In an attempt to stay solvent during the Great Depression, WB&A provided freight service in the form of hauling gravel and sand. This train is veering left from the WB&A main line onto the part of the branch we've just toured. Today, a trail parking lot accessed from Race Track Road is adjacent the right edge of this photo, but the old right-of-way is a tangle of thorny brush.

Into the distance (zoom view, right), WB&A's main line dips towards its Patuxent River crossing, then rises on the Anne Arundel County side of that river. The dark line leading to the right is WB&A's track to Bowie Race Track. When PRR assumed race track service, it kept and reused all WB&A wye track in the foreground so it could both turn engines and hold trainsets that did not fit within the race track's yard.

Change for: WB&A tour at this site

None of WB&A's wye survives in the grassy area at center, but overhead wires criss-cross above the site.

Bowie Race Track opened in 1914 at first under the name Prince George's Park then later Bowie Race Course. WB&A soon extended a spur to it from this location known to the railroad as Boyle. The race track is to the right In this photo.

After the B&O/B&A partnership for two weeks of service to Bowie ended, PRR temporarily operated steam specials to the race track by connecting to the WB&A at Naval Academy Junction (Odenton). In time for the 1937-38 racing season, PRR built the shortcut seen earlier in this tour.

Link: Pennsy sends special train to rescue those snowbound at Bowie Race Track 1958

This one-photo detour shows where PRR trains bound for Bowie Race Track during 1936 would have approached the camera while turning south onto ex-WB&A track near Rieve's Store in Odenton. As of this writing, the site of Rieve's Store is occupied by a Walgreens along MD 170 south of its intersection with 175.

Potential passengers could identify PRR's special race trains by placards like the one at right (image courtesy collection of Frank A. Wrabel).

Link: 1936 abandonment

This 1945 PRR-built trestle over Horsepen Branch replaced an earlier one of WB&A origin. It survives with rusty rails still on top.

Adjacent the trestle, crumbling concrete suggests a structure of some sort, perhaps part of a system to collect water for the horses, of both the animal and iron varieties. USGS topo maps from the period place a "Water" label here, as they do at other locations where water was available for steam engines.

Rails still extend across the top of the trestle. They may be the very same segments as seen in this August 1946 Trains magazine photo that looks in much the same direction toward the racetrack. Back at the Boyle wye, PRR kept a pusher waiting in case trains could not climb this final hill up to the race track.

Motive power during the 1960s was often E units, such as PRR 4273, an EMD E8A that at photo time had been recently renumbered from 5703 in preparation for the merger with New York Central that formed Penn Central.

Arriving 4273 has just passed the branch's "Track" control point that was located at the race track's northwest boundary. It is about to arrive in the yard behind the race track.

If not for the rails still embedded in pavement, one would not know this is the site of the previous photo. No remnants of the Track shack remain, not even a foundation, perhaps erased by a sewer line that was built here after the trains stopped running. Rusty rails litter the treed area ahead.

That hill leading up the to the train yard is at bottom left in this aerial view during an active racing day.

At the left edge of the photo, old maps place Bealmears Bridge across the (Big) Patuxent River. I hope to look for its remains some day.

Link: source photo

The track's western entry road lacked crossing signals, hence a flagman oversees the process of the train rolling into the yard behind (north of) the race track. Anxious racegoers will soon disembark from this train and head to the track which is off photo right.

Link: 1962

Racing that had been suspended during World War II resumed in 1946 with help from some PRR K-4 Pacific 4-6-2 steamers.

The tracks behind the track survive, but perhaps for not much longer since both redevelopment and revival are being studied for the site. Bowie Race Track has been closed since 1985; its horse training center ceased operation during 2015.

The Stronach Group, the dominant player in Maryland horseracing, announced plans in 2018 to shift activity away from Pimilco in Baltimore, to both Laurel and Bowie. That plan was scrapped after Pimlico received upgrades.

The train yard was/is to the north of the race oval. There were/are eight storage tracks, each 600 to 1010 feet in length, where past racegoers disembarked then later, richer or poorer, climbed back aboard. Ten trains would arrive per race day during peak popularity. The trains departed after certain races of that day, such as the seventh or ninth, had been completed.

Link: similar view 1992, source page

This grandstand was demolished and carted away during 2004.

This was the view to the southwest from the grandstand. The location was intentional: by keeping racegoers in the warm sun Bowie could host races during the winter, the only track in/near the northeast US to do so.

Under the Penn Central banner, the final scheduled train departed from Bowie on April 17, 1971. After Amtrak began control of much passenger rail service on May 1, 1971, it did not continue trains to Bowie.

Reaching the wye at the main line looked simple: there are paved paths behind Bowie State University. However those paths turn to dirt and split, with no signage.

After taking several wrong turns that led to swamps, we found a bridge. Its decking has seen better days but the metal structure looked like it could support us, so onward we went.

That also led to puddles and streams. Even the service "road" was underwater during 2018's damp, but very green spring. We wanted to reach somewhere on the right.

The beavers are making this area so swampy the forest service has resorted to mining their ponds.

No, that object on the left appears to be the case of a discarded electrical transformer.

Will a beaver dam support the weight of a person who wishes to cross? We learned the answer is yes - provided one does not slip off it.

Link: mine that washed up on Gilligan's Island

The railroad dealt with the swamp by mounding the earth, then adding layer upon layer of stone ballast, creating what looks to be a large hill made entirely of ballast. The hill is over 20 feet high and the stone is loose.

Ultimately, reaching the wye required an entirely different route.