I-895 provides an obstructed view, but it's the best place from which to peer into CSX's Bayview Yard in Baltimore. The Baltimore Belt Line meets the Philadelphia Branch along the north side of the yard, the two rightmost tracks in this view. The distant train is ready to bend photo left onto the Sparrows Point Branch which was originally part of the route to Philadelphia.

Nearer, a relatively new CSX 3258 illustrates the distinctive roofline of GE model ET44AH units. CSX 789 stands behind.

Link: more CSX 3258 pics

B&O rushed the Philadelphia Branch into operation before it could complete the Baltimore Belt Line, a rail connection to/from the rest of the railroad in downtown Baltimore. Consequently from roughly 1885 to 1895, B&O instead floated railcars across Baltimore Harbor. At that time the Philadelphia Branch began in the Canton area (lower left of this aerial), then tracked generally north to Bayview (or, Bay View as it was spelled), then northeast to Philadelphia.

When the Belt Line was finished and connected from the west into Bayview, B&O repurposed the track between Canton and Bayview into the Sparrows Point Branch, the subject of a separate tour at this site.

Peering the opposite direction from I-895 finds the through tracks on the left.

When Bethlehem Steel and related industry got busy for WW II North Point Boulevard was widened and connected to Erdman Avenue. The tiny one-lane underpass was supplanted by this bridge.

This is one of the few places within Baltimore City that the B&O capitol dome herald is (was?) visible. Holes in the concrete suggest a CSX sign had been covering it previously.

This photo shows why a new underpass was needed. This is the only one-lane railroad underpass for public use that remains active within Baltimore City.

Maryland Midland Railway (MMID) is a Class III carrier owned mostly by the Genesee & Wyoming. MMID connects with CSX at Highfield and Emory Grove (Maryland).

When trains keep winding up on the siding rather than in Bayview Yard, this is what you do.

Deep zoom peers back across North Point Road into the eastern side of Bayview Yard. Beyond stand tall catenary poles of NS's adjacent Bayview Yard.

During dry summers Herring Run doesn't run all that much, but the trains still do. Note the thicker/taller crossties, standard issue for bridges.

As it crossed under I-95 at the Moravia Boulevard ramps, this westbound was slowing to stop in Bayview Yard. Milepost 88 is off the left edge of this photo, but it should be near Moores Run.

I was expecting old aerial photos to depict four active rail lines, but instead those photos suggest CSX built a new double-track bridge adjacent to the former and left the old in place. That is likely to have happened during the 1980s while I-95 (distance) was built.

From the 68th Street grade crossing we can look back to where the line goes under I-95 and over Moores Run. An 1898 atlas places Druid Station near here.

Private railroad crossing signs like this often lack the standard yellow background.

More than many other east coast cities Baltimore favors naming, rather than numbering, streets making 68th Street the highest numbered in the county.

Link: Todd's site describes 2013 derailment here

With marshy land all around, getting a photo of the Redhouse Run bridge is not easy. It's even less easy to see the bridge.

Team Hiteshew documented the line a couple years before CSX tore out its iconic B&O CPL signals. This may be the last photo anyone snapped of this pair that stood near Rosedale Avenue's former grade crossing. Chesaco Road bridges in the distance.

The signals are new but old rails (magenta highlight) embedded in concrete and perpendicular to CSX's suggest a trolley once ran along Rosedale Avenue, perhaps to the cemetery at Philadelphia Road. Though the surviving utility poles boost my conjecture, old aerial photos lack sufficient resolution to show such a trolley, and I can find no mention of it online. Anyone know more about these rails? B&O trains of the past did stop at a small passenger shelter here.

"No Jake Brakes" refers to disallowed use of a truck braking system that can be noisy. As explained at the first link below, the Jacobs Vehicle Systems feels such signs are an improper use of their trademark.

The more distant sign warns of trains beyond the bend. I've not seen the "one could be now" phrasing before. Unfortunately the sign provided false hope: no trains passed during my visit.

Links: the backstory, explanation of how the brakes work

Unlike the Old Main Line, this line is straight and mostly level. The I-695 Baltimore Beltway and its ramps span overhead in the distance. Contractors Road is a small suriving segment of a colonial-era road between Baltimore and Philadelphia. It appears on 1927 maps as Old Philadelphia Road.

Bridge 6B carries trains over Stemmers Run. Stone supports of this style are often found where B&O had originally installed a Bollman bridge.

Though its art deco appearance suggests greater age, the bridge over Rossville Boulevard dates to 1966 when it was the replacement for Golden Ring Road which was severed by I-695. It is one of the newer original bridges on the line. CSX has deigned to permit the B&O emblem to slowly fade away, revealing the bridge may have not yet been (re)painted .

Between Rossville Boulevard and US 40 a CPL signal tower had ruled the track bottleneck. Previously a spur diverged to the right to serve Pulaski Industrial Park. B&O's Rossville Station had been on the left, as was Poplar Station about 1.5 miles ahead.

Having been on duty for almost a century, by 2008 bridge 9B for Mohrs Lane was on its last legs. It was doomed as soon as the decision to double stack trains was made, and allowed to deteriorate enough to be closed to vehicles and removed in 2011. It was the last survivor of its kind along the line in Maryland.

Link: Bridgehunter entry

At bridge 10A concrete buffers retard erosion.

Old aerial photos show that when a nearby private grade crossing for an aggregates company closed about 1980, trucks rerouted themselves under the bridge, hence the clearance signs.

Link: 1940s

Mileposts in the style of those along the Washington Branch display the distance from/to Baltimore and Philadelphia. Do these date to the 1880s opening the line? I am unsure. Their concrete is more worn at the top than sides, suggesting at least many decades of weathering, if not more than a century.

Bridge 11A was remodeled due to erosion too; it was widened as well. An 1898 atlas places B&O's Cowenton Station off photo right; it was similar to Aberdeen Station, which follows later in this tour.

Link: bridges and stations on the line

Apparently Chessie ran out of lives at the Ebenezer Road grade crossing because CSX removed this shack while it was removing nearby CPL signals about 2010. The shack may have housed equipment related to the defect detector seen below. Maybe I looked in the wrong spot because there are reports the shack remains extant.

Do these CPLs look far enough apart to permit double track? They do not to me, which means this straight and narrow section has been single tracked since the CPLs were installed during, oh, the 1940s or 1950s.

WMDD = White Marsh Defect Detector. I was going to name this as part of a then-now pair, but 8.5 years of separation does not feel sufficient!