This view looks a mile back toward the Patuxent River from the Anne Arundel County side. Though WB&A's alignment is obviously marked by the utility poles, confusion over of who presently owns the old right of way has delayed construction of the WB&A Trail here. Apparently the county owns the land on the northwest side of WB&A (right) but for unclear reasons has refrained from extending the trail through it.

Link: Buz Meyer and the trail

Turning to look the opposite direction from the same spot reveals large tracts of land have been available to facilitate construction of the Two Rivers community. Off photo left, gravel pits that date to the early days of WB&A have been repurposed into retaining ponds. Stone was mined here for WB&A track ballast, and later for other uses into the 2010s.

Prior to the paving of Two Rivers Boulevard during 2013, the utility wires had continued away from the camera toward the gap in the trees at distant right. WB&A had a stop a short distance north of where Two Rivers Boulevard meets realigned Conway Road but no evidence of it remains.

This was the scene from where WB&A and Conway Road had intersected before Two Rivers arrived and shifted Conway Road south to about where that gravel truck is. As the pavement's grading hints, previously Conway Road had bridged over the WB&A. To the north in 2008 the WB&A Trail had not yet officially arrived, and was little more then a weedy path under utility lines.

Now we're closer to the aforementioned gap in the trees. Both the trail that had ended at the Patuxent River and the utility poles resume following the WB&A's alignment here. Why does the trail curve in from the right (east)?

The trail makes a big, S-shaped, incomplete detour at the Two Rivers development not only because of the previously mentioned property dispute but also because now someone's dining room is in the way.

This home and the others adjacent have the distinction of being the only private residences anywhere sitting atop what had been the WB&A line. Rails to nails?

After rail service ended during 1935, much of the right of way between Bowie and Odenton was repurposed into Braegers Road, which remained unpaved until about 2009. I have also seen the name spelled Bragers; it may have originally been applied to what is now named Patuxent Road.

As straight as the arrow in its herald, WB&A track permitted high speeds between stops. The white placard on the car likely advises customers of the WB&A's impending shutdown.

This view was snapped from the Patuxent Road bridge over the tracks. Through the summer haze note the similar grade separation back at Conway Road.

Bits of Braeger Station, basically a waiting shack, can be glimsped at bottom left. The structure sat at the northwest corner of what is currently the WB&A Trail at Patuxent Road. Braeger Siding peels off to the right to Alan Barton Company, and farther down Little Patuxent Siding peels off to the left, both to gravel pits that are now filled by water. Much of the gravel had been washed down from upstream by floods.

WB&A's bridge across the Little Patxuent was likely one of those sold for scrap during the difficult economic times of the 1930s. The trail waited until 2008 to receive this replacement.

Since the sign reads, "No Jumping, Diving, Swinging From Bridge" that means anything else goes, right?

The trail's bridge reuses WB&A abutments at either end, but arcs over the mid-river supports where after 80 years one can still find bridge attachment hardware.

Between roads, houses, trails, and, as we'll see later, airports and light rail, very little of WB&A's route has remained in an untouched state likely to yield artifacts.

Hills like these revealed by deep zoom back 1.5 miles were not a problem for the electrically-powered trains that could match the speed of the era's steam locomotives. Instead, the frequent stops made by WB&A slowed travel: the trip between Baltimore and Washington took less time on B&O.

Though WB&A's bridge here remained walkable into the 2000s, for the trail it was replaced in favor of this model. It appears a fresh mound of concrete was poured down over the old abutments.

When Strawberry Lake Way arrived around 2000, it created a new grade crossing.

An alert reader called my attention to a bridge I had missed. This one over an unnamed creek exhibits an atypical-for-WB&A, egg-shaped arch.

Utility lines still follow most of WB&A's former route, most supported by standard poles. This pole, however, has unusually knotty wood. A recheck of old photos reveals knotty poles like this had been much more common when WB&A trains were operating.

The last WB&A train ran here during 1935. Might this pole be a survivor from then? Possibly. In this region, the average life of utility poles is about 50 years, but some are known to endure for over 100 years. They are inspected regularly and replaced only when needed.

I was hoping to find an older structure supporting Old Waugh Chapel Road. This location was a WB&A stop.

With the original railway defunct since 1935, scant are WB&A artifacts and Web info. This tour may be the most concentrated record of the WB&A currently online.

The nearest black car has just rolled over where WB&A's main line and South Shore division, the former Annapolis & Elk Ridge (A&ER) Railroad, had met at diamond track. At Naval Academy Junction, as the spot was known, passengers bound for or from Annapolis would change for trains to Baltimore and Washington. Their platform was on the right near the USPS mail collection box. The brick building beyond is a remodeled WB&A office. Some of these rails have forging dates in the 1920s.

The location was called Naval Academy Junction because the US Naval Academy in Annapolis was one of the primary stops along the South Shore division. Midshipmen and others would change to/from main line trains here.

Links: older pics, building's tenant

That's the WB&A office building at left prior to remodeling, and beyond it the passenger platform.

On the right, a WB&A bus pauses for transfers to Fort Meade which is a few miles to the east (right).

Change for: A&ER line to Annapolis

A&ER arrived first (1840), but it was not until 1872 when B&P (later Pennsylvania) Railroad intersected that the town of Odenton formed. Another 32 years elapsed before WB&A joined the railroad scene.

WB&A's operations through Odenton had ceased by the time of this 1952 aerial photo, with part of its right-of-way expropriated by Telegraph Road (Maryland 170), and other parts reorganized into Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad. This aerial photo predates Maryland 32.

Crosshatched lines show where rails remained extant as of 2017. The stretch between Odenton Station and Naval Academy Junction was used at least as recently as 2013.

Northeast of Naval Academy Junction was Naval Academy Junction Yard, WB&A's primary car maintenance facility, not to be confused with "The Yard" as midshipmen refer to the Naval Academy campus some 10 miles away in Annapolis.

WB&A's old yard was repurposed during 1941 by the National Plastics Products Company that endured until 1961 when, per the boxcars in this photo, rail service was still active. The site changed owners several times and saw its last industrial use by Nevamar Company during the early 2000s.

Both in 1961 and today, electrical substations dot the route, the most tangible evidence of WB&A's former presence. When this yard substation was last used by WB&A, it stepped down the supply from 33000 volts to the 1200 volts employed by the rolling stock.

Links: pics of WB&A rolling stock, more (as B&A)

The old factory buildings were demolished during 2013 to make room for new apartments on a portion of the land. In the foreground, rails remain embedded in concrete.

Link: Flats170 history

Steel rails have scrap value, wood crossties not so much. These ties might still be buried under the pavement of Maryland 170.

Maryland 170 and WB&A go their separate ways northeast of Odenton.

Power lines still clearly delineate the WB&A alignment north of Odenton. Near photo center, a truck illustrates the location of MD 32. On this side of MD 32, a WB&A bridge that spanned a small creek had survived into the 1980s; now the streambed there is littered with pieces of concrete and rusty metal. Prior to MD 32, on the right had stood the Super 170 Drive-In theater that opened during 1963.

Link: Super 170 at Cinema Treasures

On the north side of Maryland 32 is found the only remaining stretch of accessible, undisturbed WB&A Main Line right of way. A mere 500 feet in length, it still manages to contain three significant WB&A artifacts, one of which is this double quasi-arch masonry bridge across Severn Run, the largest surviving WB&A masonry bridge. A similar but smaller bridge has been reviewed by the Maryland Historical Trust.

Just north of Severn Run are disused bridge abutments at Old Mill Road.

Old Mill may refer to Collings Fulling Mill on Severn Run that dates to the 1770s, or to an even older mill in the area named Summerland Mill.

And just a little farther north one finds this concrete, likely the foundation of WB&A's Severn Run Station. It is the most complete of the station foundations I have found along the main line.

This scene typifies the look north of Severn Run Station where the right of way lives on as a 4+ mile straight run named WB&A Road. Trains had stopped here at Clark, as well as Delmont, Elmhurst, and McPherson ahead.

As a reader reported, bits of Clark Station's crumbling concrete foundation can still be found near the base of this Stop sign. There's another segment across WB&A Road (left) that serves as a curb of sorts.

Without a bridge like this one, Maryland 100 and WB&A would have met at grade had the railroad still been operating. This bridge carries WB&A Road up and over busy 100, a route that, if ever completed, would serve as an outer beltway for Baltimore.

Where WB&A Road meets Maryland 176, about 2 miles of former WB&A right of way are now inaccessible - except via aircraft. Former stops covered over by Baltimore-Washington International Airport runways include Kelly, Wellham, and Downs. Unlike on aircraft carriers, here cabling is not needed to snag landing planes, so the utility lines go underground.