Baltimore to Catonsville

Link: http://arotus.co/0am

• Quick Info:
• States: Maryland   
• Railroads: B&P, CSLRR, PC, PRR   

The Catonsville Branch

Picture

Point of Interest

(Forwarded from the Catonsville Short Line Railroad)

	Showing of

Baldwin #8170 is ready to pull empties away from the coal deck of the Spring Grove steam plant. Photo by David Earp, June 1966.

This branch line left the Pennsylvania Railroad mainline in the Baltimore area, and headed west a few miles to Catonsville. The line provided coal to the power plant of the Spring Grove State Mental Health Hospital, at the end of the branch. It also served St. Charles College, and other businesses in Catonsville. Passenger service was also offered along the line.

After the line was first built, the Catonsville Short Line Railroad leased the line to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad for a short time.

Reports on when it was abandoned conflict. One says it was abandoned prior to the PRR/NYC merger of Penn Central in 1968, another says it was in operation until at least 1973.

Today, little of the former right-of-way is evident. A few blocks east of the branch's endpoint, a segment of track has been paved over in a grade crossing. Another segment is still in place in a thicket of trees nearby, and is being used by a small stream, or possibly water runoff from irrigation. I-695 crosses under what would have been the former right-of-way, but there is no visible evidence of the bridge remaining. It is possible that the widening of the Interstate over the years might have obliterated any abutments or other remnants of the bridge. The area near where the branch ended is now a home for children, but it is marked as private property and there are no obvious track remnants near the street.

Thanks to Mike Palmer, Jeff Koester and Gary Haighley for contributing information about this route.

I lived a few blocks from the Catonsville Branch in Yale Heights (Baltimore) from 1964 to 1976. During the Summer of 1968 I got to ride with the friendly PRR crew from Beechfield Ave., where they were required to stop and flag the crossing, out to the yard in Catonsville every Saturday morning. They had to push the train caboose first because of a broken switch on a run around track that the railroad by the late '60s no longer had funds to repair. During the 1960s, the Spring Grove powerhouse provided a lion's share of the carloads, with 3 to 5 cars of coal delivered twice a week. Other customers were John S. Wilson lumber, Johnson Chemicals, and later Grinnell Sprinklers. Earlier in the '60s I understand DCA Food Industries used to do a large business with the railroad from talking to the crew. Their sign was still on the end of the long warehouse in Catonsville and up until early 1966 they were still receiving occasional insulated boxcars of food stuffs. Grinnell eventually took over their end of the warehouse while Johnson Chemical was housed in the other end. Once the hospital converted to oil around late 1970/early 1971 the handwriting was on the wall for the branch. Afterwards, a train would only go up the branch with a boxcar or two, about once-a-month. Then return a few days later to pick up the empty car(s). Foliage was already taking over the line while it was still in service, and it was hard to believe trains were still making the trip on occasion. I saw the next-to-the-last train in mid-April 1972, carrying two boxcars of lumber out to Wilson's on a Saturday morning. With the high growth of bushes and tree branches, it was all the crew could do to barely get those cars up the track. The following Wednesday (those had always been the two service days while I lived nearby) an engine went up one last time to retrieve the cars. I heard the train horn, but couldn't get to the Beechfield Ave. crossing in time. That was it for the branch! I know because I kept checking the track and hoping for signs of use, but it just kept getting rustier and more overgrown by the week. Not long afterwards, I walked the track down to the mainline connection. As I feared, the switch had been pulled out and then I knew the line was officially dead. I do have photos taken from 1966 to 1968 to keep memories of the branch alive.

David
Baltimore, MD
12/17/2008

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Super site , appreciate THE work involved , composition of above . Lived in Catonsville , 50's & 60's , bittersweet memories , recall before B-way bridge was in & after .

PRR RS4/5 # 8444 ,( NC local regular ) went to Rockland Mills switch, stub switch next to old store , just before Jones Falls bridge , where they loaded . Believe Fire house on property now .

Green Spring branch was embargoed just beyond bridge , albeit , track still in through valley to just north of McDonogh on WM .

This was in ' 56 . Drop an email , will send along some recall of interesting moves , as heard from old heads back then PRR . Somewhere around here is a shot taken of WM 460 center headlight engine 130 on 2 car Passenger train enroute to Hillen St ., via NC , over Green Spring branch , circa ' 31 .

Your site , indeed a pleaure to stumble onto .

MANY THANKS, for your efforts . !!!!!!

Bob Hunter
Madison, NC
6/12/2009

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Hi I am working on the Catonsville Short Line Railroad History- I have completed the history and I now looking for photographs for the book- I would like to get a hold of all individiuals who have placed photographs on this web site so I can get there pictures for the book please contact me

Robert L. Williams
Lutherville Maryland
8/8/2009

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I have contacted the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Society and they have NO information in there records on the short line. The explanation was The Pennsylvania Railroad owned or leased a lot short line railroads and they don't have any information on the leased short lines. They just had the information on make and model on the engine on the picture. I have been researching the Catonsville short line for a while. By the way the short line was complete in 1884. I have read also that trains ran from Catonsville to The Calvert Street Station. I did happen to come across a t-shirt with a brief history of the railroad. But nothing else.

I did find a report of St. Charles College Chapel that two train cars did arrived at their siding on November 10, 1919, delivering their new organ.

Patrick Miller
Catonsville, PA
10/25/2010

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I spent 1967-1969 at the former St Charles Seminary on Maiden Choice lane in Catonsville. My first dorm room looked out into the woods, where the coal train to Spring Grove passed, I think it was every Saturday morning. There was something strangely reassuring about that weekly event.

"Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance / Everybody thinks it's true"- Paul Simon

Walt
Robbinsville, NJ
1/21/2011

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To Anyone who may still be on this discussion:

Is anyone aware or have photographs of the Short Line bridge over I-695 before it was dismantled and of the tunnel that went under Bloombury Ave?

Thanks much.

--george brenneman

George Brenneman
Charlestown Retirement, Catonsville, MD
8/8/2011

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I have lived in the Catonsville area for 30 years and I'm a proud member of Catonsville Rails To Trails, a grassroots volunteer organization that restores abandoned rail lines into bike/hike trails. We have been clearing the Short Line Trail and the trail is now very walkable. The trail can be picked up at Garden Ridge Road and Maiden Choice Lane. The trail is gorgeous!

Maureen Sweeney Smith
Catonsville, MD
12/8/2011

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When the early '60s tv show, Route 66, came to town in late summer 1961 to film the episode "A Bridge Across Five Days", the opening scene was shot along Paradise Ave. where it intersects with South Prospect. As the camera pulls back, it takes in the shortline crossbucks, the street signs, and then pans over the tracks looking west along the line. The episode has some great shots of east Catonsville/Paradise, Spring Grove, and Baltimore at that time. I found it on Netflix: Route 66 - Season 2, Vol. 1, Disc 2.

Dave Ditman
Catonsville, MD
12/9/2011

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I have a fascination with picturing my area in historical (and future) perspective. I have explored a lot of the remnants of Catonsville's past that haven't been erased by 'progress.'

I'm 34 and have lived in Catonsville for 11 years. Years ago I saw a historical map either in Appelbee's or McDonald's (the new one on Frederick Rd) that showed a rail line other than the trolley trail running thru Catonsville. Just a few years ago I saw someone in the woods behind Baltimore National Cemetery and realized there was a trail there. Driving by I thought it might be an old railroad then later I put it together that it was the Shortline that I saw in the old map. I then did a few jogs on the newer trails and recently a few expeditions, if you will. I have hiked most of the Shortline...even most inaccessible parts. I was excited to still find rail in the section that runs along Loudon Park Cemetery and the little strip on the grounds of Spring Grove. Only now did I google for it and was happy to find your great page where people shared memories of the impact of that rail. Especially for the older folk who have posted...I want to let them know that the rail still remains part of Catonsville, a hidden remnant of the past, inspiring people to look back in time. And I appreciate their postings.

Driving down the outer loop the other day I spotted a track - you can actually spot a piece of rail on the right atop a hill. No remnants of the old bridge though.

Ed Tracy
Catonsville, MD
3/10/2012

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Rail for pic 9 sit exists!

Jonathan
Cupertino, CA
3/13/2012

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I was born in '61 and raised in Yale Heights a couple blocks from the short line. I remember the engineer telling me they wouldn't be running down this line anymore. Sure enough that was the last train I ever saw or heard on that track. I can't help but look down the line and think back on those days every time I pass a crossing.

Dennis G
Catonsville, MD
3/16/2012

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I moved to Catonsville when I was one years old and lived there from 1959 until 1978. I can remember as a young boy the sound of the train whistle on the short-line tracks when it crossed Maiden Choice lane or S paradice Ave. We lived to far from the tracks to ever see a train but over the years I must of heard hundreds of them. That all changed early one Saturday morning when I was about ten or eleven. I'm not sure of the exact date but I would guess it was around 1970.

My mother had signed me up for an art class that was held at 0800 Saturday morning in what was then Catonsville Junior High School on Bloomsberry Ave. The class was held in the school cafeteria which was in the rear of the building. Behind the school was a large warehouse and the tracks ran right by the loading docks. I have loved trains since I was a small boy so you can imagine my excitement and surprise when an engine and a couple of box cars rolled up and uncoupled at the loading docks. After all those years of hearing the whistle I had finally seen the elusive train on the Catonsville short-line. I still love trains to this day so I was glad when I stumbled across this site. My kids think I'm crazy because I will actually go out of my way to watch a train go by a crossing. Most people will speed up so they can beat a train to a RR crossing but unless I'm in a hurry I will usually slow down hoping the lights will flash and the gates will drop before I get there. I have even been known to pull over and wait on a side street or gas station just to watch a slow moving freight or coal train pass. Thanks for a very informative site and great pictures. You have certainly brought back some fond memories.

Randy

Waldorf Md

Randy Bowen
Waldorf Md, MD
4/30/2012

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