From Wikipedia, Jan 2008



  MP36PH-3C Cab

  An earlier MDot train NB on the Thomas Viaduct

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Conrail



Ahhhh, the railroad we all love to hate.  When the Penn Central, and most of the other Northeast railroads started getting into financial trouble in the mid 1970's, the government's solution was the formation of Conrail.  Conrail was incorporated on October 25th, 1974, and assumed operation of the bankrupt railroads on April 1st, 1976.  It took over the Penn Central, the Reading RR, the Central RR of New Jersey,  the Lehigh Valley RR, the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, the Erie-Lackawanna, and the Raritan River RR.  Conrail itself, as large as it was, felt the strain of a lackluster economy, and on June 1st, 1999, was divided up into two parcels, with about 40% of it going to CSX, and 60% of it going to Norfolk Southern.  In areas where the government felt the market would be too lopsided, they left Conrail intact in northern New Jersey, south Jersey/Philadelphia, and in the Detroit area in what they call Conrail Shared Assets Operations, and ownership is both CSX and NS.

Conrail also inherited commuter operations of it's predecessor railroads except for MARC, but in 1983, finally gave them up.

From the Conrail Website:

Conrail began operations in April 1976, although its origins go back to the earliest days of railroading in North America (not really, you could say that abut any railroad today with all of the mergers that have taken place since 1830, Todd).

The oldest segment of what became Conrail was the Granite Railway Co., built in 1826 to carry granite blocks for the Bunker Hill Monument in West Quincy, Massachusetts.  Nearly 150 years later, scores of railroads in the Northeast and Midwest had been acquired or merged into six different lines: Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh & Hudson River, Lehigh Valley, Penn Central, and the Reading.

In the early 1970s, one by one, these six railroads entered bankruptcy.  Although there were many reasons for the economic difficulties they faced, chief among them was competition from trucks, subsidized by the federally-built Interstate highway system, and an archaic system of economic regulation which prevented railroads from responding to the needs of the market.  As freight revenues declined, railroads deferred maintenance, allowing tracks and equipment to fall into poor condition, and as service levels deteriorated, more business went to trucks.  Requirements to run money-losing passenger service added to the rails decline.

The federal government, recognizing the national economic importance of the six railroads, responded by creating Conrail and appropriating the funds needed to rebuild tracks, locomotives and freight cars.  While Conrail succeeded in rebuilding the railroad, the problem of severe economic regulation remained.  With the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980, many of these constraints were loosened, giving railroads more freedom to compete with trucks.  Later, other legislation transferred the burden of operating money-losing commuter rail service from Conrail to state agencies.  In the 1970s, Congress created Amtrak to take over intercity passenger service from the nation's freight railroads.

By 1981 Conrail began its financial turnaround.  After June 1981, Conrail would no longer require federal investment, and finished the year with the first profit in its history.

With Conrail continuing to succeed in providing high quality service for its freight customers and improving its financial outlook, the federal government sold its ownership interest in Conrail through what at the time was the largest initial public stock offering in the nation's history.  This March 26, 1987 transaction, with added cash payments from Conrail to the U.S. Treasury, produced about $1.9 billion for the taxpayers and returned the Northeast-Midwest rail freight system to the private sector as a for-profit corporation, as Congress had envisioned when it created Conrail as Consolidated Rail Corporation.

In the spring of 1997, Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX Corporation agreed to acquire Conrail through a joint stock purchase.  The Surface Transportation Board officially approved the acquisition and restructuring of Conrail on July 23, 1998.  The approved restructuring plan transformed Conrail into a switching and terminal railroad that operates on behalf of its owners, Norfolk Southern and CSX, in the Shared Assets Areas of Northern New Jersey, Southern New Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit.

For more info, click here or here.

● The Canton Railroad



The Canton Railroad Company is a rail logistics provider that offers freight services to industrial, manufacturing and port related shippers. It is located in eastern Baltimore City and Baltimore County MD.  The railroad was formally founded in 1906.  Eventually the Canton Railroad Company would be created to serve the industrial heartland of Baltimore.

Their website is here.

From Wikipedia:

History.... After the federal government enacted legislation in 1905 approving the dredging of shipping channels to the Baltimore harbor to a depth of 35 feet, the Canton Company of Baltimore, a marine terminal operator, sought to develop property it owned in southeast Baltimore for use by manufacturers and shippers. This necessitated access to rail services. Since neither of the two local railroad companies, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) and Pennsylvania Railroad Companies, were willing to extend their lines to undeveloped areas, the Canton Company decided in 1905 to build its own local railroad.

The Canton Railroad Company was chartered in 1906 by the Canton Company, to serve industrial, manufacturing, and shipping customers in the Baltimore port area. Its tracks, starting from the interconnection with the Pennsylvania Railroad, were laid during the period from 1905 through 1914. The Canton track interconnected with the B&O Railroad in 1910. Rail operations began in 1907.

The Canton Company was purchased by the conglomerate International Mining Company in 1960.  It passed through several owners in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984, alleged financial improprieties by the owners of the Canton Development Company, then the owner of the railroad, led to its being placed into receivership.  The State of Maryland purchased the Canton Railroad at a bankruptcy auction in 1987 for $875,000 to provide railway access to the Seagirt Terminal of the Port of Baltimore.

The Canton Railroad dispute with Maryland involving whether the state franchise tax on railroad activities in the port of Baltimore violated the Import-Export or Commerce Clauses of the Constitution led to the Supreme Court case Canton Railroad Company v. Rogan, 340 U.S. 511 (1951).

Current operations: Today the Canton Railroad is owned by the Maryland Transportation Authority and operates as a for-profit enterprise.  Engines used by the Canton Railroad are painted yellow and black in a pattern similar to that used in the Maryland and Baltimore flags.  The railroad currently operates 6 miles of mainline and 17 miles of secondary track.

 

Below is a sampling of Canton engines from the early 80's.

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● The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad

 

From Wikipedia:

The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th century.  The railroad, the second to serve Annapolis, ran between Annapolis and Clifford along the north shore of the Severn River. From Clifford, just north of the present day Patapsco Light Rail Stop, it connected with the B&O's Curtis Bay branch so that trains could travel to Baltimore.  In 1921, when it was called the Annapolis and Baltimore Short Line, it was purchased by the larger Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A), and then emerged from the WB&A's 1935 bankruptcy and closure as the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad.  B&A electric passenger operation between the two cities continued until 1950, at which time the rail line became solely a freight carrier, operating buses for passenger service.  Freight service to Annapolis continued until June 1968 when the Severn River Trestle was declared unsafe.  In the 1980s the line was completely shut down.  The right-of-way now serves as part of Baltimore's light rail system and as the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail.

The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad was chartered in 1880, by a group of New England promoters as the Annapolis and Baltimore Short Line and began running in March 1887.  This freight and passenger line was an integral link between Annapolis and Baltimore, transporting almost two million passengers per year until competition from nearby highways forced the railroads' closure.  It was the second railroad to serve Annapolis and provided a faster connection to Baltimore, taking a more direct path along the north shore of the Severn River and then crossing the river into Annapolis.  The railroad transformed the once-secluded banks of the Severn to a series of suburban communities.

The railroad started as a steam powered line running from Bladen Street in Annapolis, crossing the wide Severn River estuary on a long timber trestle, and on to Clifford on the B&O line, where it used the B&O tracks to terminate at Camden Station in Baltimore.  Because the A&B Short Line created an almost straight line southeast from Baltimore it snatched much of the Baltimore-Annapolis trade away from the Annapolis, Washington & Baltimore Railroad on which passengers had to change trains at Annapolis Junction.

At some point prior to 1892, a small connecting line was built between the A&B and the AW&B at the Bay Ridge Junction wye where the AW&B met the Annapolis and Bay Ridge Railroad.

Reorganization: Business was slim in the early years, and in 1893 the railroad was sold to George Burnham Jr. and reorganized as the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line the next year.  Universally it was called simply “The Annapolis Short Line.”

Modernization: The line was electrified in 1908, and changed its name to the Maryland Electric Railways Company, providing clean, comfortable, faster, and more frequent service.  Unlike most electric railways of its time, which employed a low voltage Direct Current electrification, the line installed a 6,600 volt, 25 cycle, single phase Alternating Current electrification system newly developed by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.  The pioneering AC system was less than fully successful, however, and in 1914, new owners switched to DC.  When it did, the B&O was wary of a high-voltage overhead line over its tracks between the Clifford interchange and Camden Station. (Both the WB&A and Short Line then used 3300v AC) So the B&O built a new line for the Short Line between Cliffords and its mainline at Russell Street, paralleling the South Baltimore branch through Westport.  This line ran immediately west/south of the Curtis Bay and South Baltimore branches, passing under the Curtis Bay branch along the way.

Purchase: During its heyday, the years between 1918 and the late 1920s, the B&A transported as many as 1,750,000 passengers per year between Baltimore and Annapolis. Trains left every hour from 6 am through 11 pm (during rush hours, the trains left every 30 minutes).  Because of its strong performance, the neighboring WB&A bought the Annapolis Short Line in 1921 and it became part of the WB&A system in which it was called the North Shore Line. Afterward, Short Line trains were routed over the WB&A between Linthicum and the WB&A's new Baltimore terminal at the corner of Howard & Lombard Streets, now the site of a Holiday Inn.  At the same time, most of the old Short Line track between Linthicum and Westport was abandoned, except for a section between Baltimore Highlands and the B&O Cliffords interchange which was kept to handle freight to and from the B&O. The "new" (B&O-built) Annapolis Short Line ROW between Cliffords and Westport was also retained for freight interchange, though this segment was later abandoned in 1979.

The End: Following World War II, gasoline and cars came back. At a hearing in November 1949, the Maryland Public Service Commission reported "The rails are worn and would have to be replaced if passenger service is continued; the cars and trains are antiquated, decrepit, and unattractive means of travel; schedules are slow, and there is no inducement, save that of necessity, for anyone to travel the area by rail. While not yet dead, it is moribund”. The B&A substituted buses for rail service: by February 5, 1950, the B&A Short Line made its final passenger run.  The electric wires were removed, but the railroad remained intact for diesel-operated freight service.  The B&A purchased a diesel that remained in freight service to Annapolis until June 1968 when the Severn River Trestle was embargoed.

The freight was now terminated at Jones Station where Annapolis Lumber and Supply Company sent trucks to collect freight. At this time, the Naval Academy converted their power and heating systems from coal to oil. By the early 1970s, all that remained in service was a six-mile (10 km) stub to Glen Burnie.

The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad's public bus system was absorbed by Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) in 1973 as Route 14. The company continued as a charter bus service using motorcoaches into the mid-1980s, but eventually ceased service.

In 1979, Anne Arundel County purchased the 66-foot (20 m) wide corridor between Glen Burnie to Arnold for the purpose of creating the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail and park.  The remaining line north of Glen Burnie was shut down in the early 1980s and sold to the State of Maryland to serve as the southern leg of the light rail system. In 1986, B&A number 50 was donated to the B&O Railroad Museum.


Down in Glen Burnie, the light rail still uses this short trestle.

  In downtown Baltimore

  Map showing WB&A system, including former B&A line.

  Marley Station 1944.

  Arnold Station 1945.

  Glen Burnie Station 1941.

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●  the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad



From Wikipedia:

Around 1830, the Pennsylvania state legislature sought to improve transportation between Philadelphia and points south.  On April 2, 1831, it chartered the Philadelphia and Delaware County Rail-Road Company, allotting $200K to build a rail line from America's largest city to the Delaware state line.  In July 1835, surveyors began to look at possible routes, and in October they reported that the best option, a 17-mile line, would cost $233K to build.

Meanwhile, the Delaware and Maryland legislatures were doing their part to create a rail link to Wilmington and Baltimore.  On January 18, 1832, Delaware chartered the Wilmington and Susquehanna RR Co (the W&SRRC) with $400K to build from Wilmington to the Maryland state line.

On March 5, Maryland chartered the Baltimore and Port Deposit RR Company (B&PD), with $1,000,000, to build from Baltimore to the western bank of the Susquehanna River.  The B&PD began operating trains in 1835, in Baltimore between the Basin waterfront (today, it's known as the Inner Harbor) and the Canton area.

On March 12, the Delaware and Maryland Rail Road Company (D&MRRC) was chartered for $3,000,000 to build from Port Deposit or any other point on the Susquehanna's eastern bank to the Delaware line.

The year 1836 saw several milestones.  The P&DCRRC opened its first segment of track, the state upped the railroad's allowable expenditures to $400,000, and the company changed its name, on March 14, to The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company .  On July 4, the PW&B began building its bridge over the Schuylkill River, the most significant obstacle on its route.  The bridge would cross at Gray's Ferry, south of the city.

Work proceeded in Delaware and Maryland as well, and by July 1837, there was continuous track from Baltimore to Wilmington, broken only by the wide Susquehanna River, which trains crossed by ferry at Havre de Grace.

On January 15, 1838, the PW&B opened service from Gray's Ferry to Wilmington. In December, the Schuylkill bridge was completed.  Named the Newkirk Viaduct after PW&B president Matthew Newkirk, it allowed trains to run from downtown Philadelphia to downtown Baltimore, with only the Susquehanna ferry interrupting the ride.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) began using the tracks that same year to offer service to Philadelphia.

The disadvantages of tripartite ownership of the Philadelphia-Baltimore line had become obvious.  The D&MRRC and the W&SRRC had already merged to form the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company on April 18, 1836.

On February 12, 1838, the four state-chartered railroads were merged to form the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company.  (The new company's name differed from its predecessor's in that "The" was not part of its formal name).

More.....

In Philadelphia, the line ended at Broad Street and Prime Avenue (today Washington Avenue), where it connected with the Southwark Rail-Road (built in 1835) to reach the Delaware River.

In 1839, the railroad's ticket agents advertised daily mail-and-passenger trains that left Baltimore's Pratt Street station at 9:30 a.m., stopped for lunch in Wilmington, and reached the Market Street depot in Philadelphia at 4 p.m.

In 1842, Newkirk resigned as PW&B president. He was replaced by Matthew Brooke Buckley (1794-1856), who had become a PW&B board member on Jan. 10, 1842, and one week later had taken over leadership of one of the railroad's three executive committees, the Northern one.  As president, Buckley helped create the first telegraph line from Philadelphia to Baltimore (and hence from points north and south) by agreeing to allow the builder to use the PW&B right-of-way in exchange for the use of the communications equipment.

In Baltimore, the PW&B ended at President Street.  In 1850, the railroad opened a new station, with a 208-foot (63 m) barrel-vaulted train shed.  Service onward to Washington, D.C. was facilitated by drawing the coaches by horse down Pratt Street to the B&O terminal.  Unwieldy as it was, the arrangement allowed the railroads to compete with the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (Pennsylvania Railroad after 1857) on routes west from Philadelphia.  By 1853, the Camden and Amboy Railroad and New Jersey Railroad were also part of this agreement, providing through service from New York City to the west.

The PW&B also extended its reach into Delaware — on March 15, 1839, it bought the New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road running from New Castle DE to Frenchtown MD but it took 13 years to connect the line to the rest of the PW&B. The New Castle and Wilmington Railroad was chartered to do so, and opened in 1852. The line also provided a connection with the Delaware Railroad, which the PW&B took over and began to operate on January 1, 1857. In 1859, the NC&F was abandoned west of Rodney, the junction with the Delaware Railroad.  By 1866, these moves and others allowed the PW&B to dominate the Delmarva Peninsula rail market.

In November 1866, the Susquehanna was bridged at last by the PW&B Bridge, a 3,269-foot (996 m) wooden truss, creating a continuous rail connection between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

To avoid swampy areas and serve more populated ones, the PB&W built the Darby Improvement, which diverged from its existing main line just south of the Grays Ferry Bridge, passed through Darby, and rejoined it at Eddystone, just upriver from Chester.  The new inland track opened on November 18, 1872.  The PW&B dispensed with the old alignment less than a year later, leasing it on July 1, 1873, to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway for 999 years with the stipulation that it would be used solely for freight.  (The Reading dubbed the line, along with some connecting track, its Philadelphia and Chester Branch, southbound trains reached it via the Junction Railroad (jointly controlled by PW&B, Reading, and PRR) and continued on to the connecting Chester and Delaware River Railroad.)

The PW&B, which had competed so fiercely with the PRR, began to see their interests align.  In 1873, the PRR opened the Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road from Baltimore to Washington.  The PW&B agreed to allow the PRR to use its track between Philadelphia and Baltimore, helping the PRR to offer a shorter and more direct trip to Washington.

On May 15, 1877, the PW&B formally absorbed the New Castle & Frenchtown and New Castle & Wilmington railroads, forming a branch line from Wilmington to Rodney.  On May 21, 1877, it absorbed the Southwark Railroad, extending its main line to the Delaware River waterfront.

PRR subsidiaries.....

A number of branches were built, bought and sold from 1881 to 1891, as described below.  In 1895, the main line was realigned and straightened at Naaman's Creek in Delaware. The old line would become sidings for Claymont Steel.

The PRR's Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road was formally leased to the PW&B on November 1, 1891.

The Elkton and Middletown Railroad, opened in 1895, was originally intended as a cutoff between the main line at Elkton, Maryland and the Delaware Railroad at Middletown, Delaware. However, only a short piece of track serving industries in Elkton was ever constructed. It was consolidated into the PB&W on September 15, 1916.

The PW&B merged with the Baltimore and Potomac on November 1, 1902, to form the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.

Branches.....

● Southwark
● 60th Street/Chester
● South Chester
● Edgemoor

● Augustine Mill: Also called the Brandywine Branch, it was built in 1882 from Landlith north along the Brandywine Creek to reach the Augustine Mills of the Jessup & Moore Paper Company, and was later extended further north to serve the Kentmere and Rockford Mills of Joseph Bancroft & Sons.

● Shellpot: Also called the Shellpot Cutoff, it was built in 1888 from Edgemoor (near the crossing of the Shellpot Creek) around the south side of Wilmington to a point on the main line between Wilmington and Newport. It served as a freight bypass, to avoid what was then street running on the main line through Wilmington.

● Delaware Branch: Formed from the old New Castle & Frenchtown and New Castle & Wilmington trackage between Wilmington and Rodney, via New Castle. It was sold to the Delaware Railroad in 1891.

● New Castle Cut-off: Built in 1888 from a point on the Shellpot Branch just across the Christina River from Cherry Island, south to New Castle and a connection with the Delaware Branch. It was sold with the Delaware Branch to the Delaware Railroad in 1891.

● Delaware City: Sold by the Newark and Delaware City Railroad to the PW&B in 1881. It ran south and east from the main line at Newark to Delaware City.

● Port Deposit: Built in 1866 up the Susquehanna River from Perryville to the river town of Port Deposit. In 1893, it was sold to the Columbia and Port Deposit Railway, also PRR-controlled, which connected with it at Port Deposit.<

● Baltimore Union

The map below shows the route of the PW&B's tracks through downtown Baltimore to connect with the B&O RR.

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●  the Union RR

From Wikipedia, as part of a story on the Union Tunnels...... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Tunnel_(Baltimore)

The Union Railroad was 9.62 miles (15.48 km) in length, extending from the northern terminus of the Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road to the southern terminus of the Northern Central Railway. The junction with the Baltimore and Potomac lies between Pennsylvania Station and the northern portal of the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.  The Union Railroad joined the Northern Central at Bayview Junction, on the northeast side of Baltimore.

Although chartered as early as 1866, active steps to finance construction of the railroad and tunnel came only in the autumn of 1870, and actual construction begun May 1, 1871. On July 24, 1873, the first train passed through the tunnel.  The original tunnel began at Bond Street, and passed under the bed of Hoffman Street to Greenmount Avenue, crossing under Dallas, Caroline, Spring and Eden Streets, Central and Harford Avenues, and Ensor, Valley and McKim Streets.  It's length is 3,410 feet (1,040 m).  The total cost of the road and tunnel was some $3,000,000.

As soon as the Union Railroad was completed, the Northern Central Railway obtained the right to use it, and in February, 1882, the Northern Central purchased the Union Railroad stock from the Canton Company, and assumed control March 1 of the same year.

In the map below, the railroad ran between the two yellow arrows.

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Significant Historical Events

On January 4, 1987, Amtrak Train 94 crashed into a Conrail freight locomotive in Chase.  The Conrail engineer had been smoking marijuana, which caused him to miss numerous warning signals and take his train into the path of the approaching Amtrak train.  Fourteen passengers were killed, making this Amtrak's deadliest crash ever at the time.  The crash became national news and led to: 1) New safety regulations, 2) Drug testing, and 3) Black box recorders on the locomotives.  The crash also caught the attention of President Ronald Reagan, who honored some of the local people of Chase for helping passengers who escaped shaken but unharmed from the trains.  The community now known as Chase was originally founded as "Chase's Station" in 1850 as a stop for the Baltimore Railroad.  Ham Radio also played a role in emergency efforts because the existing "911" communications systems were over burdened.  Most from Wikipedia - notice they have the name of the railroad WRONG, and this folks is why teachers don't like students to use Wikipedia as a reference source for research.

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Merger Map

There are also a few family history charts I have put together, located here.