime Kiln Road grade crossing back to that of Buckeystown Road, MD 85.

The Alpha Portland Cement company's Frederick plant qualifies for the OML's largest trackside siding west of Baltimore; essentially it's a small railyard. The cement company was founded in 1891 or 1894 (sources vary), and opened this location in 1958 near the site of a much older lime kiln. All of Alpha's cement plants are located along significant rail lines.

Portland cement is so named due to similarities with stone quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. In 1824 Joseph Aspdin patented the process of making Portland cement, and now it is the most popular type of hydraulic cement; hydraulic cement is a kind that is mixed with water during preparation for use.

Westbound CSX 229 and empty coal cars kick up dust along the three-quarter-mile-long Alpha siding/yard as a now-empty support for a former B&O CPL signal watches trackside near milepost 58.