Though AMTK 2039 is on an outer track, it won't be stopping at Halethorpe which is served by MARC alone. Francis, Linden, and Selma Avenues had met and crossed at grade immediately in front of this train.

Southbound MARC 7761 slows to stop at Halethorpe. MARC 4902 is pushing. The only accumulating snow that month fell on the 25th.

Halethorpe Station was little more than these waiting shacks on asphalt pads at photo time. MARC 59 stands by.

Halethorpe is not an original B&P stop. A grade crossing and station show up on an 1898 map. By 1915, the Baltimore, Halethorpe & Elkridge Railway, a streetcar line, also stopped here.

For a "refreshing" experience soon after a snowstorm, stand at a station as a 100-mph train speeds by. Even without snow it can be quite an adrenaline rush, one not recommended for the faint of heart.

Nearby Elkridge recorded 100 inches of snow during that memorable winter of 2009/2010, more than five times normal. In the Feburary 6, 2010 photo at right, the blue object at center is the top of a yardstick, so, yes, 3 feet of snow. That much would fall again four days later, but the trains stopped running only briefly.

Links: 1987, 1993, 2010

Dave wisely waited until after the snow had melted to freeze AMTK 656, an HHP8 built by Bombadier. Amtrak has retired all its HHP8s since then.

"K-braced" catenary poles, the ones with a horizontal beam over the tracks such as seen in this photo, are employed where the normally stand-alone catenary poles cannot be supported by guy-wire due to insufficient width or clearance within the right of way.

Links: retired HHP8s, 1997, 2007

MARC has/had its own HHP8 units, such as number 4913 that is/was dedicated to Kathryn D. Waters who was a Maryland MTA Administrator.

Link: 2002

Rather than cross the tracks, with help from Francis Avenue's bridge commuters returning home from DC trudge up and over them, then back down. Since photo time the station has received its own elevated walkway with elevators. Milepost 103 is visible at bottom.

Links: original milepost 103 in 1978, another

MARC's four model AEM-7 units, numbered 4900 to 4903, entered service 1986. They have since been removed from revenue service, and are stored at Riverside as of 2023. As seen from the stairway, this one is departing after discharging passengers.

It's not obvious, but this photo was snapped from the same stairway as the MARC 4902 photo above.

Halethorpe was upgraded to this new station during 2013. PRR's version had been located at the left edge of this photo.

Link: 2012

The Francis, Linden, and Selma Avenue grade crossing is visible beyond PRR's Halethorpe Station on the right. The catenary poles had not yet rusted circa 1940.

When Southwestern Boulevard (the bright vertical line) arrived during 1949, the grade crossing was eliminated via the Francis Avenue bridge seen in the October 1952 aerial at left. The dark rectangle below that bridge and right of the tracks appears to be the station.

The trackside structures between the Boulevard and railroad south of the bridge later gave way to commuter parking lots. Does anyone recall what those structures had housed? Were they railroad-related?

Links: source photo, 1956

Amtrak does not stop here bur rather blows through at about 100 mph.

Link: new station under construction 2013

The station is ADA-compliant with help from elevators that reach an overhead walkway. MARC 24 is a model MP36PH-3C.

The new Halethorpe Station lies immediately south of where the PRR version and MARC shacks had been.

Link: 2016

A train of all bi-level cars slows to stop, with the lead car controlling the MARC engine that's pushing from behind. MARC engines are always on the north (Baltimore/Perryville or Martinsburg) end of the train, hence capturing them without sun glare can be a challenge.

MARC service on the Penn Line is more frequent than on the Camden Line. This was a mid-day train, hence few commuters though the parking lot is full.

It was MARC 16 doing the pushing.

MARC 30 and MARC 74 push a near-empty Washington-bound train out of Halethorpe Station. The normally filled-to-capacity commuter parking lot was also near empty. It wasn't light snow that had turned people away on this weekday, but rather COVID.

Yes, this is one of the stretches along which Amtrak reaches triple digit speeds. It's one reason MARC 35 is switching to the leftmost track. Underway as of this writing, and scheduled for completion during the 2020s, is a fourth track all the way to Odenton.

Amtrak usually runs its high speed trains on the two center tracks. Increasing speed above 135 mph is hampered here by the variable tension catenary installed by PRR. When such catenary sags in hot weather, very high speed trains can cause destructive oscillating waves in the wires. Parts of the Northeast Corridor north of New York have newer, constant-tension catenary that does not exhibit this problem.

Link: 2010

Deep zoom compacts much into one photo, starting with the closest:

• nearest is a red signal for a closed track
• the tall rusty structure is another old gantry (seen in photo below)
• track 4's signal (green) is mounted beyond so trains stopping at the station can see it
• the red sign below reads "Barricade" because that track was closed for maintenance
• the light-blue bridge over the line carries Alternate US 1
• 2/3rds of a mile distant, coal hoppers roll past along CSX's main line

Link: 2010

The view from ground level is less cluttered. Amtrak would retire all its AEM-7 locomotives over the next six years. The MARC 1 sign instructs operators where to stop MARC trains of a particular length.

Links: 1997, 1997, 2002

This disused A-frame gantry is similar to that 1.5 miles north. It previously held semaphore signals, as seen in the 1931 photo linked below. The gantry is also visible at center of the 1927 aerial photo at right, which means it predates the line's 1930s electrification. Proximity of Gadsby's Run suggests this gantry at one time also supplied water to steam engines. This tour will later illustrate one with water spigots near Stoney Run.

Gadsby's Run, the dark line that wanders left of the railroad in the aerial photo at right, had flowed closer to the railroad before being rerouted for Southwestern Boulevard. The brighter circle southwest of the gantry could have been a water storage tank. Forward-looking PRR built the gantry wide enough for four tracks underneath even though in 1927 they bottlenecked down to two immediately south of here.

Link: 1931

Winans was an original B&P stop adjacent Washington Turnpike, later US 1. No one but Amtrak calls this area Winans now.

Though Ross Winans is more often associated with B&O due to the many eccentric engine designs he supplied them, he sold equipment to several railroads, even ones in Russia. Presumably, his family is the source of the Winans name for this area.

An oddity: the rightmost signal has no number plate, but the other signals do.

Link: Ross Winans at Wikipedia

Gadsby's Run (some maps call it West Branch, others Herbert Run) is spanned by a bridge more modern than a B&P original. Underneath are stone support walls that may date to the 1870s. The bridge will need to be widened for a fourth track. The new track will be added on the east side of the existing.

Rather than move the tracks to create needed clearance, someone decided to cut this catenary pole and bolt a beam (brighter color) on its outer side. This is the only such example I've found. Aerial photos show this hack dates to before 2011.

When B&P arrived circa 1870, it crossed Washington Turnpike (later Alt US 1) at grade. The first grade separation bridge, seen ahead in this 1929 photo, was erected south (left) of the grade crossing around 1910, perhaps in 1914 when US 1 was paved in this area for the first time. This view looks southwest along US 1 at it rises up over PRR. The road's width is 30 feet, an unusual size since it makes for four very narrow automobile lanes, or two very wide ones. The width may have been based on horse-drawn carts rather than autos. It is exactly half the width specified in the 1812 law that authorized the turnpike. The wires on the right lead down to the original grade crossing where a column of white smoke might be from a passing PRR steam locomotive. The billboard advertises walnut chews, possibly with a brand name of Goldenberg, a Philadelphia company better known for peanut chews.

The first bridge endured less than 30 years because PRR wanted more tracks underneath it. A second bridge was built along the north side during the 1930s, roughly where the original grade crossing had been. The resulting lengthier and wider (56 feet) bridge remained on duty as of 2023. The 2002 view at left was made not far from that of the 1929 photo. The wires on the left follow the same path as the ones on the right in the 1929 photo.

Certain manhole covers along the bridge display SRC for State Roads Commission. The SRC was incorporated into Maryland's State Highway Administration (SHA) in 1971. Few SRC covers remain extant.

Links: 1812 law, 1929 source photo

There's no catenary yet, in fact the trackage below would not see its first electric train until 1935. From this angle, the US 1 bridge appears to be narrower than the road's 30-foot width. That's the B&O main line in the distance crossing via Winans Arch. Both bridges were replaced when PRR widened to three or four tracks.

An 1898 atlas places Winans Station in the grade crossing's southwest quadrant. When the first grade separation bridge was erected south of the grade crossing around 1910, the station, which stayed put, then found itself in the northwest quadrant. It's the shack on the right in the circa 1930 photo. If the shack's foundation still exists, it's buried beneath several feet of soil regraded by the later addition of various utility lines. Nothing of the bridge's concrete support walls is visible now.

The 2017 view at right looks at the second bridge from the opposite direction. Its concrete-embossed date of 1936 represents the start of construction rather than completion: aerial photos from April 1938 show the first bridge here still in use. The bridge was rehabbed in 1979, and crumbling reinforced concrete says another rehab is due. The Buckle Up billboard at right resides where Winans Station had.

Winans Station does not appear in a 1952 aerial, however it remains on a PRR 1945 list of stations. Despite that listing, I suspect it closed when the second bridge opened because the station then became awkward to access.

Where PRR had four tracks, the outer ones were generally designated for freight and the inner ones for passenger trains.

Link: 1931

Winans Station was near the H in Washington. That S curve of US 1 over B&O tracks at lower left was soon straightened by 1929's Vinegar Hill bridge. That bridge was 40 feet wide for four lanes of automobiles, plus a few feet for a pedestrian walkway. Vinegar Hill got its name from Irish railroad workers who had settled in this vicinity.