Milepost 13 is obscured by glare in this reverse-to-tour-direction view from under I-795. An above-ground portion of Baltimore's subway occupies I-795's center median, and its Owings Mills terminal station is less than a mile northwest (right).

Until the 1960s, track connecting to the Northern Central Railway's Green Spring Branch had extended straight into the distance.

Here's a zoom view back to the curve of hte prior photo. NC had connected in from Green Spring Junction on the left where it had a wye. A map follows below.

This is an overlay of a 1927 aerial photo on top of one from 2015. Track north and east of the Western Maryland belonged to the Northern Central Railway's Green Spring Branch. As depicted, NC had two connections with WM, one westbound (off left edge, the 1927 photo didn't quite reach there) and one southbound (railroad east). Between those the Y marks the location of Green Spring Junction where NC maintained a wye for the purposes of turning its trains.

Now between the letters Y and W one can find big box shopping. The Green Spring Branch's right-of-way has been repurposed into a parking lot access road for that shopping.

About 1910 where NC and WM met, the latter relocated its station from Green Spring Junction to this spot, named Kirk. Note the dual platforms, this side for WM, that on the right for NC.

While Baltimore's B&P tunnel was getting a makeover from 1916 to 1917, WM accessed its Hillen Station in Baltimore by rerouting trains over NC's Green Spring Branch, the same branch it had borrowed during the later 1800s.

Kirk has been subsumed into the likes of Garrison, leaving ADC and Google maps to wonder where the town had been. The station site is behind the St. Thomas Shopping Center that is unseen on the right.

WM's relocation of its station to Kirk precipitated a complaint to the Public Service Commission by a local landowner who wanted the station kept on her land.

Link: complaint

Nothing clearly identifiable from the station, the building, platform, water tank, etc. survives, though one can find a few pieces of wood and siding material scattered among regrowing trees. The track adjacent to the passenger platform remains, albeit disused, along with a rusty Bethlehem Steel New Century Adjustable switch stand dated 1956.

Online there were no closeup photos of this particular switch stand model, none I could find quickly anyhow... voila, another world crisis solved.

NC and WM linked just northwest of Kirk Station at this spot. In fact the rightmost rusty rail is a remnant of NC's Green Spring Branch. It last hosted a train during the 1950s.

The Green Spring Branch originated as part of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad's intended route to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1832, when most cities big and small lacked rail transport, the B&S got as far as Owings Mills via the alignment ahead, making this stretch some of the world's oldest railroad right-of-way still in use.

Link: Green Spring Branch at Todd's site

WM's bridge over Painters Mill Road has been spiffed up for the opening of yet another shopping center adjacent at left. Note for oncoming traffic the horizontally-mounted signals, an orientation uncommon in this region but necessitated by the visibility-reducing bridge.

Owings Mills Boulevard has been growing in fits and starts for decades, destined to one day become part of US 29. Here it spans both the original (right) and current (left) railroad alignments through Owings Mills.

First we'll follow WM's original alignment then return here.

The Baltimore & Susquehanna's hopes of reaching Gettysburg, Pennsylvania faded as it changed focus to other locations. In 1857 before merging into the Northern Central Railroad, the B&S sold to the fledgling Western Maryland the stretch from Green Spring Junction to its terminal at Owings Mills Tavern. This view looks along that route and across Reisterstown Road. The tavern was a distance beyond the large building at photo left. Next, WM borrowed NC's Green Spring Branch, then later built its own route from Green Spring Junction into Baltimore, which is the route this tour has been following.

During the 19th century Reisterstown Road was quiet enough that a grade crossing sufficed. Grade separation via a parallel alignment would wait until 1906, at which time this original route was relegated to infrequent freight service that continued into the 1970s.

When a train needed to cross Reisterstown Road (MD 140) it could lower and raise warning gates via a trackside control panel that still exists, as seen at right. The buttons are labelled Stop and Start.

Link: early B&S history

Owings Mills Tavern was situated off the main drag, so for station purposes from about 1860 to 1906 WM leased this building adjacent Reisterstown Road. That structure survives, renovated around 2003, odd roofline and all, and at photo time gave home to Wine & Canvas. After WM moved into its own station on the southwest side of Reisterstown Road, the building housed Garner's Store.

Though not visible in this view, rusty rails can be found off to the right. Rails remained embedded in Reisterstown Road until 2008.

Link: 2003 pic

In the foreground some of that ex-WM trackage curves behind the old station (distance). The Owings Mills Tavern had been located off photo edge right.

Link: Owings Mills Tavern (PDF)

WM's first alignment was acquired from the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad. At the time of this photo, Reisterstown Road was part of US 140, the main road between Baltimore and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This Gwynns Falls is the same waterway spanned downstream by the B&O's Carrollton Viaduct. WM will follow it upstream to its headwater in Glyndon, Maryland.

The grade separation at Reisterstown Road was a good excuse for a new station, so WM built this one in 1906 where Owings Mills Boulevard would later span the tracks.

At photo time, track following the original B&S alignment was still extant, curving on the east side of the station (right) while the main line passed on the west.

Though the station last saw passengers during the 1950s, WM kept it nicely maintained for decades.

Links: ~1970, mixed years

This view is similar to the prior, but dates after CSX removed the second WM station during the early 2000s.

A zoom view past the station site shows the bridge over Reisterstown Road, followed by yet another bridge over Gwynns Falls, then a car at the Groff Lane grade crossing near milepost 15. Closer and off photo edge right is a disused WM loading dock.

The now-deteriorating 300-foot long dock (left) extends to Reisterstown Road and permitted unloading of bulk goods via gravity to trucks waiting below. WM's bridge over Reisterstown Road is beyond.

Grade separation came to Reisterstown Road with this bridge in 1906, built long enough to allow for more than a century worth of subsequent automobile and population growth.

The vehicles are fancier and the railroad name different, but otherwise many decades later things look surprisingly similar.