This tour page follows freight line known as the President Street Branch (left) from Bay View yard south to the Canton (east Baltimore) waterfront. What is now a branch had been Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad's (PW&B's) main line to its station at President Street.

Links: 2013, 2014

An NS intermodal facility operates adjacent Lombard Street as a sort of Bay View extension. The leftmost track supports rail car interchange with CSX.

Link: 2013

After PRR cut off B&O's track-leased access northeast of Baltimore, B&O built its own line to Philadelphia during the 1880s, including this Whipple truss bridge, the only survivor of its kind in Maryland. It is believed to be the oldest steel bridge still in use by CSX.

Change for: B&O Sparrows Point tour

Four tracks over Eastern Avenue tell you this route has been busier. Much containerized cargo now goes directly from ship to truck, or vice versa, at the marine terminals, leaving these tracks underutilized.

As seen from O'Donnell Street, the ex-PW&B/PRR tracks now curve to join the ex-Union Railroad / Northern Central tracks, but previously had crossed and continued more to the left (west) to docks at what is now Canton Park, plus beyond to President Street Station. A few stranded boxcars sit at right.

The route to President Street Station ran along Boston and Fleet Streets. Except for the station and assorted oddly-curved buildings, no evidence of the line remains. Consequently, as PRR had, we'll continue south to the waterfront as NS trains now do.

About 0.3 miles south of Union Crossing the ex-Union Railroad / Northern Central / PRR tracks crossed those of B&O. Here two semaphore signals hung on into the 1970s. Both signals are gone, but one of their poles survives, now obscured by vines (right). These photos both look generally south into Canton Yard now shared by CSX and Norfolk Southern.

B&O tracks had crossed left-to-right via multiple diamonds as seen in the 1972 photo and continued west (right) where they would cross Haven Street at grade.

Coal, and lots of it, is the primary transport along these rails, bound for CONSOL Energy at the waterfront. Sometimes the hoppers stack up waiting to be unloaded.

All that coal has to be held somewhere until the next ship arrives. It is piled into 70-foot mounds like the one seen in the background from Penn Mary Yard almost a mile away. That's CTN 1204 and CTN 1307 in the foreground, both belonging to the Canton Railroad, a Class III switching and terminal railroad that operates at the port.

Change for: Canton Railroad tour

The coal holding area at the waterfront occupies more than 40 acres.

Change for: movie fimed here within CTN tour

Coal is not the only bulk material delivered via train. Equally large mounds of salt wait for the next icy winter.

As seen from I-95 near the Fort McHenry Tunnel, huge salt mounds make tankers look small enough to be models. The branch now ends in this vicinity as a loop to ease the return of empty hoppers.

In the past, the spur also continued west of Canton via Boston Street and other surface streets as PW&B's main line. Even after Union Tunnel opened in 1873 and enabled passengers to reach the main station at Charles Street, this route remained in use for freight purposes for about another 100 years.

In the full-size image, tracks are visible along Boston Street, as well as boxcars on sidings. The tall building at lower left remains extant as of 2018 at the corner of Boston and Hudson Streets, with "The Can Company" painted on its corner, and an Outback Steakhouse occupying its bottom floor.

By more westward street running, ultimately PW&B reached its Baltimore passenger station at President and Fleet Streets. Horse-drawn carriages shuttled travellers between here and B&O at Mount Clare and Camden Station.

The 1849-constructed building is the oldest surviving rail terminal in the USA. (Ellicott City Station is older, but no longer a terminal.) During 1861 riots, it saw some of the earliest bloodshed of the American Civil War, and now houses a Civil War Museum. A burgeoning Harbor East development during the 21st century brought several high rises to the area.

Links: 1936, Trains Magazine 1948 Baltimore RR map, 1974

Sewer work at the east side of President Street Station uncovered old track made with wooden stringers presumably to which iron strap rail had been affixed. This style of track was tried during the 1830s after which it quickly fell out of favor due to lack of durability. This may be track built by the Baltimore and Port Deposit RR.

Link: 1998 newspaper report