RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.

RAILFAN GUIDE to BALTIMORE

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NB MARC train at the Dorsey station at dusk, off Rt 100.

Hopefully, this guide will help you get around in Baltimore and decide what you want to concentrate on.  The guide is map oriented.  There are a several other web sites and guides around for Baltimore, but most don't go into much detail except for several CSX tours (click here )..... you'll find other links in the link section.

So,..... Baltimore... What do you think of when you think of Baltimore AND railroads?.... The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad in the United States?  The Pennsy?  The Western Maryland Rwy?  CPL, PL, and color light signals?   Baltimore has been fortunate in this day and age of consolidations and "trimming the fat" that it has not lost much in the way of railroading action, Port Covington being the main exception (it was WM's yard on the south side of town).

CSX has managed to hold onto all of the B&O yards, Norfolk Southern and Amtrak still use what used to belong to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and we now have the Maryland Midland in lieu of the Western Maryland, although it does not currently come into Baltimore.  The state run Canton Railroad still services a few local industries and offers a break from the big Class one's.  Last but not least, over on the southeast side of town at the (former) Beth Steel plant is the Patapsco and River RR.

Although not heavily emphasized, there is plenty of railroad action in Baltimore. There is plenty of CSX action available all day long, and Norfolk Southern can be found most of the time, but generally not on the Corridor until after 10pm (except for a few locals). There are plenty of stations, structures, and what-nots to take in, if you're into that kind of thing.  And don't forget to get shots with those B&O CPL signals in them, for they are a disappearing breed. Soon they will be like semaphores!!!

A note which I feel rather strongly about... if you are a railfan, go out and take pictures of everything.  The reason I say this is because as a youngster in my late teens and 20's (in the late 60's and into the 70's), I didn't get out as much as I should have.  One reason was being poor while you're of college age, and back then, you didn't have the digital format, where you could take thousands of pictures for next to nothing.  Print pictures were pretty crappy, and slides weren't all that cheap.  So it was tough trying to go to school, have a part time job paying a buck seventy-five and hour, and then paying three bucks for a roll of slide film and another 2 or 3 to get it developed.... ouch!  Also, I went up to Connecticut back in 1994 with several other railfans, and one of them didn't particularly care to take pictures of the CT Centrals old dilapidated engines with multiple paint schemes showing through.  Too bad, for the railroad disappeared, and he has precious few pix of the stuff we saw!

Another reason..... look at the merger chart below.  Around the edges, most (but not all) of those railroads were around when I started taking pictures (1964).  They were the major roads of the 50's and 60's.  Now all we have is pretty much the railroads in blue.  There are some "larger" shortlines, and many short shortlines, but overall, the action just isn't like it used to be.... go out and take those pictures!

Getting around and knowing where to go is the worst part of being in a strange town, trust me, I have been there many, many times in places like Minneapolis, Portland OR, Boston, Kansas City, St Louis, Los Angeles, and especially Chicago.  I usually keep notes and hand drawn maps of most of the places I visit, but it takes an immense amount of time to transcribe those hand drawn notes into something really useful, like what you see here. Some of the maps included in this website were done quickly and lack all of the information included in the first three.

A couple of notes about the Railpace guide in the June 2003 issue, which this guide was originally conceived to support.  If you are familiar with Baltimore, and you look closely at the USGS maps for the downtown area in the article, you will notice they are drastically out of date:
-- I95 and I395 are missing.....
-- I83 does not come down to President St......
-- Riverside yard is shown with a roundhouse (that disappeared in the early 80's with the construction of the Ft McHenry tunnel)......
-- Same thing with the Canton yard on the other side of the harbor - it was drastically altered with I95 coming thru and their shops was torn down...
-- The Pennsy Orangeville yard and roundhouse is long gone......
-- The Light Rail is not shown at all.....
-- The Western Maryland Port Covington yard is now an industrial complex......
-- The small yard at Camden Station is no longer there, as are the tracks leading up to the B&O Railroad museum......
-- And the Mules - forget the electric mules down at Curtis Bay - the coal piers they work are closed off to the public by a guard shack......
All of this is just FYI so you don't go around looking for these things!

A word of caution in this post 9/11 era.......

Most railroads, because of the Homeland Security crap and the FBI, are weary of anyone that asks questions about their operations or trains locations. Unless you know someone that works for a particular railroad, do not expect much cooperation in most instances.

For instance..... The Maryland Midland used to be friendly, now they are not (how hard can it be to know where TWO trains ARE on a short line?).

There are exceptions, like the Minnesota Commercial in St Paul MN -- you can still go in and sign a waiver and take pictures on the property.

Railroads like the CRANDIC in Cedar Raids IA, they don't like railfans, so don't waste your time going by the office. Worse yet are railroads like the Georgetown in Georgetown TX (small mining RR north of Austin) -- they just plain HATE railfans, and are willing to call the police if you even step foot on their parking lot to go in the office and ask if you can take pictures -- again, don't waste your time.  (I do know of one fellow that did manage to get them to let him take pictures)

As for other railroads, especially around Baltimore, the NS "Nazi Southern" cops are the worst. In places like Philadelphia and Allentown, they have been known to ticket railfans for stepping on the property at a grade crossing! (CP Rail's cops are pretty nasty too). The Beth Steel Police can get pretty ignorant, but that stems mostly from the industrial espionage aspect of taking pictures. So far, I have never been bothered by the cops on the MTA for taking pictures, but that doesn't mean they couldn't decide to on a whim. Lot's of other transit companies have policies against taking pictures on the property, like the MBTA in Boston (where I had an operator complain to a ticket agent once and they chased me off).

So just be careful, and use common sense. Make a best effort by staying on public property. At least ask someone in an official capacity before deciding to go on railroad property. We want everyone to have a good time, cause I'm not available to get you out of jail!

Comments, contributions, addition, questions, whatever.......... toddgp30@yahoo.com

Last Updated:
11/15/2009