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.

Link: ~1960

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 bridge's 1943 year is the oldest embossed date I have found extant. B&O used this style of embossing into the 1960s; the most recent year I've seen is 1965.

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. Three tracks cross on top, up from one or two as the pre-1927 concrete addition would attest.

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 in this vicinity, about 0.2 miles west of where it should be.

A 1915 atlas places B&O's Herring Run Station on the left.

B&O's relatively-inaccessible Herring Run Station has received little coverage in historical accounts. This is the only photo of it online (rectangle at center). I-95 now crosses overhead where it had stood between Herring Run (left) and Moores Run (right). The dark lines at those streams appear to be ink marks on the aerial photo.

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.

Link: 1988

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. A 1915 atlas shows this area as the home of Champion Brick Company.

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 Rosedale Station in the northeast quadrant 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

CSX 973 is eastbound out of Bayview Yard. Chesaco Road bridges in the distance.

A circa 1900 plan that did not materialize would have had a Canton Railroad branch cross B&O near here on its way to Towson where it would have connected with the Maryland & Pennsylvania.

This PGC logo looks so Soviet Kukuruzshchik that I expected it to represent the Peoples Grower Cooperative. Instead, it was for the Producers Grain Corporation that operated from 1938 to 1989. In another bit of history, PLCX was a reporting mark of the Pullman Transport Leasing Company that was created by the Pullman Company known for making sleeping cars.

Link: PGC model

Westbound CSX 815 is rolling mixed freight downhill. Todds Lane is the distant grade crossing.

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.

Grade separation of Golden Ring Road (left) happened by the 1930s. By 1962, this new bridge over the railroad led Golden Ring Road onto the nascent I-695 Baltimore Beltway. On the right, a B&O siding served local businesses for a few more years before being pulled up.

US 40 traverses left to right, as does MD 7 in the background. This would remain a Beltway endpoint until 1977's Key Bridge opening. Note an uncommonly productive use of the land within one cloverleaf loop.

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 .

A CPL signal tower had ruled the track bottleneck found Between Rossville Boulevard and US 40. Previously a spur diverged to the right to serve Pulaski Industrial Park. B&O's Rossville Station had been on the left.

The stretch between Rossville (left) and Poplar (right) Stations was home to Cromwell Brothers brickyard.

Link: brickyard info

Poplar Station (arrow) stood in the northwest quadrant of Middle River Road grade crossing. The bright stripe on the right is US 40 under construction. BR Tower had stood in Poplar.

Link: BR Tower

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