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B&O Metropolitan Branch Photo Tour


B&O Metropolitan Branch
Modern day photo tour

Accompanying each photo below are:

Click a photo to see a larger view. Please send your comments and corrections to Steve.


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CPL
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

CPL
Mile: 4.0 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: N
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 10 E 5 Topographic Maps

Since the time of this photo, most (all?) B&O-era CPL signals along the Met have been replaced by CSX in-line color-light signals. The Fort Totten Metro station lurks up ahead.


B&O 6539
Photo credit Al Holtz
B&O History Collection
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

B&O 6539
Mile: 4.2 Date: Jul 1966
Ease: B View: SW
Area: B IC2: 395
Map: DC 10 F 7 Topographic Maps

1906 accident A B&O Form 6 Station List of 1917 puts Terra Cotta Station in this vicinity, along with the National Terra Cotta Works (Thos. Somerville Co.) and Washington Silicate Brick Co. As of 2022, Aggregate Industries still distributes bulk minerals here. The B&O station was located about 1000 feet south of the Fort Totten Metro stop.

This location is remembered by a Bowie Railroad Museum display (right) for a horrific accident during 1906.


Riggs Road
Photo courtesy District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Library
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

Riggs Road
Mile: 4.6 Date: ~1950
Ease: A View: W
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 10 E 4 Topographic Maps

When this had been a grade crossing, one would have found B&O's Chillum Station here. Since photo time, this bridge has been modified to support more tracks above and more lanes below.


New Hampshire Ave
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

New Hampshire Ave
Mile: 4.9 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: N
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: DC 10 D 3 Topographic Maps

The bridge that carries New Hampshire Avenue has also received a recent facelift. The original grade separation here dates to 1934 and has been dedicated the Charles A. Langley bridge.

Immediately ahead is where Metro in June 2009 experienced its deadliest accident, one that occured when a DC bound Metro train struck another that had stopped. Anticlimbers were insufficient to prevent one car from plowing into and above another.

Links: NTSB accident photo, accident info


Kansas Avenue
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Kansas Avenue
Mile: 5.3 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: A View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 10 D 2 Topographic Maps

By contrast, the Kansas Avenue bridge has not yet received the 21st century makeover. Before a whitewash, the metal sign at center displayed CSX; behind it may lurk a B&O herald. The other side of this bridge has neither CSX sign nor herald.

I assume these bridges were widened during the 1970s for Metro. It could be the center part is ex-B&O, now used by Metro, with 1970s additions on both sides, now used by CSX. The next two photos look from the rails.


Before Metro
Photo credit Al Holtz
B&O History Collection
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

Before Metro
Mile: 5.6 Date: Aug 1966
Ease: A- View: NW
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 10 C 2 Topographic Maps

This was the line's appearance about 10 years before Metro barged in. The digits on the pole at left tell us that is the 40th pole of mile 5. This stretch looks to have 60 poles per mile, which places that pole 40/60ths (2/3rds) of a mile west of milepost 5.

By photo time, B&O's Lamond Station was no longer extant here, but its Takoma Park Station could be glimpsed about a half mile ahead.


After Metro
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

After Metro
Mile: 5.6 Date: Jul 2019
Ease: A- View: NW
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 10 C 2 Topographic Maps

This is the view at roughly the same spot 50-some years later. The tall buildings are over a mile distant in Silver Spring.

Signals guard track crossovers. Crossovers exist between most, if not all, Metro stations. Unlike here, where room is limited the crossovers take the shape of the letter X. Along each outer side CSX gets one track, presumably so they can serve freight customers on both sides without crossing Metro.


Van Buren Street
Photo courtesy District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Library
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

Van Buren Street
Mile: 5.9 Date: ~1950
Ease: A View: W
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 10 C 1 Topographic Maps

This bridge from 1926 probably endured until Metro arrived during the 1970s.


Aspen Street
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Aspen Street
Mile: 6.0 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: NW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: DC 10 C 1 Topographic Maps

Yes, DC does have some streets not named for states or Presidents, such as Aspen Street at milepost 6. That's Metro's Takoma Park station in the distance. B&O's station was slightly closer.


Dome Gas
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

Dome Gas
Mile: 6.1 Date: 1921
Ease: A View: NE
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 4 B 13 Topographic Maps

Dome Gas's 23-cent slogan was "It's Better". It appears the gas station refilled its fuel via gravity from tank car HSWX 726 on a siding above.

This photo also gives us 23 cents worth of B&O Takoma Park Station in the background.

Link: 1921, LoC source photo


Takoma Park Station
Photo courtesy Takoma Park Historical Society

Takoma Park Station
Mile: 6.1 Date: ~1910?
Ease: A- View: NW
Area: B+ IC2: 221
Map: DC 4 B 13 Topographic Maps

A population of civil servants during the first half of the 20th century made Takoma Park DC's "first suburb". Many commuted to their government jobs via this B&O station that had stood at the intersection of Cedar, 4th and Blair since 1886. It appears some arrived by bicycle.

Links: station ~1940, Takoma Park history (PDF)


Enclosed
Photo courtesy B&O History Collection
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

Enclosed
Mile: 6.2 Date: Dec 1965
Ease: A- View: NW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: DC 4 B 13 Topographic Maps

The open area for freight was enclosed some time after the prior photo.

Links: before grade separation, Historic Takoma


B&O 1425
Photo credit Al Holtz
B&O History Collection
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

B&O 1425
Mile: 6.2 Date: Jul 1966
Ease: B View: N
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 4 B 13 Topographic Maps

A Washington-bound train is led by an EMD model E7A.


Cedar Street
Photos courtesy B&O History Collection
NEW! mid-Jun 2022

Cedar Street
Mile: 6.2 Date: Jul 1963
Ease: B View: S
Area: B IC2:
Map: DC 4 B 13 Topographic Maps

1963 Cedar Street was grade separated during 1911. Passengers continued to arrive and depart via train for about another 40 years, after which the station was allowed to deteriorate. A fire destroyed the building in 1967. Brightwood Station, B&O's first station here, stood on the other side of the tracks.


Takoma
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Takoma
Mile: 6.2 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: A View: SW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: DC 4 B 13 Topographic Maps

Relative to B&O's station, the Red Line's Takoma Metro Station sits on the other (north) side of Cedar Street. The four tracks diverge to make room for the station within their center, and that means these bridges date to the 1970s when Metro was constructed here.

B&O's station had been on the opposite side of the tracks at the left side of this photo.


DC Line
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

DC Line
Mile: 6.6 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: N
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: DC 4 B 12, Mo 37 B 12 Topographic Maps

Before Metro, a distingished marker announced the boundary between Maryland and the District of Columbia, as illustrated by the photo linked below (link broken - hoping for a replacement). Now this rail post makes a poor substitute. When rails like this are employed as mile markers, the flat surface (bottom of the rail) is turned to face the tracks.

Link: ~1948


B&O 1426
Photo credit Bruce Fales

B&O 1426
Mile: 6.x Date: Jun 1932
Ease: B View: NW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 37 B 12 Topographic Maps

DC-bound passengers roll from Silver Spring to Tacoma Park on a sunny summer morning.

Though numbered just one higher than a diesel engine above, obviously the two motive units are from different series.

Link: Number 1422 in 1926 Illinois flood


Red Line
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Red Line
Mile: 6.8 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: NW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 37 B 12 Topographic Maps

A six-car Red Line passenger train scoots under Montgomery College's pedestrian overpass. The addition of Metro removed and/or obscured B&O artifacts that might have lingered, such as North Takoma Station that had been here.


View South
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

View South
Mile: 6.9 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: S
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 37 B 11 Topographic Maps

The pedestrian overpass is a nice spot from which to look both back...


View North
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

View North
Mile: 6.9 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: B View: N
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 37 B 11 Topographic Maps

...and ahead. Note two different styles of milepost 7 markers outside the tracks at left and right.


Next Stop Silver Spring
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Next Stop Silver Spring
Mile: 7.2 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: A View: N
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 37 A 11 Topographic Maps

Put a Metro stop just outside the height restrictions of DC and you get buildings that grow tall. Most of those seen here were raised up after 1990, but not the tiny brick structure at center, that's the restored B&O Silver Spring station.

There is much railroad history to see in Silver Spring.


Georgia Avenue 1919
Photo credit B&O Museum

Georgia Avenue 1919
Mile: 7.4 Date: 1919
Ease: A View: NW
Area: B IC2: 222
Map: Mo 37 A 10 Topographic Maps

In 1873, B&O marked its arrival in Silver Spring with laying of tracks across Brookeville Road, later Brookeville Turnpike and now Georgia Avenue (MD 97). This photo dates from the sleepy and bucolic half century before in 1922 the Woodside Development Corporation purchased adjacent Alton Farm and divided it into 1-acre residential sites. That initiated almost non-stop development and re-development that transformed Silver Spring into a bustling economic, business, and transportation hub. semaphore signal

B&O's original Silver Spring station is at distant right; more about it later. The pole is topped by a semaphore-type signal (magnified at right) the shape and lenses of which no doubt inspired the design of color-position light signals that would follow. At right is an octagonal concrete phone shack, very few of which survive. One is extant at Avalon on the Old Main Line.

Note the crossing is with a dirt road, a sharp contrast to the multi-lane, busy road that exists today.


Georgia Avenue 2008
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Georgia Avenue 2008
Mile: 7.4 Date: Sep 2008
Ease: A View: NW
Area: B IC2: 222
Map: Mo 37 A 10 Topographic Maps

The photographer's location and view here are very close to that of the prior photo, but the area's appearance has changed so drastically as to be unrecognizable as the same spot.

A B&O Silver Spring station remains at the distant right; though now in a 1940s "modernized" form, it sits upon the same foundation as the original station of the prior photo. Georgia Avenue, grade separated in 1926, is now 6 lanes that speed -or traffic jam- under the bridge.

Link: ~1950


Dirt Road
Photo credit B&O Museum

Dirt Road
Mile: 7.3 Date: 1920
Ease: A View: N
Area: B IC2: 222
Map: Mo 37 A 10 Topographic Maps

The road has not yet been paved, but at least the place is not deserted: one person walks at left. With the B&O station unseen on the left, presumably more people strolled about when trains arrived. The tracks on right belong to the Washington, Woodside and Forest Glen Railway Power Company, aka the Forest Glen trolley. From 1895 to 1924 the line operated along Georgia Avenue from Eastern Avenue to the National Park Seminary in Forest Glen (seen later in this tour).

Various accounts list the trolley as having its own Silver Spring station, which could be the substantial brick structure at center right, but since trolleys were never especially well-funded, might just as well be the shack at center. Anyone know? Near the shack note what appears to be a stop/go signal for the trolley.


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