In a head on view that looks like a trademark angle from movie director Stanley Kubrick, we resume the tour where we left off on the OML. The Sykesville Tunnel with two bridges as bookends looms in the distance.

Notice how the tracks form the shape of an upside down letter y.

Bridge 27A carries the OML across the Patapsco for a brief ride in Howard County.

A CSX track inspection vehicle, out checking for frozen switches after a snowstorm, is dwarfed by the Sykesville Tunnel. This tunnel is the second shortest on the OML, measuring just under 240 feet long.

And, the same tunnel as seen from the west.

a view of the tunnel during the double-track era

Link: Gatehouse Museum

West of the tunnel, the OML crosses the river back into Carroll County.

All but invisible from trackside during leaf season (right) is this B&O water tank dating from the days of thirsty steam engines. Brick walls about a foot thick encircle a volume of about 6000 cubic feet, room for about 50000 gallons of water.

Reader John Meyer had alerted me to the tank:

Steve, in my side yard is a 20 foot deep 20 foot diameter brick cistern that was the holding tank for the water column on the east end of Gaither. There is a duplicate tank on the west end of Gaither the fed the water column that you show the mount for. You can still find the hand operated pump that pulled the water in/out of the tank and also the iron pipe that heads down to the tracks.

Another reader tells me the tanks were filled by diversion from a tributary of Piney Branch to a retaining pond, then by pipe supported by timbers. The pipe was washed away by Hurricane Agnes's stormy weather during 1972. During subsequent exploration I have located remnants of those piping systems, which can be toured here.

From Sykesville west, grade crossings, like this one at the relatively quiet Gaither Road, become more common. Note twice the normal number of warning lights on the signal posts: Railroad Avenue parallels the tracks. During the first half of the 20th century, this was a triple track area, two for the main line and one for a siding. The surviving track is the middle of those three.

The Winchester & Western (W&W) was organized during 1916 by the Winchester Lumber Company, a subsidiary of B&O, to build track in West Virginia. Many B&O crossties arrived via the W&W in Winchester, Virginia where the two railroads connected. As of this writing, the W&W is a Class III shortline railroad operating in WV, VA, MD, and NJ.

This warning signal pole at the Gaither Road grade crossing hosts 6 lamps, an uncommon quantity.

Link: Winchester & Western company site - many nice W&W pics

In the days of steam, Gaither had been an important stop for water as westbound locomotives began their ascent to Mt. Airy. Water tanks on either side of Gaither Road stored the liquid to satisfy thirsty locomotives.

Though close to the tracks, the west side tank is all but invisible during leaf season. In this view it stands on the other side of the white house (if you face the front of the house, the tank is on the right). Detour: Gaither Water Tanks

A tall water spigot, a "penstock", was mounted to this disused concrete base that has never been removed. Before the 1950s a siding paralleled on the other (right) side of this concrete.

Reader Bill Barringer kindly wrote to say:

The term 'Penstock' is indeed the B&O preferred term. I am a former employee, who has followed the road for 53 years. It's the only term I have ever heard used for a water column.

Compare this photo with the nearly identical view from 1948 on page 280 of Impossible Challenge II.

This culvert inlet is far from the railroad which means either a siding had been here or B&O realigned the tracks. My guess is the latter.

West of Gaither the tracks resume their trek through Patapsco Valley State Park. Here the largest of several box culverts along this quiet stretch drains to the river.

A solar-powered greaser dispenses lubricant to the wheels of passing trains.

One of the quietest grade crossings on the OML, this Hoods Mill Road crossing warrants only a bell...now a rare relic of simpler times.

Since the time of the prior photo, CSX added warning flashers. CSX 3176 follows the lead engine.

Near bottom left, a rail segment left behind from double-track days emerges from the pavement and ballast.

Another trackside telephone shack can be found at the Hoods Mill Road grade crossing. This Permacrete shack has a different design than the one at Gun Road.

There was/is another shack of this design hidden within the Washington Branch's (Capital Subdivision's) Jessup Yards. They are the only two intact survivors I've seen.

The BNSF-led-train, uncommon along the OML, is about to span the MD 97 grade crossing.

When grade crossings are refreshed, black, rubbery material is clamped to the rails to cushion them from the traffic that will pound across after new paving is laid.

That new paving is at photo bottom.

A pair of helper engines, CSX 587 and 772, has gotten the green signal to return west from what CSX calls SR 97 (State Road 97). The road did not arrive here until many years after B&O, which explains the complete absence of the houses and shops that usually cluster around a state road grade crossing.

A dry September made autumn leaves more brown than we prefer, but the colors still peaked during late October.

A hill west of MD 97, here also named Old Washington Road, supplies a convenient overlook. This view back east shows the grade crossing in the distance, and the east end of Hood siding in the foreground.

Link: 1982

I was surprised to find this style of culvert so far east. Culverts with iron pipes like this are common nearer the Mt. Airy Tunnel. The tunnel forced several miles of the OML to be regraded, and during that circa 1900 process B&O updated the culverts from the original all-stone versions.

Nothing much to say about this view west to Morgan Road. Here, the OML finally gets to an area where straight track for about a mile is possible. Off in the distance, the other endpoint of the siding can be seen.

The stream that looks significant on ADC maps in this vicinity is actually a tiny, swampy stream that creeps under the OML via a decidedly unphotogenic culvert. Not worth the hike to see.

Switch repairs were underway on a fine autumn day. Good luck getting Artificial Intelligence to do this sort of thing.

A few disused tanks like this remain extant along the line, always near track switches. They held propane that fueled heaters designed to keep ice from freezing up the switch. CSX has swapped out the propane systems for electric heaters. During the steam engine era, hot steam exhaust from cylinder cocks would melt ice at switches, so dedicated heaters were not needed along busy routes.

Eastbound for Baltimore, a mile of coal pushes CSX 388 downstream to signals at W.E. Hood, the west end of Hood siding.

This is much the same view as that with CSX 388 except it dates from more than a century earlier. Whether the first mill at Morgan predates the railroad is uncertain, but we do know Shocks Mill here was destroyed by the big flood of July 1868. By comparison, the Patapsco (near stream) was barely flowing at photo time, with most of its water passing through the mill race (far stream). B&O's double track at bottom right is supported by minimal stone ballast.

The mill changed hands several times. At one point, it was called Dushane's Morgan Mill, whereas this late-1800s photo shows it as Woodbine Paper Mill. Surviving evidence of the mills include stones scattered in the Patapsco River and this brick chimney (left) on the Howard County side.

Link: source photo

Hmm, a green signal while an inspector waits on the siding, what could that mean?

Did you guess it would be CSX 5398? CSX 7565 follows at Morgan Road.

A glimpse of the OML in its double track days remained embedded in the pavement at the quiet Morgan Road grade crossing. It has since been mostly paved over. The road is named Morgan Station Road on the Howard County side (right).

Just west of Morgan Road is this unusual culvert. The center rectangle looks original, or at least the oldest. Perhaps it proved to be insufficient during heavy rain storms, and therefore overflow pipes were added on both sides.

B&O's Form 6 from 1917 shows a station here in Morgan. This trackside structure may have been a scalehouse for one of the mills that had operated behind the photog. The same Form 6 lists a siding with room for six cars.

Next, we'll follow the original alignment that guided the OML west around the hill through which Woodbine Tunnel was later bored.