As trains round round the bend, they see into Gaithersburg...

Link: 1982

A combination of productive farms and good roads made Gaithersburg a busy stop for the railroad. Within a few years after the Met's opening, tons of fertilizer and a hundred thousand bushels of wheat were shipping annually with help from B&O's brick Freight House that survives right of photo center. Double tracking of the Met worked outward from DC but did not reach here until 1893.

The rusty tracks in the foreground - disconnected from the main not long before this photo - had served the station, and now host static railroad displays.

Links: 1978, 1991

One railcar on display is this ex-B&O Budd RDC unit originally numbered 6652 when built during 1953. The operator's control cabin (right) was period-typical sparse: no cupholders!

Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) were manufactured by Budd from 1949 to 1962. They operated as a single car thanks to being self-propelled by two diesel engines. Though this example at Gaithersburg has not operated for decades, its interior still carries the scent of diesel fumes, one of the downsides of the otherwise smart design. The engines powered the wheels directly, not via electricity.

B&O sold this unit to MARC who refurbished it and ran it on commuter lines within Maryland during the 1980s.

In an experimental design called the M-497 "Black Beetle", the New York Central Railroad affixed two jet engines to a Budd RDC similar to this one, and set a US rail speed record of 183 mph during 1966, a record that as of this writing (2024) still stands.

Link: more about the Black Beetle

The former B&O Freight House has been remade into the Gaithersburg Community Museum. Area photos and artifacts are housed within, arranged in attractively-designed, informative displays, suitable for both young and old. During my visit I found the staff to be both courteous and knowledgable. This museum is worth going out of your way to visit.

Perhaps the museum's most tech-heavy artifact is a specialized telescope (right) that had been used to accurately measure the Earth's precession, or "wobble", on its axis. Gaithersburg was home to one of six coordinated International Latitude Observatories scattered around the globe, all at the same latitude. The observatory operated most years from 1899 to 1982, but its precisely measured location still serves as a reference point for GPS satellites.

Links: more about the observatory, museum info

G class B&O 635 and crew pause for a photo op in front of the freight house. You can find a 4-4-0 steam engine similar to this in the form of B&O 25 at the B&O Museum in Baltimore.

Link: B&O 25 pics

On display beside the freight house rested this attractive B&O caboose. An attached sign read:

Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) "Wagontop" Bay Window Caboose 2490 - This class I-12 steel caboose was built by the B&O Railroad in January of 1942 on an outdoor assembly line at the railroad's shops in Keyser, West Virginia. After many years in regular freight train service, it was last used by the railroad in work train service in the New Martinsville, West Virginia area in December of 1985. The "Wagontop" design is unique to the B&O Railroad, and was also used on some of their box cars and covered hopper cars. The "bay windows" enabled the train crew to observe the train, watching for signs of dragging equipment or overheated journal bearings on the freight cars. The caboose is also equipped with an air pressure gauge and a brake valve so that the crew could monitor the brake pipe pressure and stop the train in an emergency. This type of caboose has an unusual "Duryea Underframe", which is a sliding center sill that is attached to the caboose body with horizontal "springs", and was an early attempt to soften the shocks inherent in freight train operation.

Link to other pics: 2013

After the B&O Wagontop caboose moved to the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum, Gaithersburg replaced it with this C&O model, refurbished sans full caboose interior so the space could be used for meetings and education. Various photos of the life of railroad employees are posted on the interior walls.

This unit was built by American Can & Foundry for military use during WW II as a kitchen car. Western Maryland Railway purchased it after the war, and turned it into an MoW car. Note the faded WM stencil at the lower-left corner.

Link: WM K3008 pics

The Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad operated on and off during the 20th century to cart coal from the mines to B&O at Dundon, West Virginia. During its first operational period from 1904, the BC&G never switched to diesels, and instead kept its steam engines chuffing until 1965.

BC&G Consolidation 14 began life as an 0-8-0, but after wrecking in 1956 it was rebuilt into 2-8-0 form, which may be one reason it espcaped scrapping so that we can still enjoy it today.

Links: older pics, newer pics

As you may have guessed from all the equipment on display, Gaithersburg is also graced with a B&O station, this one of E. Francis Baldwin design dating to 1884. The final segment of rail to complete the Metropolitan Branch was laid here on February 8, 1873. The first train ran on May 25, 1873.

Inflation has made "five and ten" cent stores like Ben Franklin (background) into 5 and 10 dollar stores.

Link: history of Ben Franklin stores

Though Amtrak ceased stopping here during 1986, the always-hungry-for-site-visitors yelp lists this as one of the top ten train stations in Gaithersburg. (Gaithersburg has only one train station.)

Link: 1978

A coffee shop has taken up residence within, which makes it all the easier for railfans to get a glimpse inside the nicely restored structure. MARC trains now stop here for commuters. The light stripes on dark background above the town name are the reverse of the station's original dark-on-light paint. This paint change looks to have begun during the 1980s following a unicolor-stripes-and-background period during the 1970s.

Link: 1984

The interior might be the best preserved of all the Baldwin-designed surviving B&O stations. Amtrak tickets were probably not available during the 1880s (just a guess), but much of the remainder looks like it could date from that era.

I assume the wall seats are replicas, but they are so nicely done I'm not certain. I have not seen their drilled B&O pattern elsewhere, so it's probably a modern artistic liberty. I like it.

A photog captured Gaithersburg's rarely-documented passenger waiting shack from a moving train. It sat opposite the station.

Where a road parallels the tracks near a grade crossing, special signals warn drivers when to not turn. The internet would eliminate large gatherings of free newspaper/ad dispensers not long after this photo.

Summit Avenue runs adjacent the station.

An older view across Summit Avenue finds B&O 5907 beside the station.

United Aircraft Corporation's TurboTrain wore Amtrak garb, but operated well below its record 170 mph speed. Gas turbines powered the TurboTrain whose passenger cars passively tilted around curves. C&O Railroad pioneered the TurboTrain's design.

Links: 1986, Turbo train pictures

WM 7548 meets B&O 3730 at Gaithersburg.

Note that a switch appears this side of the Summit Avenue grade crossing...

Link: 1981

The track switch of the prior photo had been the eastern limit of the Gaithersburg Wye, a formerly important train turning location. In this view looking west again, the wye is on the left, beyond the grade crossing, where a steam locomotive pauses perhaps after turning. B&O had regularly operated local service between DC and Gaithersburg, hence the wye. Helper engines were turned at the wye as well.

In 2012 a copy of this photo hung in the passenger waiting area inside the station. The building across Summit Avenue from the station appears to be signed Ruchter's Paint, though I could find online no confirmation of such a store during that time period.

Links: 1911, 1980, 1986

This more recent photo looks the same direction, though the photographer is standing at the grade crossing. All traces of the wye's east leg are gone.

The multi-level building opened around 1990 to provide automobile parking for MARC commuters. Along the elevated walkway, the Capitol dome herald (inset) proudly displays the town's B&O heritage.

Link: fixing broken coupler (video, 2011)

B&O added the wye (Y) of track at center in 1888 to faciltate the turning of engines that operated local service between Gaithersburg and Washington, DC. Gaithersburg was chosen as the wye location because feeder roads permitted Montgomery County farmers to deliver agricultural goods to the trains. Additionally, during the late 1800s Gaitherburg was under consideration as a stop along the proposed-but-never-built Baltimore, Cincinnati and Western Railroad.

The wye was upgraded during 1906 and saw heavy use until the 1950s when trucks on new roads such as US 240 (I-270 precursor) siphoned off demand.

Wye track was pulled up circa 1990 to make way for the parking lot in this photo until mixed use development overlaid it during the 2010s. The west side of that construction curves to follow the property line of the former wye.

Link: 2006

If the wye were still extant, the lead engine would be at the middle of the straight side. Following behind are CSX 2474 and ATEX 0006, an Asplundh Tree Service unit in action spraying defoliant to reduce trackside weed growth that could become a fire hazard as a dry summer wears on.

Links: 1984, ATEX 0006 in 1986

The strips already devoid of grass and weeds at bottom center reflect the scant remaining evidence of the Gaithersburg Wye. This was the western limit of the wye's western leg.

The grade separation overpass behind CSX 6155 and CSX 2474 dates to around 1940 and carries MD 355, Frederick Avenue, over the tracks. CSX 6155 was built in 1977 as B&O 4256; it was renumbered CSX 6502 after a rebuild.

Link: 1985

B&O 4055 is a model GP40 that was seen in 2023 operating for Lake State Railroad Company.

Link: 1978, as LSRC 1162