My new preservation work on the WB&A in Millersville

You might call this, after the romantic notion of working for a railroad, the next best railfan/enthusiast/historian Dream Come True.

My new office 'digs' for my employer AA County Parks Dept is @ the Cecil Avenue crossing, location of former Millersville passenger stop and the large red-roofed colonial farm house property that has been dubbed "Miller Station".

The house property is evidently on the Register of National Historic Places but under no conservation easements...we're renewing exploration and research history of the house in the community and especially its relationship to the railroad which served it as passenger stop, country store etc...I have a pile of stacked old original WB&A rail outside my office window as preservation artifacts. This building was previously the B&A Trail (Rails to Trails) Park HQ, but that office has now moved to new housing at Jonas Green Park on the banks of the Severn River. The Millersville Station property now houses the Anne Arundel County Recreation and Park's ' Resource Conservation and Preservation Section', of which I supervise. IMHO the WB&A history and artifacts are a darned important resource to be conserved and preserved.

Severna Park has Earleigh Heights station (a local parks HQ), there is the preserved building for the Severna Park Model Railroad Society...and now Miller Station on the Annapolis/Odenton leg of the old system. I have access to some past archival info from Parks files and am looking for suggestions, contacts, material, sources and input from the railfan/historian community on proceeding with our research and preservation efforts. Any help out there railfans?

Thanks for anything...

Pat Kelly (residing in Centreville on Delmarva)
Parks Supervisor and train nut
AA Co Rec n Parks Resource Conservation and Preservation

Some work pics I've scanned...new office in the old residence at Miller Station on the old WB&A.
Correction...the historic building is NOT on the Register. In this case it's a good thing for maintenance and preservation. No hoops and red tape for maintenance.

Couple more pics showing now and then...

You better hurry and get some shots of Nevamar in Odenton, the last freight rail customer in that area. The buildings are steadily being torn down as we speak. I wonder what will happen to the CSX spur leading in to their old facility. The last train movement I saw take place in there was back in 2001.

Yea, I drove down Telegraph Road in Odenton last week and saw that and went H*ly ****...it was jarring.
As part of the long-term WB&A rail-trail system its hoped that somehow the Miller Station house can become incorporated into the railfan community/rail history interpretation.
This place is a blank slate...
Friends of the B&A Trail group and a sub committee regularly utilize the Miller Station meeting room.
I took some pics of the stockpiled original remaining rail today; I'll upload shortly.

Are you saying that the building was the WB&A station at Millersville? I think not. The station was a small waiting shed.

Norman Nelson

The actual Millersville passenger Station is the small shed-like structure in pics 1,2 and 4. Miller Station is so-labelled in the plan schematic; my office is in the "dwelling"

The "dwelling" has quite a bit of history itself associated with the railroad as home of The Millers and Child's:

National Register of Historic Places Maryland - Child's Residence on the Annapolis and Elk Ridge/WB&A Railroad
http://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.asp ... %20Arundel from the Maryland Historical Trust
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childs_Residence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millersville,_Maryland
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Childs-Re ... 82?sk=info

Any chance of getting some volunteers to relay
a few lengths of rail as an interpretive exhibit
of what the "station" area looked like "back in
the day"? Also maybe reconstructing the out-
buildings such as the passenger shed?

A good reference is "Every Hour on the Hour".
A wonderful book about the WB&A, A&E and
the other contributing railorads to the area.

Good luck in your endeavour!

PS...There are still some rail on the ground in the
Bowie Racetrack area and also around Bowie itself.

There is still a section of line at Annapolis Junction, paralleling Rt. 32 , used by the aggregate co. This would have been the start of the line at the wye with the B&O

"PKelly"
I'm told that dates are stamped somewhere on these...is there someone on the Forum that can tell me how to find dates or rail historian to visit and locate this information?

It should be pretty easy to find the mill marks on the rail. They are stamped on the web of the rail, usually on both sides. [Weight in lbs] [Name of steel mill] [Year] [Month] I = January, II = February, III = March etc.

http://mysite.verizon.net/cambronj/wmata/DSC_0633.jpg

What still exists of the WB&A is:

The tower and office at Naval Academy Junction (Odenton);the station at Linthicum; the sub-station at Ardmore and in Baltimore at Scott & Ostend Sts; the tunnels at Westport beside Baltimore-Washington Parkway; and curbs for station platforms along WB&A Rd. Not sure if the shop is still at Naval Academy Junction since I have heard that they complex which surrounded it is being or has been torn down.

Rails in the street in Annapolis are buried under asphalt but surface from time to time; West Street, part of Church Circle, College Ave, King George Street.

Motor #1(second) is the only surviving car and is in the museum in Rio Vista CA.

The station at Severna Park was built by the Annapolis Short Line (ASL) but was part of the WB&A 1921-1935. Also two Sub Stations at Jones, both from the (ASL) but not used by the WB&A. After 1935, Jones #2 was ued by the Baltimore and Annapolis.

Norman

I forgot to mention the remains of a trestle over horsepen creek and some semi-buried track at Bowie race track; it has been a few years since I have been there but it should still be there. This was WB&A track then Penn after 1935

Great thread! I hope that these rails can be put on display if/when the South Shore Trail is built along this segment of the WB&A.