Signals like this with heads facing opposite directions are less common.

They signalled this eastbound train to proceed across a grade crossing added for a signal maintenance road. CSX 853 faces the same direction as the lead engine. Such "elephant style" is less common than paired engines facing opposite directions.

The Old Main Line stays on the Howard County side of the river where it proceeds past the mill and into Ellicott City. B&O's Ellicott City Station is the multi-chimneyed building at lower left.

This aerial photo captures the town two years before the worst flood of the 20th century would wreak havoc. It would destroy the mill's dam (dark line at photo middle) and damage Main Street's county-connecting bridge at right that was built in 1914.

Covered drop bins for coal are at upper left. The 1899 Sanborn map at right labels the bins as the S.J. Ratcliff coal yard.

Link: LoC source photo

CSX 249 is about to pass in front of the the oldest railroad station in the US. The station at Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City), Maryland saw its first train on May 24, 1830.

Link: 1984

The station was repurposed as a railroad museum during the 1970s. Special runs of Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) deposited visitors from time to time. By the way, the term depot derives from the word deposit.

As of 1985, the station building's railcar doors had not yet been reinstalled. Compare this photo to the Aerial 1970 one above to find that two brick chimneys were removed by 1985.

Doors on the station building's south side returned as part of a 1998 restoration. The doors had opened to a railcar servicing room active from 1831 to 1856. Most cars subsequently grew too large to fit so the doors were removed and the room converted for storage and baggage.

The brick structure to the left of the passenger station is (was) a freight house. The turreted building on the hill behind the station is Angelo Cottage, more commonly referred to as Angelo's Castle, built in 1831.

Cleanup work was underway after yet another flood poured through Ellicott City at the end of July 2016. This was the scene less than 72 hours after rains west of town funnelled down into the valley, eroding Main Street (distant left) and floating cars past the Oliver Viaduct into the Patapsco River.

The flood killed several people and drew national attention. The town was closed to visitors and residents alike while repair work began, so this was as close as the public was allowed to get. Westbound CSX coal empties continued to roll, albeit extra slowly, meaning the railroad was undamaged. This time the Patapsco River was not the trouble, but rather the Tiber River / Creek / Branch and similar streams leading down into Ellicott City. Sadly, Main Street suffered a repeat flood during May 2018.

As of this writing, a new drainage tunnel east to the Patapsco River is being bored. Mitigating floods that surge west from a rising Patapsco River -- without relocating the town or rerouting Main Street -- would require impractically-massive engineering.

Links: WBAL slideshow, NWS weather analysis

Every self-respecting railroad museum needs a caboose. C-2149 was built in May 1927 then remodeled during 1978 and 2020.

This is cleaner than railroad crews kept it, trust me.

Link: LoC source photo (right)

After passengers had crowded the main station, B&O added this freight house in 1885. It is an E. Francis Baldwin design.

A model train exhibit within the former freight house details the route between Baltimore and Ellicott City. Seats off photo left and a display screen facilitate presentations to small groups.

Before the automobile, trains were the only mode of mechanised travel. Multiple balconies adorn Patapsco Hotel.

B&O's station in Ellicott City was used by the railroad until 1973 when it was refurbished into a small museum. CSX donated the building in 1996 to either the town or a preservation society. It is operated by Howard County as a museum as of 2025.

Link: LoC 1970

An eastbound steam train rolls to a stop as regulated by a semaphore signal.

Link: LoC source photo

New-looking RDCs pause at Ellicott City. To my knowledge, regular passenger service ended along the Old Main Line circa 1950, so this photo depicts a special excursion.

This color view shows the station around the time B&O ceased using it.

Behind the station's restored southern doors, one will find a holiday display of model trains during December. Dark strips of flooring echo rails that held equipment being repaired in what had been a carhouse from 1831 to 1856. Rails returned for a brief period circa 2000 per the photo link below.

Link: 2004

Immediately north (railroad west) of the station was Frederick Turnpike, Ellicott City's Main Street. It became the first multi-lane road anywhere to be spanned overhead by a railroad, and continues to this day as the world's oldest example. As the primary road west from Baltimore, the turnpike immediately qualified for grade separation upon B&O's circa 1830 arrival. The triple stone arch structure was named the Oliver Viaduct in honor of Robert Oliver, one of B&O's founders.

Link: source photo

This is the center arch. Few photos exist of the viaduct after 1880 because it was modified from this form, thereby making the station and town the more photogenic subjects. With few surviving images, the timing of various modifications to the viaduct is uncertain.

A March 1877 Baltimore Sun article reports the arches were impediments to wagons, and that the B&O and Frederick Turnpike companies were discussing fixes. A circa 1900 photo in Joetta Cramm's Historic Ellicott City: A Walking Tour appears to show the two stone arches over the turnpike gone but their central stone pier retained to support a new bridge whose type is obscured by a passenger platform.

Platform supports in the shape of bird's feet would be used here for over 100 more years. Some can be seen in the photos below.

Link: source photo

This is the sole survivor of three stone arches that originally constituted the Oliver Viaduct. This arch spans the tame-looking Tiber Branch of the Patapsco River. To my eye, the archway appears narrower than in the 19th century photos, however careful examination suggests the number of voussoirs (arch stones) is the same then as now.

The signs on the white support pole designate the height of an historic flood to hit the valley. The topmost sign indeicates the water height from Agnes in 1972. But, look higher. On the fence is a sign that marks the peak water of the flood of July 24, 1868. Newspaper reports from the time claim the water rose to that point (some 20 feet above normal) within the span of 30 minutes!

Those two floods arose from the Pataspco River, but as will be seen below, the Tiber can cause trouble, too.

Tiber Branch flooding in 2016 destroyed the stone wall on the left that may have been original 1830 construction. The temporary white wall was later replaced with a stone wall.

The flood height pole has not yet been replaced, nor has the railing at platform level. A new railing of B&O style has been installed at street level (foreground) along with a museum birdhouse.

Railcars not only rode atop the bridge but also under it. This was Trolley Line 9 in its last year of operation. Car number 5706 joined Baltimore Transit Company after starting service with United Railways and Electric.

Maryland stop signs transitioned from yellow to red backgrounds after the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) standardized on red in 1961.

Links: 5706 elsewhere, 5706 fantrip. MUTCD
Change for: Trolley Line 9 tour at this site

Multiple arrows where the trolley previously operated remind eastbound drivers to bear right after crossing under the railroad. The yellow sign appears to read "First Terminus of the Baltimore And Ohio Railroad 1830".

The diamond-shaped sign at left tells you Railway Express Agency operated at Ellicott City Station. REA shipped your packages via train. This photo also captures the covered walkway to the station from Main Street.

My prizefighting uncle used to gently box with a young me, saying "I show you the right... and give you the left!" Ellicott City floods have come from multiple directions, too.

The "Great Flood of the Tiber" hit during September 1952. Tiber Branch, which descends from the nearby west, deposited automobiles on the east side of the Oliver Viaduct because this is where Tiber waters were absorbed by the non-flooding Patapsco River. The floodwaters of 2016 and 2018 likewise came from local storms that poured into the Tiber.

Ellicott City can also be affected by excess water rising from the Patapsco, as happened with 1972's Agnes. Unlike the Tiber floods, heavy rain 20 miles northwest of town drained to here via the Patapsco River.

River water did not quite reach track level (only the 1868 event has) but I'd not want to be standing on the viaduct while rapids eat at the structure's foundation.

Links: 1972, retrospective

Since water from Agnes was flowing west from the Patapsco, autos were first floated then beached in mud on the west side of the Oliver Viaduct.

Link: Main St 1972

Here's the same location roughly a half century later. The last of the bird's-foot-style supports was removed during 2016. One or more had been on duty here for about 150 years.

The B&O station-turned-museum is immediately off photo right.

What was the viaduct's appearance when whole? Some physicists believe every possible event happens in at least one of many universes (MIWOI). If true, the Oliver Viaduct's three stone arches still stand in at least one. This digital re-creation shows what they might look like to Ellicott City visitors arriving from the east. Their world must have lower vehicles than ours.