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Old Main Line Photo Tour


B&O Old Main Line
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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St. Denis Park
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

St. Denis Park
Mile: 6.8 Date: 1915
Ease: View: N (up)
Area: IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

St. Denis Park was one of the earlier subdivisions in this area. Many of the roads and lots shown on this 1915 map were for planning, and some did not come to fruition. Rolling Road's grade separation would later follow that marked Main St.

St. Denis is not named for a saint, but rather Denis A. Smith, a landowner in this area who was involved in the collapse of the Bank of the United States. By long evading personal liability for his irregular banking he was given the moniker "Saint Denis".


Aerial 1927
Photos courtesy Johns Hopkins University

Aerial 1927
Mile: 6.7 to 6.8 Date: 1926/1927
Ease: View: N (up)
Area: IC2:
Map: Ba 41 Topographic Maps

This is a winter 1926/1927 aerial view of St. Denis.

At the left edge, the State Roads Commission will soon (1930) grade separate River Road. Not until about 1970 would MD 166 (later I-195) make a north/south run through the upper right corner of the photo. In between, where East Street meets the railroad, stands B&O's St. Denis Station. The subsequent MARC passenger shelter would be placed west of it (left).


End Begin

End Begin
Mile: 6.7 Date: Jan 2018
Ease: B View: W
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

CSX's Baltimore Terminal Subdivision ends just before we reach St. Denis station. The leftmost two tracks handle service along the Capital Subdivision, "Cap Sub," the former B&O Washington Branch, to Washington, DC. If the rightmost track is not part of the Old Main Line Subdivision here, it will be about a half mile west where this tour will follow its bends upstream along the Patapsco River. CSX 5350 and CSX 3248 wait in the distance.

Link: 2011


Zoom Back
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

Zoom Back
Mile: 6.7 Date: Oct 2004
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

Looking back in time and tour direction, CSX allowed the far track to grow weeds because work would soon begin to move the Halethorpe signals and track switches a bit west, that is, closer to St. Denis and the camera. Two westbound trains wait about a mile distant for an eastbound getting the green signal on the near track.


Concrete Ties

Concrete Ties
Mile: 6.7 Date: Feb 2009
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

When CSX made signal and track adjustments here, they opted for concrete ties rather than the usual wood. Concrete is sometimes used with high-speed switches, such as those added here.

With concrete, track base design has come almost full circle in 200 years. In 1830, B&O's original track base here was hard, permanent granite.

Link: 2007 installation


CSX 832
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

CSX 832
Mile: 6.7 Date: May 2023
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

Though CSX 832 looks to be returning coal back to the mountains, actually it was the trailing pusher on an eastbound train headed away from the camera. The new US 1 bridge spans overhead.

Link: bridge oops


Zink DD

Zink DD
Mile: 6.7 Date: Jan 2018
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

When CSX decided to relocate defect detectors away from the curves at Relay, it chose this location. For clarity, CSX prefers to give such instrumentation a unique name, but location names of Relay, St. Denis, and Halethorpe were already in use. After much back and forth, the group at Jacksonville decided to name this one after Dan Zink, a long-time B&O and CSX employee who had worked on these systems and was nearing retirement. Dan could not stay away from railroading for long: he continued on as a volunteer at the B&O Museum in Baltimore and has kindly looked up obscure historical B&O information for this site.


CSX 8743

CSX 8743
Mile: 6.8 Date: Apr 2001
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2: 301
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

CSX had not yet repainted all locomotives it inherited from Conrail. As of 2023, this unit toils for the Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

Links: 1981, 1987, CSX 8743


Signals

Signals
Mile: 6.8 Date: Feb 2017
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

About 2007, CSX moved signals and crossovers to here, about a mile west of their B&O-era installation at Halethorpe and HX Tower. The empty fourth signal mount on the left leaves room to handle restoration of a fourth track. This stretch has been triple tracked since the 1950s. Prior to that, a siding had dipped on the right to deliver to the Dorsey Coal Company.


CSX 1
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

CSX 1
Mile: 6.8 Date: Jan 2018
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

CSX 1 digit Yes, CSX 4814 is leading, but this is my only photo that includes CSX 1. I didn't capture a second photo because I didn't realize CSX 1 was trailing until much later.


Crew Change
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

Crew Change
Mile: 6.8 Date: Aug 2017
Ease: A- View: NE
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

St. Denis Station hangs on as a quiet MARC commuter stop. There is parking room for about 20 commuters, and even that is rarely consumed. As such, it is a convenient location to change crews.


Five Units
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

Five Units
Mile: 6.8 Date: Jan 2018
Ease: A- View: NE
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

CSX 5226, 4229, 3284, 411, and 8247 lead a parade toward Baltimore.


ARMN 110114
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

ARMN 110114
Mile: 6.8 Date: May 2023
Ease: A- View: NE
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

Graffiti that's more than self-aggrandizement is ultra-rare.

Link: Dapr


UPOZ

UPOZ
Mile: 6.8 Date: Oct 2002
Ease: A- View: W
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

UPOZ-845211 has hitched a ride through St. Denis. UPOZ is a reporting mark of United Parcel Service. Trailers without flanged wheels are given reporting marks that end in the letter Z.

The station has two passenger waiting shacks, such as the one seen at left. St. Denis is a flag stop, which means MARC trains do not stop unless the operator knows a passenger wants to board or disembark. Low demand means MARC will likely eventually discontinue commuter service here.

Link: 2019


Rail at St. Denis

Rail at St. Denis
Mile: 6.8 Date: Oct 1999
Ease: A- View: N
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

If somehow the traffic gets slow, you can always read the rail manufacturing IDs. This segment was made back in September 1951 at US Steel's Carnegie plant.


Have a Blast
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

Have a Blast
Mile: 6.8 Date: Oct 2000
Ease: A- View: W
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

A mom and her son enjoy a blast of air from CSX 8622 as it passes at full speed. Before the platform's removal around 2007, it was the only place in the region one could stand between two quickly moving freight trains but a few feet apart.


CSX 5373
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

CSX 5373
Mile: 6.8 Date: Dec 2020
Ease: A- View: SW
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

Families and foamers alike know better than to stand around for trains on bitterly cold days.

This location is known for attracting railfans, including deeply serious ones, aka foamers. Most are welcoming to newbies, but be aware some are so into modern railroad details that they'll not have much to talk about with you unless you can tell them something current they do not already know. My history interest usually doesn't qualify me with foamers, and that's OK.

Links: Meet the Foamers, The Return


CSX 8092

CSX 8092
Mile: 6.8 Date: Oct 2002
Ease: A- View: W
Area: B IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

St. Denis is a staging location for trains as they approach Baltimore. Trains frequently pause here for a few minutes, comfortably west of signals so as to not block the station. On this day, CSX 8092 and HLCX 6070 (a leased unit) idle and await instructions with their short mixed freight in tow. That's the Rolling Road overpass in the background.


MARC 16
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

MARC 16
Mile: 6.8 Date: Jan 2018
Ease: A- View: W
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

signal holder MARC 16 and CSX 5226 meet under Rolling Road.

Brackets over the trains imply B&O signals had previously been affixed to the bridge. I have yet to find a photo to confirm that. Have you seen one? Most old photos look the opposite way, toward the station.

Links: MARC 30 in 1993, MARC 82 in 1993


St. Denis 1904
Photo courtesy owner Baltimore County Public Library
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

St. Denis 1904
Mile: 6.8 Date: 1904
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

This area was relatively undeveloped circa 1900. What was probably the first grade separation bridge for Washington Boulevard (later US 1) is visible at distant left back at Halethorpe. If there had once been a wheeled vehicle grade crossing at St. Denis, it was closed by 1900.


St. Denis 1939
Photo courtesy William Thurston Collection

St. Denis 1939
Mile: 6.8 Date: ~1939
Ease: B+ View: E
Area: B+ IC2: 295
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

As viewed from the Rolling Road overpass during the age of steam, four tracks passed through St. Denis. That's B&O's passenger station at the center, and the Calvert Distillery plant at distant right.


St. Denis 1943
Photo credit Hughes Studio

St. Denis 1943
Mile: 6.8 Date: 1943
Ease: B+ View: E
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

The former Calvert Distillery became part of Seagram, and later Guinness. Some of it was split off for use by Road Way Express trucking.


St. Denis 1970
Photo courtesy owner Baltimore County Public Library
NEW! mid-Dec 2023

St. Denis 1970
Mile: 6.8 Date: 1970
Ease: A- View: E
Area: B+ IC2:
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

MD 166 (background) was new at photo time, some 20 years away from being renamed I-195. St. Denis Station would not remain in good condition much longer, and would be gone by about 1980.

Links: 1962, 1972


St. Denis 2002
Updated mid-Dec 2023

St. Denis 2002
Mile: 6.8 Date: Oct 2002
Ease: B+ View: E
Area: B+ IC2: 295
Map: Ba 41 J 12 Topographic Maps

HLCX 6070 St. Denis Station is remembered by the small shelter just beyond the nose of the lead locomotive. B&O's wood frame station seen in the older photos above stood a bit beyond (east of) the current shelter.

Since both the OML and the Capital Subdivisions pass through here, there's plenty of traffic to watch, and the viewing is easy.

Link: more St Denis photos at this site



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