After passing Curtis Bay Junction, the OML descends to soon meet another junction, that with the Camden Cutoff, what is now the main line, seen at photo bottom. The OML's original curving route out of Baltimore was an early problem for B&O, and in 1867 at this location it built the Cutoff, a straight shortcut that shaved about 2 miles off the trip to Camden Station, new at that time. The Cutoff runs through Mt. Winans Yard, which as of 2020 is no longer often used as a yard.

The colorful engine trio (CSX 7891, CEFX 2805, HLCX 7187) is passing a CPL showing "restricting" that tells the operator about entering unsignalled trackage. CSX has since replaced that CPL (right) with color light signals.

As seen from the Gable Avenue grade crossing at the southwest end of Mt. Winans Yard, the various tracks combine to fit under Patapsco Avenue. OML milepost 3 stands at the right, where erosion had suspended a long-disused track midair adjacent. An 1898 atlas places B&O's West Baltimore Station in the southeast quadrant of the grade crossing. A similar view from 2011 with newer signals is at left.

Most tracks converge immediately ahead at Camden Junction, aka West Baltimore Interlocking. In the 2003 photo, a siding diverges to the right to a business shown in a panel below. That siding was disconnected before 2011.

Link: 2000

Looking reverse-to-tour-direction, the train in the main photo is roughly where the colorful engine trio had been in the top photo. The OML, milepost BAN 3.1 as measured from Mt. Clare Station (now B&O Museum), and Camden Cutoff, milepost BAA 3.3 as measured from Camden Station, meet near the photog.

"Camden Cutoff" is historical terminology. Now its route to the right of CSX 958 is simply the main line.

Change for: this site's Camden Cutoff tour

Camden Junction is at center. It appears the Gable Avenue grade crossing (upper right) was still fully open in 1972.

At the junction, a siding curved northwest to a business that opened around 1950. That siding saw a fair amount of use prior to disconnection during the 2000s. Rails remain embedded in pavement, however, as seen at right in January 2023.

Patapsco Avenue, which runs diagonally across the lower left of the 1972 view, bridged over the railroad in 1962, according to its embossed date.

Patapsco Avenue is a convenient perch to look back where we've been. The OML is on the extreme left, today's active main line tracks on the right (being negotiated by some coal) and a then-active yard in between. These CPLs are no more. Now that the OML has joined that of the Camden Cutoff, the Mile data will reference the latter's mileposts.

Link: 2022

Part of the yard was repurposed for contractor Skanska-Fay's Field Office during 2025's Howard Street Tunnel project. Coal empties on a return trip from Curtis Bay rumble past people waiting to exit. The wait would be about an hour because the train was experiencing engine trouble.

Looking the other direction from the present day Patapsco Avenue bridge, we can see the northern end of the Deep Cut. The Deep Cut dug through the ridge that separates the Gwynns Falls and Patapsco River. The original effort turned out to be much greater than the railroad had anticipated.

At 68 feet deep and 3000 feet long, the cut is more impressive when you learn it was accomplished by hand. Work around the clock involving hundreds of men continued for for well over a year to carve a notch in Maryland's sticky clay. It came close to bankrupting the fledgling railroad, and work stopped about 6 feet above what was needed for a gradually sloping route from Mt. Clare down to the Patapsco River. The minor grade to climb over the Deep Cut is not a problem for modern locomotives.

As seen from Hammonds Ferry Road, an eastbound train of Waste Management empties has passed through the Deep Cut near where a CSX crew is repairing a switch. The distant buildings are part of downtown Baltimore's skyline.

An 1898 atlas shows Hammonds Ferry operated on the downstream side of the subsequent Hammonds Ferry Road bridge across the Patapsco River.

Link: 2006

CSX's Atlantic Coast Line heritage unit paused for overhead photo ops between Hammonds Ferry Road and Lansdowne Road due to engine trouble. Rumors claim it is fueled by plum juice.

During the 2010s, these signal bridges replaced a smaller signal array.

From about 1950 to 2000, a siding had peeled to serve B. Green on the west side. Prior to Green, one would have found the Excelsior Brick Company, founded by John A. Knecht.

Lansdowne Station shopping center occupies the area now, and the disconnected siding, with rails forged 1988, lies in pieces (at right, January 2023).

Link: C&O 4382 at intact siding 1983

Lansdowne presents the first easy location for active train spotting along the OML. The neighborhood is mostly blue collar residential. This is a comfortable, but not scenic, area to observe CSX action. In the photo, CSX 8770 poses with CSX 7304 still in Conrail paint while awaiting a signal to proceed into Baltimore.

The route is paralleled by Hammonds Ferry Road for some distance. The view at left from December 2003 shows this was one of the line's first places CSX installed its color light signals. The railroad has tinkered with the signals in this vicinity ever since.

Mileposts confusion reigns in this vicinity because the nearest track is measured from Camden Station whereas the farthest track is measured from Mt. Clare Station. The main photo's milepost 4 references Camden Station and stands near Mine Bank Lane.

I'm surprised CSX did not retain the design of B&O's CPL signals. In a CPL, the lights are lit in pairs, green: top and bottom, red: left and right, amber: in between. The angle of the pair of lights provided a second way for an engineer to know the state of the signal, something particularly useful when the color is not easily discerned due to distance or weather.

CSX 4559 was overhauled at the Huntington Locomotive Shop during 2021. Its overhaul sticker (right) demonstrates a variety of Droste effect by depicting a model SD 70 with a matching number (4559).

The white sticker reads, "Do Not Supply Refrigerator With Ice. Refrigerator Is Not Equipped With A Drain." The warning sticker reads, "Warning! Autostart Equipped - Always disable the Automatic Engine Start/Stop system before performing any work on the diesel engine or on related electrical amd mechanical equipment. Failure to do so may result in unexpected engine startup or shutdown with risk of personal injury or death."

Link: Droste effect at Wikipedia

This signal bridge at the former Sulphur Spring Road grade crossing looks old enough to have held semaphore-style signals, but it does not appear in 1927 or 1938 aerial photos. It is visible in a 1953 photo, however. Old photos indicate its signals were removed sometime between 1983 and 1991. CSX removed the bridge itself around 2008. Beyond, cabooses line the tracks.

Links: 1983, 1983, 1991

Until improvements to Hammonds Ferry Road forced their move in late 2007, a row of cabooses sat stranded on the southeast side of the tracks. Most, if not all the cabooses, were sold off to individual collectors. Whether that at right had been the actual crossbuck at this location is unknown. The building at the far end of the cabooses was built in 1953 upon the site of B&O's former Lansdowne Station but was not owned by the railroad. It was razed in 2018.

A nearby, now-closed underground pedestrian walkway is dated 1967, which probably reflects the year the grade crossing closed. Construction of Baltimore Beltway interchange #10 obliterated the original intersection of Sulphur Spring Road with Washington Boulevard (US 1) and changed traffic patterns.

Links: Lansdowne Station, 2005 caboose row

Detour: end caboose at new location

Adjacent to parallel Hammond's Ferry Road, Maintenance-of-Way vehicles SC200702 and TBM 200101 take a break from track work on a rainy spring day.

The site of Coursey Station, sometimes spelled Courcey or Courcy, is on the left.

Links: 2003, 2006 in snow

CSX inherited a group of locomotives from Conrail. Such units were renumbered and had their white digits repainted in yellow before undergoing a full repaint into CSX livery. This unit had been CR 5755.

Shallow-arched bridge 6A over Roberts Run is not entirely original, having been extended outward on the inlet side (photo right) via a concrete addition that likely dates to the 1950s realignment to support a then-new Baltimore Beltway. The stones at this side may date to circa 1830 but mortar suggests they were subsequently refit. The ADC maps omit Roberts Run.

Above bridge 6A, the clear area on the left reveals a previous alignment, one replaced when the Baltimore Beltway (ahead) cut under and necessitated a rail bridge. The bridge was built on the northwest (right) side of B&O's original alignment.

The bright areas show the extent of work for the Baltimore Beltway. It appears the railroad (dark line crossing the bright at photo center) does not yet have a new bridge, but the ground has been cleared for one along the railroad's northwest side. For reference, Sulphur Spring Road is the thin, bright, horizontal line near the top center, and the Harbor Tunnel Thruway is the curved route near the bottom. The Beltway's Hollins Ferry Road figure-8 exit ramps are taking shape between the Thruway and railroad.

Four lanes of Beltway, which opened just days prior to this photo, cut under B&O at upper right. The Harbor Tunnel Thruway is the nearest crossing over the Beltway at bottom. Hollins Ferry Road is next closest.

Carling's brewery at left opened the prior year. Look closely to find a few homes standing near the Beltway.

Link: source photo, 1992 Sun article

As seen from Beltway exit 9 (Hollins Ferry Road), the railroad bridge was lengthened (1980s?) to permit more automobile lanes underneath.

Trackside with wet camera lens at the Beltway crossing... dry days were few and far between during the spring of 2009.

Mileposts 4 and 5 had been about 1000 feet too close until CSX shifted milepost 4 east around 2015. Mileposts 6 and 7 remain 1700 feet too far apart. Some of this weirdness likely originates with the construction of the Camden Cutoff during the 1850s.

B&O's Monumental Station was probably the small building closest to the tracks left of center. What was likely a grade crossing adjacent to it was fading by photo time. As of 2022, Iron Bull Distillery operates near the station site.

With proximity to shipping by both rail and sea, this area a few miles from Baltimore became a hub of liquor distilling in Maryland. The text painted on the building read, "Monumental Distillers Inc. Pure Maryland Rye Whiskey Bourbon-Corn".

Rye whiskey was the most popular form of whiskey in the northeast, and the Maryland style, less spicy but brighter than its Pennsylvania cousin, was a top seller. Monumental, Heilman and Calvert were just a few of the distilleries in this vicinity. It was the home of the Standard Compressed Yeast Company in 1915.

As seen at right, some distillery un/loading docks had rails of their own on which wagons likely rolled.

In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the United States Consititution (Prohibition) forever changed distilling in Maryland -- and put the smaller companies out of business for good. Calvert was purchased by Seagram, with monetary help from bootlegging, soon after Prohibition was repealed. Others, such as Monumental, resumed operation, but like their ad here, gradually faded away and were bought out or reorganized. Monumental continues now under the name Majestic Distilling Company but ceased producing Maryland Rye in 1972. As of 2022, Iron Bull Distillery operates here.

Link: Iron Bull, Majestic Distilling history

Along the distillery's siding, this Q&C brand car stop hangs on. Q&C, a Chicago-based manufacturer of railway equipment founded by Charles F. Quincy, merged into the Quincy, Manchester, Sargent Company in 1906. This car stop, which likely predates that merger, was installed to prevent cars from rolling off the end of the siding. This is just one of various car stop and bumper post designs. When Iron Bull Distillery moved in, it put this bumper back into use.

"PAT 430" appears to indeed refer to US Patent Number 430 (three digits!) by Peter Henry Dreyer dated October 18, 1837 in regard to a "Mode of Construction and Fastening of Iron Rails on the Timbers of Railways." US patent numbering that began in 1836 had reached 10 million by 2016.

This appears to be a chute to facilitate unloading of bulk materials from a hopper via gravity. I have not seen another like it. It was removed when Iron Bull remodeled the disillery around 2020.

Excluding rail yards, the four tracks plus a spur here illustrate the Old Main Line at its widest. This spur sprang to life for access to the hosting grounds of B&O's Fair of the Iron Horse in 1927; the spur remains active now to serve local businesses along and near Hollins Ferry Road.

During this route's earliest years, and almost certainly prior to the opening of the Washington Branch in 1835, this stretch likely supported fewer than four tracks. The Baltimore Iron Company had mined in this vicinity.

Link: Baltimore Iron Company