• Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis

  • Discussion pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Discussion pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Moderator: therock

  by CarterB
 
In the topic:
Re: Oldest abandoned track still in place? Old WB&A rail?

"Postby CarterB » Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:46 am
On http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=4440 and http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=4440 there is a discussion about rail in place at the Bowie (MD) race track. That was at one time a WB&A spur, abandoned in 1935 and taken over by the PRR. Anyone in the Bowie area that can check out the track still in place to see if it is WB&A and possible age of rail?
N 39.01058 W 76.74469, bridge @ N 39.00935 W 76.74332, and N 39.00845 W 76.73886 and a long stretch of rail in the bogs at N 39.01528 W 76.74547 (which may be just the PRR part of the spur after WB&A abandonment?)
Didn't the old WB&A racetrack spur ROW (prior to PRR takeover) go north on the WB&A main and cross the Patuxent River at N 39.01288 W 76.74036? and the Little Patuxent at N 39.04809 W 76.71663?"

Anyone know if any of the rail still in place around the Bowie Race Track may be original WB&A?
  by strench707
 
I was wondering if anyone had a good map of these railroads and also if anyone had a nearby intersection or address where the Annapolis train station was.

I live in Riva, MD only about 5-10 mins away from Annapolis so this really interests me.

Davis
  by CarterB
 
The Baltimore & Annapolis station was on Bladen St. and Carroll St. here N 38.98033 W 76.49297 (long gone) Parts of the ROW are still visible behind the houses on Genessee St. here: N 38.98296 W 76.50040 and in Wardour here: N 38.99461 W 76.49645 to the bridge (long gone) to other side of Severn here N 39.00414 W 76.49280. The predecessor until 1935 Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis came into town from Parole and station/substation on West St here N 38.97843 W 76.49755
(not sure if any of that combined station/substation is still there or not) Before that...the Annapolis & Elkridge ran from West St on NW prior to the War Between the States. and ...the Annapolis & Bay Ridge went on down to Bay Ridge from the Bay Ridge Junction here N 38.97928 W 76.50418 went down what is now Amos Garrett Blvd, crossed Spa Creek and on to Bay Ridge.
The ROW from Bay Ridge Jct thru Parole is fairly visible still here N 38.97928 W 76.50418.

At one time, the interurban ran wrong way around Church Circle and went down to the Naval Academy. When they recently dug up West St for repaving/renovation, they found B&A rails. http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/T ... aries.html
  by CBRy
 
If you use "Google Maps" and zoom in on the Wardour side of Weems Creek, you
will see an aerial pic of some WB&A rail still in place as of early this year. If you
look closely, you can see the scrapper lifting the remaining rails. The stretch in
Annapolis behind the Coca Cola plant has been lifted as well and this is all now a
walking path.

Save that Google pic for history! Might be a pic of the last rail in Annapolis!

This pic is good as of this date on Google Maps.
  by CarterB
 
CBRy....thanks..had NO idea that ANY B&A track was left anywhere in Annapolis except paved over.
  by MrBoh
 
If anyone is interested, I have been working on attempting to document all current and former/abandoned ROW's in Maryland in Google Earth. I do have the WB&A route, and I believe it is pretty accurate in the Annapolis area. (it was mentioned earlier in the thread that it continued around church circle and into the Naval Academy, but I don't have this reflected in the map. Also, the WB&A route into Washington and Baltimore I am not totally sure of so if you have additional info let me know. Here is a link with the google earth file
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.p ... ost1291215

As i said, its a real work in progress so don't trust everything it says!
  by BaltOhio
 
MrBoh wrote:If anyone is interested, I have been working on attempting to document all current and former/abandoned ROW's in Maryland in Google Earth. I do have the WB&A route, and I believe it is pretty accurate in the Annapolis area. (it was mentioned earlier in the thread that it continued around church circle and into the Naval Academy, but I don't have this reflected in the map. Also, the WB&A route into Washington and Baltimore I am not totally sure of so if you have additional info let me know. Here is a link with the google earth file
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.p ... ost1291215
Merriken's book describes and pictures the entrances to both Washington and Baltimore, both of which were entirely on street trackage.

In Washington, the WB&A's own line ended at the District Line at Seat Pleasant, where it connected with the Washington Ry. & Electric Co.'s (later Capital Transit) so-called Columbia line. WB&A cars then used the WR&E Columbia line for the entire distance to the Washington terminal -- i.e., p.r.w. east from Seat Pleasant to Kenilworth Ave., south on Kenilworth Ave. to Benning Rd., east on Benning Rd., H St., Mass. Ave., and New York Ave. to an original on-street terminal on NY Ave. at 15th St., later an off-street terminal on NY Ave. between 11th and 12th Sts. NW. (The latter terminal property was subsequently used by Greyhound, which built a new terminal building there, the shell of which still remains.)

The Baltimore entry was more complex, since there were two terminals at different periods which were reached in different ways.

The WB&A approached Baltimore via Westport, in part on what is now the B-W Parkway through Westport (the portals of the WB&A's QWestport tunnel can be seen on the west side of the parkway at Annapolis Rd.). It the paralleled the B&O (now CSXT) main line on an elevated structure, crossing over the B&O at Scott St. WB&A's private right-of-way ended on Scott St. at Ostend St., where a still-existing substation was located. From there all trackage was on the street, on some cases sharing track with the broad-gauge United Rys. & Electric Co., but not following any UR&E line for any length. The original (1908) route followed Scott, McHenry, Portland, and Greene Sts. to Lombard, then east on Lombard to Liberty, then north on Liberty to the terminal at Marion St., just south of Lexington. Cars looped through the terminal and returned to Lombard via Park Ave. This terminal building survived for many decades after the WB&A abandoned it in 1921, and for all I know it may still be there.

In 1921 the WB&A opened a commodious new off-street passenger and freight terminal in the block bounded by Howard, Lombard, Eutaw, & Pratt Sts. (the site is now occupied by the Holiday Inn). Trains then used the earlier route as far as Pratt St., then used two blocks or so of joint trackage with the B&O to access the terminal on its south side.
  by MrBoh
 
Excellent explanation, thank you. I wrote down Merriken's book and its now in my list of MD railroad books.
  by hutton_switch
 
MrBoh wrote:Excellent explanation, thank you. I wrote down Merriken's book and its now in my list of MD railroad books.
If you're able to locate a copy of Merriken's Every Hour on the Hour, expect to pay a hefty price for it, unless you're lucky and are able to snap up a copy at a decent price on ebay. This book is in high demand.
  by MrBoh
 
A number of used copies are for sale through Barnes and Noble's website and Amazon. Looks like you can get a used copy in decent condition for $75 which isn't terrible for a rare book. Prices go up into the $100-$300 range from there.
  by Aa3rt
 
Just thought those of you who are following this topic may be interested in the following article that was posted yesterday (Oct. 27) at a site called "GreatergreaterWashington" involving all sorts of transportation topics.

The article is titled "Historic Losses: DC to Annapolis by Rail", authored by Malcom Kenyon:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=7792
  by PKelly
 
The B&A ROW/B&A Trail Park...short section of original track remains @ Jones Station Road.
  by R,N, Nelson
 
There still may be some rail from the WB&A still under the pavement on King George Street, College Ave and West St.

Early on, the City of Annapolis had complaints about the rail traffic in their streets, especially as motor traffic increased, and began an on- going effort to have the trains in the streets removed. But the railroad had a franchise, so this would not be an easy move on the part of the city. The railroad did want to end the local service which the city had insisted on at first, so it was easy to discontinue that service, prior to WWI. Originally, the railroad had a road voltage of 6600 volts.a.c. which was converted to 1200-volts d.c in 1910. But before that, the voltage on the city street-portion of Annapolis was 500-volts, d.c., requiring the change over while at the station stop a West Street. The cars were dual-voltage since they also had to use the d.c voltage in Washington and Baltimore when on streetcar trackage.

So a plan was created by James .J. Doyle, who worked up through he ranks to become the President of the WB&A, to connect the North Shore Division track at Bladen Street with the trackage in the street on College Ave, in order to enable North Shore trains to travel to the ferry slip at the foot of King George Street. Trains on the South Shore Division would then use the connecting track to the North Shore Division at West Annapolis, called "The Bay Ridge Connection" and as a result, the trackage on West Street, Church Circle, Main Street and Randall Street could be abandoned, to the glee of the city.

With Doyle's plan appearing to be near implementation, in order to appease the city, the railroad prematurely relinquished 0.5301 miles of track under Public Utilities Commission Order #13287. Under the new plan, tracks remained on West Street, and around a portion of Church Circle that leads to College Avenue and King George Street. Until the new connection from Bladen Street was constructed, the trains coming from West Street temporarily entered the circle traveling the "wrong way", or against traffic, for a short block to College Avenue. The city was willing to except this temporary measure in light of the relief realized by the Main Street trackage removal.

But when Doyle died suddenly on January 19, 1929, the track connection plan seemed to die with him. With no prospect of the end of "wrong way" running at Church Circle, the city again became agitated and took up the battle once again with the railroad. This time, in mid-October, they erected a "No Left Turn" sign at the corner of West Street and Church Circle and gave notice that after a 30-day grace period, the sign would be enforced. As a safety precaution, when the railroad began this move "against traffic" in the circle, the standard procedure was for the train to come to a halt on West Street and for the conductor to get off with a red flag and walk around to College Avenue and stop the traffic in the circle, and then wave the train through.

On November 14, 1929 at 9:30am, Motorman Harry Basil did just that, as his brother, Conductor John "Wes" Basil stepped off with the flag. The crowd that had formed for the event included the Mayor, the Chief of Police and his officers, the press, and about 100 spectators. As the train started to move, the city officials stopped it and issued both Harry and "Wes" a traffic ticket for turning left at a "No Left Turn" sign. As they were writing out the summons, "Wes" became impatient and said, “Okay, okay. This is fine. But please stand aside and let us through. You are holding up the railroad. I have a schedule to keep.” The brothers were seasoned railroad men, coming to the WB&A when control was taken in 1903 of the AW&B steam road. Even there they had worked together, with the duo being well known by locals as a formidable force. So “Wes’s” reaction was predictable to most as he simply took the traffic ticket, totally unconcerned, and stuffed it into his uniform coat pocket along with spent railroad tickets, and waved Harry on. The railroad paid the fines that day and obtained an injunction against the sign, which permitted the trains to continue until the matter was fully adjudicated.

The final ruling was that that railroad equipment operating in the streets of Maryland, need not obey any traffic control devises. That law, which is still on the books, was taken full advantage of by other railroads on Baltimore streets. Streetcars were not considered a railroad operation and were not included.

The city refused to renew the franchise which expired on June 30, 1932 as the battle with the railroad continued. The railroad was able to obtain another injunction and court ruling in their favor forcing the renewal. Later, in an attempt to cool the matter down after so many years of bickering, the railroad agreed, effective June 1, 1934, to limit the number of scheduled trains on the street trackage to those making a direct ferry connection: six a day in the summer and three a day in the winter, in addition to any special or chartered trains. All street running in Annapolis ended when the railroad ceased operations on Tuesday, August 20, 1935. The rails remaining in the street were covered over with blacktop except the rails on Main Street which had been completely removed earlier during the city’s 1929 repaving project.

For a few weeks in 1988, the rails on College Avenue and King George Street lay exposed as street crews milled down the blacktop to the sand colored brick as part of a repaving project. Fortunately, I took photos of this on July 27th, 1988.

After the WB&A's abandonment, the North Shore was reorganized into the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad and began operating electric cars from Howard and Lombard Sts in Baltimore to Bladen Street on August 21, 1935, lasting until the early morning hours of February 5, 1950 when buses were substituted. On September 8, 1935, the Baltimore end of the operation was changed to Track 4 and 5 of the B&O's Camden Station by use of a new connecting track north of Westport to the B&O’s South Baltimore Branch. What had been the South Shore continued to be operated (by the B&A) west as far a Crownsville, for coal shipments to the hospital using the “Bay Ridge” connection at Cedar Park, until August 25, 1936. This was on the request of the hospital since a contract for heating coal was still in effect. The agreement was between the State, the railroad and Boston Iron and Metal, the scrap dealer who owned the tracks and right-of-way.

After August, 1936, service was cut back to Simm's crossing, Parole. After electric operation ended in February, 1950, diesel freight operated from 1950 until May, 1968 when all Annapolis service ended with B&A service being embargoed south of Jones, primarily due to the poor condition of the Severn River trestle. The steel suspension poles at curbside were retained by the city in 1935 for street light mounting and many are still in use today on both College Ave. and Main Street.

Norman Nelson
  by CarterB
 
R, N, Nelson....EXCELLENT!! information.
Can you post the photos you took during the College Ave/ King George repaving?
  by R,N, Nelson
 
I'd be glad to. But first I have to find them, they are around here somewhere. I might need your help since I have never posted photos before.

I took 4 or 5. As I recall, they had already started repaving King George Street at the lower end. The city was hoping to have, I think it was the Democratic Convention, but it fell through. But the repaving went through anyway. The tracks were only uncovered for about 2 weeks.

Norman