This low-resolution composite of aerial photos from 1938 shows the stretch of railroad from Jessup to Annapolis Junction had not yet seen much land development. Occupants of The Maryland House of Corrections, with its S-shaped rail connection with the main line, had the area to themselves for the most part. Jessup Yard would arrive in the middle of this area during the 1960s.

We're deep zooming into Jessup Yard from its railroad east (geographic north) end. The leftmost two tracks are for trains not stopping at the yard.

Though the adjacent automobile terminal has changed significantly since it opened, the yard retained much of its original appearance from the 1960s. Compare and contrast these with the similar views below 20+ years later.

After 50 years of reliance on a single yard lead, around 2020 CSX added a second lead, as well as more trackage near the yard office. With those changes came yard-specific, numbered signals.

In the distance, CSX 4324 waits a call to duty. Autoracks like those at left are a common sight here. The yard sits at a slightly higher elevation, so CSX added a retaining wall to make more room at the upper level.

Jessup Yard is a B&O creation, but I have yet to see a photo of its sign from that era. That would have been followed by one for Chessie System, then this one around 1986 when "CSX Transportation" in this style was also painted on a 11 engines. Subsequently, at least two newer sign editions have followed this one.

Ready for action at the yard are CSX 6042 and 6013. They often move autoracks around the facility.

The siding on which the engines above were resting extends about a half mile west to Dorsey Run Road. Aerial photos during the 2010s show it in use from time to time. This siding, along with the Jessup Auto Terminal and Columbia Branch, all originated within a few years either side of 1970.

Parked on the northeast side of (and behind) the auto facility was this caboose, now relegated to signpost duty. It reminds the train crews to look both ways. This appears to be the only photo online of this caboose and its B&O predecessor C3979.

You can drive your car almost to this spot, which is in the midst of the train switching operations for the auto facility, but I would not recommend doing so. This is a busy location with all sorts of train, car and truck activity. Some of the equipment is remote controlled. If you insist on visiting, pick a quiet day (weekend?), and drive in and back out without lingering as there are no good railfanning spots here. During infrequent brief visits, by chance I've spotted CSX 8247 at Jessup four separate times spanning 15 years, which suggests it spends most of its time in Maryland; it is an ex-B&O unit built during 1977.

Links: CSX 8247 pics, 1982, 1985, 1986, SRS 131 1986

Road slugs, which in the past could often be identified by their gray paint, are old engines that have been gutted of their operating equipment, and brought along simply to provide more traction. Electric power is cabled to them from the other engines. Sometimes road slugs are filled with concrete so as to provide even more weight, and traction.

CSX 2204 had been CO 3560 when it was delivered in 1964. During the early 2000s CSX repainted its road slugs into standard livery. This is the last known photo of 2204 wearing gray paint.

Links: 1985, 1985, 1985, 1985

That road slug was tucked within this 8-engine lashup, the longest I've witnessed on the move. Included were CSX 9016, FURX 3042, CSX 6435, CSX 6486, CSX 2299, CSX 2204, and CSX 6485.

Those engines were followed by autoracks, which is what Jessup does best.

Links: 1985, 1985, 1985

If you buy a new car in the Baltimore-Washington Area, chances are it has passed through the Jessup Auto Terminal. This is the view from the Dorsey Run Road side of the facility.

Vehicles are shipped in the autoracks seen on the right. Racks have doors on their ends to facilitate loading and unloading. A kind security guard described the unloading process as follows:

• train crews arrange the racks in groups of five
• the vehicles have been loaded onto the racks such that they all face the same direction
• temporary ramps are placed between the racks
• a team of drivers climbs into the cars and moves them out in bang-bang fashion
• the drivers park the cars in numbered spaces
• notice how all the cars are parked at the left edge of the space (to help reduce door dings)
• a chase van follows the group to pick up all the drivers and return them to the racks
• in 1999 the drivers were paid $5 per vehicle they unloaded

Zoom views show vehicles heading down the unloading ramp while another waits to follow. The brick building in the distant background is the Maryland House of Corrections facility at "The Cut" as prisoners call it. The expression refers to Jessop's Cut where B&O cut into the hillside to build the railroad.

The drivers don't waste time: the vehicles come flying off the racks at high speed. Only one vehicle is allowed on a ramp at a time. The decades-old process remained basically the same in 2017 (right). The white chase van transports drivers back to the racks from where they parked the offloaded vehicles.

Link: 1968

In a case of necessity being the mother of invention, to greatly simplify the loading and unloading of P.T. Barnum's circus train, in 1872 William Cameron Coup created the first system of ramps and connecting plates between railcars. Those in use today are direct descendants of that system

Shoving platforms like this are affixed to the leading end of a train when it is being pushed. This provides a safe location for a crewmember to monitor clearance and radio it to an engine operator who might be out of sight several cars behind. They can also be used as generic flatcars.

On the opposite (geographic east) side of the tracks is the source of some of those stinky trash trains: Waste Management's facility in Annapolis Junction / Jessup. This facility opened around year 2000. That's the prison again in the background, right.

USWX 7522 has just finished pushing out several cars of trash onto a siding to await CSX escort to Some Other Place. The train of green cars to a landfill is known as the Emerald Express.

This EMD GP9 locomotive began life in 1956 as Pennsylvania Railroad 7079. Later, Conrail converted it to a model GP10.

Links: PRR 7079, 2000, 7522 video

On a crisp autumn day, one of General Electric's ES44AC-H units rolls past Waste Management's connection with the main line.

Apparently, if it's green, it's compatible with Waste Management.

"Ron & Maggie" provided some details about this old beast:

"It's an EMD SW8 built 9-51 and was former LV 259 then CR 8673 now ITI 2. Power should still be by the old 567B-8, but could have 567BC or 645 assemblies. The original exhaust stack had some type of spark arrestor on it that is missing."

Links: LV 259, CR 8673

On its 69th birthday the unit was still going strong, a testament to the reliability of EMD switchers of its era.

Not many locomotives have been retrofitted with a window air conditioner. The other exterior box is a Whisperwatt 7000 diesel-fueled AC generator that ostensibly powers the air conditioner.

ITI represents a former owner, Intermodal Technologies, reporting mark ITIX. Despite its retained ITI 2 lettering, officially this unit is now USWX 2.

Links: ~2004, ITIX pics, ITI corp

Waste Management also has (had?) a more diminutive machine for moving the trash cars: a Trackmobile, seen here crossing Brock Bridge Road.

Link: JRWX 8379

Back at the main line, this trackside device provides air to brake systems of detached cars bound for or departing the Jessup Auto Terminal. The braking system of each car takes several minutes to charge, so this trackside system saves time by loading air before the locomotive power ties on.

CSX 654 speeds containers eastbound on a weekend afternoon under the Guilford Road bridge at a location the railroad calls Meade. The siding in the foreground leads back to the Jessup Auto Terminal behind the photographer.

At right is a better view of the small signal which is known as a dwarf CPL (color position light). Since the time of this photo this CPL has been removed.

The blue object off in the distance beyond the bridges is the Vulcan Materials switcher, which can be better seen in photos to follow.

Link: 2013

This rock delivery for Vulcan Materials at Annapolis Junction paused at control point Meade while a derelict coal hopper under MD 32 (right) blocked its route. This is within the western half of a Jessup Yard that has no Yard Limit signs. The second engine was CSX 883.

Also derelict was VULX 2779 that was waiting to learn its fate after being damaged by a late December 2022 cold wave.

Various searches and queries have turned up no information about the meaning of this sign adjacent the Jessup Auto Terminal lead. It might be an instruction to maintenance crews to not regulate the ballast here due to the presence of air supply lines.

Bridge 19A carries Guilford Road, MD 732, over the tracks. The granite blocks give evidence that the first bridge here was single lane. The concrete looks to be an addition that widened the bridge to 2 lanes, probably in 1936. During the 2010s the bridge width was doubled again to 4 lanes.

But those lanes were not enough to supply the growing town of Columbia located a few miles to the west (left). Behind the photog is the bridge for Maryland Route 32, sometimes called the Patuxent Freeway, which beginning around 1984 offered a bypass for traffic-clogged Guilford Road. In 2001, the MD 32 bridge was expanded from four to six lanes.

Link: Historic Bridge Inventory (PDF)