As AMTK 629 speeds past, visually above and right of it snow highlights a curve through the trees that marks a former railroad spur that had connected to aviation-related businesses along the periphery of BWI Airport during the 1950s and 1960s, back when it was known as Friendship International Airport. The spur carried freight not passengers.

Link: Friendship Airport at Kilduffs site

A train had passed just seconds earlier. Honest.

There are cars beyond the train. Honest.

This is a candidate location for the water supply facilities in the photo at page top. The track is straight, and Stoney Run tributaries flow nearby as water sources. The main problem is the grade is a slight slope, one probably not suitable for track pans.

PRR built this spur for an industrial park during the 1960s after Koppers, maker of utility and oil industry components, opened here in 1966. This is the most significant NS-served freight spur that remains along the Penn Line between Baltimore and Washington.

MARC's lowest-numbered engine pushes past the spur at Harmans. MARC engines are always at the north end of the train, which means photos of them are always looking generally south into bright sky.

As of 2023, the spur remains connected to the main line and sees freight trains visit mostly at night. Note the pipe that runs from bottom left, then under the track, then adjacent the right side of the track. That is a mechanical linkage between the track switch at the main and derail equipment on the spur. This design was favored by PRR to keep the switch and derail settings coordinated.

Note the use of wooden crossties that can be cut more easily to the desired length (longer at swtches) than can concrete.

Though the roughly 2-miles worth of siding at Harmans did not exist before the 1960s, many of its rails exhibit forging dates from the 1910s. These pieces have been recycled from elsewhere.

This rail is now pitted with age, but at one time it was fresh and new from the Pennsylvania Steel Company, a child of PRR born from the need for rails stronger and less brittle than ones of iron.

Link: USA's first steel rails

Milepost 107 to 109 is a prime stretch for train / plane combo photos.

This is one of few circa 1870 B&P stone culverts that has not been replaced by concrete and iron. Its western (outlet) end was extended by a pipe when PRR added more tracks above around 1930.

Dorsey Road lets MARC 29 push a train of bi-levels underneath.

In Maryland, PRR spaced the access points for its trackside, underground cabling some 500 to 600 feet apart, and numbered them consecutively. If a new access point was later added, its number was given a letter suffix, such as in the 777A seen here.

The signage is angled and with large characters so it can be read from above via aircraft and satellite.

The building that may have once housed PRR's Harman Station (right) was renovated with blue siding during 2022. Its porch offers perhaps the best views of Amtrak trains to be had from any private home between Baltimore and Washington. (Old) Dorsey Road had crossed at grade here. A 1915 atlas places Harman Station in the northeast quadrant which is the photog's location. Some references spell it Harmans Station.

MARC 4910 rushes Christmas Eve passengers northeast. The odd catenary pole spacing reflects the former presence of a lumber yard's siding on the left.

The shift in track position may be related to the lumber yard's siding that had been on the left in the foreground. Note the speed limit signage of the ground-level variety, uncommon along the Penn Line.

The less-rusty poles in the distance reflect 1990s changes to the catenary to make room for the then-new MD 100 overpass.

This is the only stone double culvert I have found along the Penn Line. It employs masonry from end to end.

My best guess is the doubled portion is of original B&P circa 1870 construction, with room above for double track plus a maintenance road.

PRR extended the double culvert's west side via masonry circa 1930, then added steel on top. The extension created room for three tracks plus a maintenance road.

The condition of the 1930 extension is marginal, so I expect that part will be rebuilt for the planned fourth track, and the double-culvert portion allowed to remain in service well into the 21st century, if not beyond. Flowing under it are Stoney Run headwaters. This is a difficult spot to reach safely, but I wanted to capture the culvert's outlet before possible structural revisions.

MARC 24 hurries DC-bound commuters under MD 100. On the right beyond the road, during the 1940s PRR had a short spur to serve a gravel pit.

AMTK 613 thanks Severn's Substation #22 for the juice.

Electricity flows from the catenary into the engine's pantograph, through the unit's electric motors, then into the rails and/or ground. Since the rails are not guaranteed to be touching an earth ground, heavy duty wires like these connect the rails to the substation in order to be sure the circuit is completed.

AMTK 643 can go from mirage to in your face very quietly in under 30 seconds at the old Severn Station grade crossing.

Now that CSX has pulled out most of B&O's iconic color position light signals, if you need a fix you can still find ones like these along the Penn Line. Compared to B&O's signals, these have smaller lenses and a different arrangement of "orbital" lamps.

In dusk lighting, catenary insulators resemble gnats as this train begins a 1% grade down to the Severn River.

Change for: B&O CPLs

B&P's Severn Station stood in the northwest corner at what is now Old Camp Meade Road while SV Tower sat in the northeast corner. During the first half of the 20th century, the road to/from Fort Meade was one of Anne Arundel County's busiest, so it was one of the line's earliest grade crossing eliminations (around 1940). This underpass serves as a safer crossing for pedestrians.

The 3.5 miles from here south to Odenton was double tracked until the third track opened in 1942. This segment, along with a similar one between Bowie and Seabrook, were the last between Baltimore and Washington to receive a third track.

With grade separation, MD 174, Reese Road, took over for Camp Meade Road.

William Glover recollects:

"Now we get down to the Reese Road bridge crossing. I worked at Fort Meade in the early '70s with my father before and after graduating from high school; he had worked there for years, and Telegraph Road to Reese Road was the shortcut to Fort Meade from Glen Burnie back then. Many, many times I stopped at this spot to kill time and watch trains.

"It was at this spot in 1968 that my father brought me to see a special train, one that I never wanted to see, one that I never forgot, one that eventually brought change to a country in turmoil, the one that carried Bobby Kennedy to his final resting place. I guess 50 or so people lined the tracks here, very quiet and solemn, this is the only time in my life I remember not being happy to go train watching.

"At the Reese Road bridge, the main line was four tracks until they started replacing the wooden ties with concrete ones."

Links: RFK funeral train, railfan account

Baltimore-bound MARC 27 shrugs off summer heat...

... perhaps not as easily as AMTK 653 warms a winter's chill.

Unlike that at Stoney Run, this culvert appears to have no stonework, and therefore postdates the B&P era. PRR retained very little of B&P construction. There look to be three sections of piping, the closest of which matches the concrete of other pre-WWII track widening efforts. Beth Steelton rail above displays a 1966 forging date.

Unseen on the right is a separate, smaller pipe presumably to carry excess storm water runoff.

This spur serves businesses along MD 170. The extra pieces of rail help ensure that an escaped railcar does not upon derailing roll toward the main line but instead away from it.

The 3.5 mile section between Severn and Odenton did not get its third track until the 1940s. Beyond the signals is MD 32.

Most of the roughly 90-year old concrete bases of the catenary poles remain in good shape, not this one though.

The west side of Severn Run's stone arch bridge is B&P 19th century construction. The zoom view into its icy walls shows the east side is newer, and provides room for four tracks on top.

A storm washed out this bridge on August 13, 1873, barely a year after B&P opened for service. This is the largest masonry arch bridge B&P built.

Link: 1970s LoC photo

Jackson Grove Road had crossed at grade here, but now MD 32 provides a safer way. The railroad calls this location Grove.

On a frigid day, it's not easy to hold the camera steady when a train's trailing gust wave drops the wind chill well below 0.

This view peers over 1.5 miles of frozen rolling hills to the curve. This is part of the Penn Line's second-longest stretch of straight track between Baltimore and Washington. The signals control crossovers at Grove, the first place south of Halethorpe that trains can change tracks.

On a much more hospitable day, AMTK 662 rolls south under MD 32 and Grove's signals. These signals get their own bridge, one independent of the power poles.

July's heat distortion won't stop this MARC train from completing its assigned route.

In the distance, until the 1940s when the bridge for MD 175 opened, ahead the railroad had met Lokus Road at grade.

Link: 2016