The locals have a sense of humor here near the Hanover Road grade crossing. This is one of only a handful of grade crossings left on the Washington Branch. The sign is no longer present.

The adjacent Anderson Avenue (behind the sign in the previous photo) provided a great spot from which to see crews installing new ribbon rail during a Sunday in July.

As heard at the start of the following brief video, the continuously welded rail issues bizarre, echoing metallic pings as the crane hoists it into place. The louder, repeating sound is that of a rail nailing machine that is unseen behind the crane. MPG Video; 320x200 resolution, 8 seconds; 750K file size MPEG.

Another view of the machine at work.

Just around the bend from the Hanover Road grade crossing, this old whistle sign caught my eye. I've seen only one other like it (near Riverdale). The design is similar to the keystone style employed by the Pennsylvania RR. Anyone know if this sign is a refugee from another railroad?

Grafittied and fortunately mostly hidden by the road bridge's guardrail is this ugly concrete bridge over a tributary of Deep Run, the stream the Washington Branch follows in this area. Its appearance suggests a construction date in the 1930s.

Also of note is the single-lane road bridge, not many of which remain in Howard County. It was replaced with a multi-lane version in late 2003.

Original mile marker 12 is almost hidden by trackside weeds. Since the time of this photo, the marker has been removed to the B&O Museum. The opposite side of the tracks hosts a more modern counterpart.

For comparison, this is an original stone mile marker used on the "National Pike" the road from Baltimore to Frederick and further west. Turnpikes employed the markers to both encourage use of their roads (for which tolls were charged) as well as to mark the distance travelled for purposes of toll calculations.

This milestone now sits in the front yard of a home along Frederick Road. The engraving reads "13 M To B" (13 miles to Baltimore), and is so sharp I suspect it has been re-engraved recently.

Link: a whole page of mile markers

The stone arched bridge over Bascom Creek dates to 1835, making it the oldest survivor from the Washington Branch. It's not quite original, having been shored up several times over the years. Bascom Creek approaches the bridge from an odd angle, and looks to be eroding the foundation on the far side. A very similar angle, and erosion problem, can be found at the Davis Branch bridge on the Old Main Line.

An 1860 Martenet's map of the county calls this stream Budd's Run.

Installed at this location in 2003 is the newest in tracking technology, TransCore. This system appears to supplant CSX's On Track system, which is also found at this location. However, the corrugated "planter" style foundations for the new devices give them the appearance of being temporary.

From the TransCore Web site: "Tracking billions of dollars of equipment and cargo is crucial for good customer service and efficient rail and intermodal operations. That's one reason the North American rail industry adopted a mandatory standard based on TransCore’s Amtech wireless RFID technology. More than 95 percent of all railcars in interchange service in North America are equipped with our radio frequency tags, allowing railroads to manage cars and locomotives nationwide."

There's the TransCore unit again, and ahead, a rarely used spur peels off the mainline to serve the Parkway Center complex near the intersection of MD 100 and Rt 295. Off in the distance is the MD 100 overpass.

This spur is not marked on the ADC maps even though it is fairly long and contains many sidings.