The map below shows the south side of Baltimore. Not much going on in this part of Baltimore unless you are into yards. There's
Curtis Bay Yard, with it's car shops on the north end and west side. Seawall Yard sees a lot of auto-racks
from ships unloading on the north side of 895.
On the south side of Curtis Bay yard, are three sets of specially modified SDs in a cow and calf or cow and two calves figuration. They are painted in yellow
primer only. They have been behind fences for years.... so the best you could do is to go telephoto. Years ago, like 40 or 50, they used to have narrow
gauge "mules" to shove the cars out to the ships.... they were pretty cool!
Curtis Bay is easy to get to from the Canton side of the Harbor via the Harbor Tunnel Thruway (895), from Westport, and downtown where Riverside yard is
located. Not much more than 10 minutes away during off rush hour periods.
There used to be one local a day going over the swing bridge, but I haven't been down here in years to be able to confirm this is still happening. This
swing bridge is one of three in the Baltimore area. Of the two other bridges, only one is used, and is between Penn Mary and Grays yards on the east
side. The other (at the very top of the map) is on the old Western Maryland between Westport and Port Covington, and is in the permanently open position
since those tracks are long gone :-(
Depending on where you are coming from, there are a number of ways to get to these yards.
If you are on the eastern side of Baltimore on the "other" side of the Bay in Sparrows Point (for instance), you want to get on the Beltway heading
south, and then (pay to) cross the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
From downtown Baltimore, Hanover Street would be the quickest way.
If you're coming from the south, you CAN NOT get off of 895, so you'll have to come up Ritchie Highway.
If you're coming up I-95 from the south, take the Patapsco Ave ext, the first exit on the inside of the Beltway, 695, and then head south.
This bridge hasn't been in service since the late 80's.
The shot below shows where the line over to Port Covington used to connect to what is here now.
CSX Seawall Yard
CSX Coal Pier
CSX Swing Bridge #8A
Picture by Steve Corfman
Picture by Steve Corfman
CSX Davidson Yard / Striegals
Not exactly when Davidson Yard saw it's last job, but looking at the growth, I would say it has been at least 30 years. At the end of its career, it became a storage
yard for Striegals. Adjacent to Davidson Yard used to be a firm called STRIEGAL's (the red "X"). They used to be in the surplus railroad locomotive
business, in fact, Reading 2101 used to be here way back in the very early 70's. I only had one interaction with Striegal's, and that was in the late 70's when I
had inquired about buying a second hand railroad
radio for an organization called RRP, or Railroad Passenger Cars,, a private company that rented refurbished B&O passenger cars for excursions. They used to
keep their cars down at Camden Station before it was taken over to build the current station and Oriole's Ball Park. More below in Foobydust.
Below are a few pictures from Striegal's back on one visit in 1972, notice the two Reading steamers sitting amongst the other "junk", one of which is 2101 :-)
You can get some idea of where they used to be by the grain tower in the far background, which can be seen in this picture taken from 695, the Beltway.
All of the pictures below were taken in 2007. They were replaced by colorlight signals in early 2013.
For the purposes of this discussion, SB signals are for trains heading into Curtiss Bay, NB signals are for those trains headed out towards Baltimore or DC.
RRP was an organization that owned something like 12-15 old B&O passenger cars, and rented them out for excursions, to anyone that wanted to have one. They had a long
history going back to the early 70's, and they kept their equipment at Camden Station, where the current MARC Camden Station is now. In the very early days of RRP,
the B&O Budd cars would operate on the tracks right next to the RRP cars. Probably the most famous of their cars was #3302, the Hooper, named after Edward G.
Hooper, president of the NHRS. They also had a car dedicated to Mr. Leonard Buxton, one of the company's original members and founding fathers. For a history
of the Hooper, click on the thumbnail, as the print is too large to be presented here in it's full size..... it is a long read. The article, written by Shelly Hopkins
in 1995, was found here.
If you Google "the Hooper" or "Leonard Buxton", "there ain't much out
there"......
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page. This is something I have fun with while
trying to help others. My webpages are an attempt at putting everything I can find of the subject in one convenient place.
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate
them. For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost
everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a
while, an error may creep in :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or
disoriented. Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have
the railroads on them. If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good
job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads. Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit
is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info is here
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
ex B&O BX Tower
CSX Curtis Bay Yard
CSX Car Shops
ex Western Maryland Spring Garden Swing Bridge
CSX Seawall Yard
CSX Coal Pier
CSX Swing Bridge #8A 
Picture by Steve Corfman
Picture by Steve Corfman
CSX Davidson Yard / Striegals
Artwork on the South Hanover St overpass
Sign on the Potee Street overpass
SB Dwarf CPL
SB High CPL
NB Dwarf CPL
NB High CPL
NB Dwarf CPL
