The dual tracks of the Washington Branch diverge left from the Old Main Line here at Relay, Maryland. In the past, both routes had been double tracked, yielding four tracks here, but sometime in the mid-1900s the OML was reduced to single track.

Before it was demolished in 1950, B&O's grand Viaduct Hotel was sandwiched between the Washington Branch and OML in the distance to the right of the Thomas Viaduct obelisk. This area remains suprisingly bucolic for what had been significant railroad intersection.

Unlike the Old Main Line, the Washington Branch was given decorative stone mileposts, many of which survive. When the Branch opened in 1835 this spot was 9 miles from downtown Baltimore via the B&O route at that time. Subsequent track realignments reduced the distance to roughly 7 miles, hence the adjacent modern milepost.

Perhaps since this was the starting location of the Washington Branch, stone markers graced both sides of the track. Photographic evidence suggests all other mile locations were given a single marker.

In January 2007 CSX excavated and removed both these markers... the (unconfirmed) rumor is they became gifts to an executive. I suppose these items are CSX property, and therefore CSX can do with them as they wish, but I'd rather this unique and historic pair had been donated to the B&O Museum. In February 2008 I was pleased to hear from B&O Museum Director Courtney Wilson that indeed CSX did remove and donate another of these markers to the Museum.

Lonely CSX 8507 glides back toward where the tracks diverge. Directly to the left across the tracks, but not visible here, is the Thomas Viaduct obelisk. The white building in the distance is the old Relay House.

The roofline of a passenger waiting shack can be glimpsed at right as B&O's Royal Blue train rolls east out of the shadow of the Viaduct Hotel. Note also the access road on the right; it leads up from the base of the viaduct.

For over a decade, plans have been in the works to restore the road and rebuild the shack as part of a viaduct viewing area. Those plans also call for the tracks and other artifacts to be fenced off, so if you want to see this area in more the form it has been for over a century, don't delay.

Hidden in brush and weeds is the now-vandalized marker that serves to indicate B&O's elegant Viaduct Hotel once stood on this spot. The hotel opened in 1873, but the introduction of sleeper cars as well as the Metropolitan Division (from Frederick to Washington, DC) around that same time sigificantly reduced the need for a hotel at this location. The Viaduct Hotel hung on for decades, was converted into crew quarters, and then demolished around 1950.

The text on the marker had read: "Site of Old Relay Station and Hotel - Baltimore & Ohio Railroad - Here, in 1830, passengers on B&O horse-drawn cars stopped to eat at the Relay House. Meanwhile, the relays of horses were changed for the remainder of the 13 mile journey between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, hence the name Relay. In 1835, a second station superseded the earlier one. In 1872, a large combination passenger station and hotel was erected on this spot. It was razed in 1950. This stone is from that building."

Link: ~1976

An historical marker near the ranger station downstream of the Thomas Viaduct includes several views of B&O's Viaduct Hotel. The largest of the photos dates to 1873.

Link: ~1890

This obelisk pays tribute to the men who dreamed, engineered and built the Thomas Viaduct. The great stone structures of B&O were not easy to construct, but they have paid dividends by virtue of their reliability and longevity.

Links: ~1970, 1984

Mixed freight heads south over the venerable Thomas Viaduct which in 2010 celebrated 175 years of service to the railroad. The viaduct stretches for a total of 8 stone arches, and when finished in 1835 it was the longest bridge in the USA, and second longest in the world (London Bridge is slightly longer).

Benjamin Henry Latrobe II's successful design for the structure soon boosted him to the role of B&O Chief Engineer. John McCartney was chief contractor. Latrobe was not fond of the iron railing, some of which in disrepair still tops the viaduct; overhaul plans for the area call for the railing to be removed and replaced.

The road bridge seen in the distance is that of I-895.

Links: 1939, 1940, 1972, Pic Group

After 145 years of operation, during April 2017 the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus made its final trip via train into Baltimore. The travelling circus formed long before trucks and autos were plying hard surface roads, thus it developed a natural association with the rails, even customizing equipment for transport on flatcars. Here RBBX flatcars are devoid of their usual colorful circus displays because for this visit the circus had trucked in much of its equipment, and may have sold off some to local carnivals at the places visited during the final tour. Baltimore was one of the last stops of the last circus train.

In the past, steam power crossed the viaduct... now some people are getting steamed about the natural mineral patina that began forming on the viaduct in the 1800s and can be seen both in current and this 1939 photo. They want to steam clean everything.

The Viaduct Hotel can be seen in this shot from the walkway that had followed the upstream side of the viaduct. What great views must have been possible! Restoration of this walkway would get my vote, but to my knowledge that is not in the current overhaul plan.

Links: 1972, 1984

This is the view of the Thomas Viaduct from the Howard County side of the Patapsco River. Shortly before I captured this photo, deer had been drinking at the river, and left the footprints seen in the foreground snow. To get to the location of this shot, from US 1 turn onto Levering Avenue, pass under I-895 and the viaduct, and continue for a short distance along the park road that parallels the river.

Links: 1925, 1984

This is perhaps the easiest view of the Thomas Viaduct to obtain. While driving northbound on I-95, immediately after the I-895 interchange in the vicinity of Elkridge, get into the rightmost lane. Soon I-95 crosses the Patapsco River, and from its bridge you can look east (right) to easily see a portion of the viaduct. Trees obscure the majority of the viaduct, which stretches for a total of 8 stone arches.

How long might the Thomas Viaduct survive? Stone is very durable. Many Roman stone arches and viaducts have been standing for 2000 years, such as Pont du Gard, and Egyptian pyramids have been around even longer. The Thomas Viaduct's arches could stay upright for thousands of years, and despite their eventual collapse, the constituent cut blocks of granite might be notable as man-made for tens of thousands of additional years. Few things built in the United States are likely to last longer than what had initially been called Latrobe's Folly.

Link: Arkadiko Bridge perhaps world's oldest arched bridge (over 3000 years old) still in use

At the top of this photo, steam issues from a locomotive just east of the Viaduct Hotel that was still housing guests at this time. On the south side of the Patapsco River, Hockley Mill's millrace passes under the southernmost Thomas Viaduct arch. The mill was preceded by Hockley Forge that dates to around 1760.

Here is Levering Avenue passing under the southernmost arch of the Thomas Viaduct where a millrace had in the past. The stairway on the left leads up to the track, and the handrail is in disrepair. The climb up is not recommended for anyone made queasy by heights. Here a covered lift had extended between Hockley Mill and the railroad.

Link: Hockley Mill (PDF)

During 1977 if you climbed the stairway on the correct day, you would have seen the Chessie Steam Special Ex-Reading 2101 crossing the Thomas Viaduct.

This photo shows the viaduct upon its 100th birthday.

My guess is this sign was supposed to read "Unsafe to Walk Tracks", though a friend suggests the wording is proper and intended for train crews who might otherwise walk beside a train in order to inspect it.

Into the 1970s, the Thomas Viaduct could be crossed on foot with help from a walkway along its western side. That walkway is in very bad condition now.

The sign's location is on what the railroad considers the route's south side, however to the rest of us, since the viaduct runs north-south, that side is really the east side.

Link: 1972

That's the I-895 overpass.

The small road on the right is Lawyer's Hill Road which used to cross at grade here.

This little arched bridge is the first of its type along the Washington Branch. It is tucked inconspicuously just a few feet northwest of US 1. You might be able to glimpse it while driving by, but really need to stop and walk up to get the best view.

According to Harwood, the brick end dates to 1863 when the Washington Branch was widened to double track. The outlet end (right) includes mortarless masonry, suggesting original 1835 construction. The CSX Capital Subdivision retains only a handful of stone arch bridges like this, and most others have been modified or encased in concrete.

Eastbound CSX 8135 and CSX 8518 are leading autoracks across bridge 10C. The curves through Elkridge cause eastbound trains to briefly face northwest here.

Route 1 follows the path of the the oldest road between Baltimore and Washington. Long ago it was converted from a toll-based turnpike into a US Highway, and still carries much traffic.

This is one of few remaining places that you can still see evidence of the B&O name from before it was absorbed into the Chessie System and CSX Transportation. Notice the fading "Baltimore & Ohio" painted on the 1931-dated bridge. At least two different paint jobs are represented in the zoom at right: that's the E of Baltimore followed by a B&O herald and ampersand palimpsest.

The portion of US 1 seen here was built during the 1920s to bypass downtown Elkridge and the railroad's grade crossing at Main Street. Back in 1829, B&O had to cross the same turnpike at a location farther north (now the Morrell Park area of Baltimore) and there built Jackson's Bridge, a 100+ foot wooden span that carried the road over the railroad.

Near the distant sunlit area, during the 1800s the turnpike spanned the Patapsco River via a bridge whose tolls were so reviled that in 1866 toll gate keeper David White was murdered. As of 2023, the bridge edition dated 1953 remains on duty.

Link: murder at the toll bridge

At the intersection of US 1 and Old Washington Road sit this historical marker and bizarre early steam engine replica wannabe. Several readers have reported this is a replica of a Civil War steam gun.

The marker reads "Elk Ridge Landing - An important colonial port for shipment of tobacco. Here in 1765 Zachariah Hood, Maryland's 'Stamp Act' agent, was hanged in effigy. Lafayette's troops camped here April 17-19, 1781 on the way to engage Cornwallis in Virginia. George Washington passed here many times."

Link: Steam Gun info

This is the view looking northwest from a then recently-disused Elkridge station across the US 1 bridge. The engine of the train seen here was idling at the St. Denis station, over a mile away. In the distance you can see the I-895 overpass again.

This walkway under the railroad was fenced off when Elkridge's MARC Station closed during the 1990s. Passing autoracks can be glimpsed at left through the brush. This is where the railroad had crossed the turnpike originally.

Waiting at Elkridge for the traffic jam ahead to move is BNSF 4615 wearing a bold orange and yellow color scheme. We don't see many of these, affectionately known as "pumpkins", this far east, so this was a surprising treat.

Immediately behind (northeast of) the disused Elkridge station is where you'll find the decaying remains of a siding that served the JH Toomey & Sons lumber and coal yard. It appears railcars were backed into the siding and their contents dumped into concrete bins below. I estimate the siding was constructed around 1900.

On a geneology web page I found the following information that dates to ~1960:

"Notes for Joseph Henry 'Joe' Toomey, Engineer B&O Railroad, born March 16, 1833 died January 12, 1912

"Joseph entered the employment of the B&O Railroad as an apprentice machinist about 1850. Later he was a machinist, locomotive fireman and Engineer. Still later he held the position of Superintendent of Roads and Engines of the Washington Division with headquarters at Washington Junction near Point of Rocks at the time of his retirement.

"He owned a small farm of the approximate area of 25 acres, the eastern line bordering the right-of-way-line of the B&O R.R. at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland and extending westerly along the Washington Turnpike. He, with his sons, Joseph Henry Toomey Jr. and Charles Edward Toomey, opened a lumber and coal yard on the Washington Turnpike at Elkridge under the name of J.H.Toomey and Sons Inc. Today it is one of the largest dealers of its kind in Howard county. It caters to the needs of adjoining counties and sections of Baltimore City."

The Toomey siding ends with an interesting bumper post. The bumper consists of rails bent upward and affixed together with the bracket device shown in the next picture.

At the rearmost part of the bumper post is this rail bracket on which the words "THE ELLIS" and "PATENT" are stamped (conveniently highlighted by the white graffiti). I assume "The Ellis" was the brand name for this type of bracket. These were likely common in the first half of the 20th century, but I'd would guess few of this vintage survive today.