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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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Signals
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Signals
Mile: 10.6 Date: Jul 2008
Ease: B View: NW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 36 E 4 Topographic Maps

During the first decade of the 2000s, the Met's CPL signals gave way to the inline design like those adjacent to Metropolitan Avenue. The red-collared, white pipes encapsulate connections for warning signals at Kensington Station.

To my knowledge, signal numbers are suffixed with a dash and digit when each track gets its own signal post, in this case tracks 2 and 1, at the same milepost.


Culvert
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Culvert
Mile: 10.7 Date: Jul 2008
Ease: B- View: E?
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Mo 36 E 4 Topographic Maps

This box culvert lurks adjacent to Metropolitan Avenue. Despite the atypical design for the Met, I suspect this is original B&O construction.


Bridge 11B
Photos courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Bridge 11B
Mile: 10.8 Date: Jul 2008
Ease: B View: NE
Area: B IC2:
Map: Mo 36 E 4 Topographic Maps

bridge 11b Like bridge 10E, this one was extended northeastward in two stages, first with a brick arch, then later via concrete. Unlike 10E, the concrete end is not fully open, but rather appears to lead to a drain-style water entrance. Note the bright sliver of sunlight in the distance.

1870 carving One interior stone appears to have the digits 1870 carved into it, which matches the Met's construction period. The crudeness of the carving and its placement upside down, however, make me wonder if it is original.


Approaching Kensington
Photo credit Frank Chapman
NEW! Jun 2026

Approaching Kensington
Mile: 10.8 Date: 1901
Ease: B View: NE
Area: B IC2:
Map: Mo 36 E 4 Topographic Maps

The Met was 28 years young at photo time. The W post tells train operators to blow the whistle for the upcoming grade crossing. Kensington Station's freight shed is the distant bright building adjacent to and left of the tracks.


Supports
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Supports
Mile: 10.8 Date: Jul 2008
Ease: B View: NW
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 E 4 Topographic Maps

Decades ago, rails spanned these supports designed to allow easy unloading by gravity of bulk materials like coal and stone from railcars. Similar supports can be found adjacent to B&O trackage in Elkridge and Hyattsville. In toto, this siding had room for 16 cars and is visible where it joins the Met in the 1978 photo linked below.

Links: Elkridge 2002, 1978


Orange Markers
NEW! Jun 2026

Orange Markers
Mile: 10.9 Date: Nov 2025
Ease: B View: S
Area: B IC2:
Map: Mo 36 E 4 Topographic Maps

CSX plants these marker poles at the limits of a work zone. All other marker pairs I have seen of this design have been above railroad tunnels. The next panel speculates about why they are here.


Kensington Railway
Image credit USGS
NEW! Jun 2026

Kensington Railway
Mile: Date: 1923
Ease: View: N (up)
Area: IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

We are following B&O from Forest Glen at bottom right to upper left on this 1923 map. Maps like this say the spot with the orange poles is in line with Kensington Railway, a trolley line that ran from Chevy Chase to Kensington. It is depicted from map bottom upward toward Kensington; the poles are below the letter K. One problem: no map shows that railroad continuing quite far enough to extend under B&O.

It could be that a now-plugged tunnel was excavated below the orange markers in hope the railway would expand north to connect to Sandy Spring Railway, which is probably depicted by the squiggle of tracks at upper left. The intersection of Connecticut Avenue and University Boulevard would later be built over the squiggle. After operation ceased in 1935, Kensington Railway's right of way was remade into Kensington Parkway.

Link: Kensington history


Kensington
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Kensington
Mile: 10.9 Date: Jul 2008
Ease: A View: W
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

A summertime retreat community began in the 1880s when farmer George Knowles sold property where B&O bisected Rockville-Bladensburg Road (some sources call it Bethesda-Bladensburg Road). Around 1890, Brainard Warner formed a planned community here and chose the name Kensington.


Commuters
Photo credit HH Harwood

Commuters
Mile: 11.0 Date: 1972
Ease: A View: W
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

Unlike along the Old Main Line, passenger service has never ceased along the Met, though the organization providing that service has changed. This photo captures the final years of B&O as sole provider, here using Budd RDCs to carry suit-wearing commuters. As suggested by the spartan conditions illustrated (drive right to the tracks), this was not busy nor a big money maker for the railroad, and by 1974 the State of Maryland began subsidizing it.

In 1983, B&O successor CSX and the State combined to form MARC (Maryland Area Regional Commuter) to provide passenger service along the Met or what by then was known as the Brunswick Line. That arrangement ended in 2013 when Bombardier Transportation Services took on the task.

Link: wikipedia's MARC entry


B&O 63
Photo credit A Mesrobian

B&O 63
Mile: 11.0 Date: ~1950
Ease: A View: NW
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The photogenic and easy-to-access Kensington Station has encouraged many to bring their cameras. Note the passenger shelter opposite the station. B&O 63 was a model E6A.


B&O 4596
Photo credit HL Buckley
B&O History Collection

B&O 4596
Mile: 11.0 Date: Feb 1968
Ease: A View: NW
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The shelter was either gone or off photo right by 1968. As I write this on a hot summer afternoon, this scene looks invitingly refreshing. Shelter or not, those waiting for B&O 4596 (model F7A) may have felt differently.


Scene 2025
NEW! Jun 2026

Scene 2025
Mile: 11.0 Date: Nov 2025
Ease: A View: NW
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The station's roofline is the same, but almost everything else has changed at the location of the prior photo. I'd have waited to include a train if you'd be able to see more than a little of it.


Station Then
Photo credit Montgomery County Historical Society

Station Then
Mile: 11.0 Date: 1901?
Ease: A View: SE
Area: A IC2: 224
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The Baldwin-designed building was originally named Knowles Station.


Station 1971
Photo credit P Darmody
B&O History Collection

Station 1971
Mile: 11.0 Date: Aug 1971
Ease: A View: SE
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

Prior to MARC refurbishing, the station sported a yellow/brown color scheme.


Station 2012

Station 2012
Mile: 11.0 Date: Jul 2012
Ease: A View: SE
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

Here is the appearance after refurbishing into a MARC commuter station. As in the 1901 photo, a tall utility pole is adjacent, moved slightly. The (freight?) shack at left is long gone, but a similar structure has taken its place.


1891
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

1891
Mile: 11.0 Date: Jun 2008
Ease: A View: W
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The B&O name is remembered adjacent to the construction year. The unique warning signal combination that warned pedestrians is no longer extant. CSX trains operate at up to 70 mph here.


CSX 5458
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

CSX 5458
Mile: 11.0 Date: Jun 2008
Ease: A View: SE
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

Did someone mention a train? CSX 7785 is next in line.


From Train
Photo courtesy B&O History Collection

From Train
Mile: 11.0 Date: Apr 1958
Ease: A View: SE
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

Bishop's crook lampposts, probably the original ones powered by electricity, were still on duty during 1958, as seen from a train moving past the station. White blobs near photo center may be newspaper pages or the last dregs of snow from an early spring storm.


Think Train
NEW! Jun 2026

Think Train
Mile: 11.0 Date: Nov 2025
Ease: A View: NE
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

If everyone were a railfan, everyone would already think train. CSX 844 has its 15 seconds of fame thanks to this poster of Kensington hanging at Kensington.

Link: Droste effect


View Then
Photo credit Montgomery County Historical Society

View Then
Mile: 11.0 Date: 1901
Ease: A View: NW
Area: A IC2: 170
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

Passengers at the station's platform looked out to this scene circa 1900. At that time, Crossing B&O passenger service along the Met had reached its peak of 18 trains per day. This 4-4-0 engine is bound for DC. The building at right advertises Littlefield Real Estate, Rents, Loans.

The St. Paul Steet grade crossing (closed during 1930s) hosted a tower, semaphore signals, crossing gates and a mail crane (left). As the 20th century progressed, all those would be lost, survived by the rails, utility poles and the building behind the tower.


View 2012

View 2012
Mile: 11.0 Date: Jul 2012
Ease: A View: NW
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The survivor building right of center was the home of Mizell Lumber and Hardware from 1931 to 2011.


First Train
Photo courtesy B&O RR Museum and
Kensington Historical Society
NEW! Jun 2026

First Train
Mile: 11.0 Date: May 1873
Ease: A View: N?
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

This is purported to be a photo of the first train to stop at Knowles (now Kensington) as led by B&O 608.


Aerial 1938
Photo courtesy Johns Hopkins University
NEW! Jun 2026

Aerial 1938
Mile: 11.0 Date: Apr 1938
Ease: View: N (up)
Area: IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

The arrow on this low-resolution aerial points to Kensington Station. The bright / diagonal left of the station is the St. Paul Street grade crossing. The bright horizontal line along the top is Plyers Mill Road. The bright mushroom shape in the upper-left quadrant represents a bridge for Connecticut Avenue taking shape.


Mile 11
Photo courtesy Dave Hiteshew

Mile 11
Mile: 11.0 Date: Jun 2008
Ease: A View: NW
Area: A IC2: 170
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

A short siding existed until about 1980 in the open area on the right. A Wikipedia entry reports the short-lived (and short-length) Sandy Spring Railway ran parallel to B&O on the left. Reportedly, that railway extended to the most distant bridge visible where, on its way northeast to Sandy Spring, it crossed overhead via a steel bridge.

Starting with the closest, the two bridges are Connecticut Avenue (bridge 11 C), and Summit Avenue. Beyond that, the grade slopes down to approach Rock Creek.


Grade Crossing
Photo credit Washington Herald
NEW! Jun 2026

Grade Crossing
Mile: 11.0 Date: Sep 1936
Ease: A View: NE?
Area: A IC2:
Map: Mo 36 D 4 Topographic Maps

This St. Paul Street grade crossing would be bypassed by a bridge for Connecticut Avenue that began construction in 1937. Concrete embossing at that bridge shows refurbishment years of 1957 and 1992.


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