Location / Name:
Sykesville MD, Carroll County
What's Here:
Former B&O Depot, now the Sykesville Station Restaurant
Former PRR B&P Tower
Sykesville and Patapsco Railway
"Little Sykes" Train
C&O Car and B&O Caboose
Leftovers of the Springfield Hospital Spur
Data:
GPS Coordinates: as needed
Phone A/C: 410
ZIP: 21784
Geography/Terrain: Very Hilly!
Access by train/transit:
None
The Scoop:
For a small dot on the map, Sykesville actually has quite a lot of railroad "stuff".
Additional maps are at the bottom, showing successfully more detail.
I guess, railfan-wise, the main attraction to Sykesville is the ex-B&O depot turned
restaurant. It is now the Sykesville Station.
You may remember it by another name, for until 2019, it was known as
Baldwin's Station. The restaurant has been remodeled, and
now offers Nashville styled food. During the warm weather, it is
always a hoot to sit on the deck outside, and hope a train comes rambling by!
B&P Tower, which used to be at the south end of the Penn Station in Baltimore
now resides here, housing a small post office and visitors center.
There is a small siding with an old C&O coach and B&O caboose (C1909)
sitting on it. They are home to the Sykesville and Patapsco Railway,
and model RR club that has several layouts in different scales on display.
They are usually open once a month, on the second weekend.
There are numerous good photo spots, especially along River Road....
The crossing at route 97 isn't too bad either. If you are willing to
do some hiking, excellent photos can be had, see my guide map #17 for
railfanning the Old Main Line between here and Ellicott City.
There are a few remnants of the Springfield Hospital Spur still around,
notably the bridge over Main St.... Most of the branch at the hospital is now gone.
Open on Saturdays in good weather is
the "Little Sykes" Railway, a 12 inch gauge passenger train the owner bought
from a mall in Harrisburg PA. Sorry ya'll, the ride is just for the
kiddies, but it's still worthwhile swinging by if you're around there on a
Saturday, I believe the hours are 9am-3pm.
Also located nearby is a fellow who bought one of the Zoo Trains from the
Baltimore Zoo about 25 years ago. Because of privacy issues, I haven't
shown where he lives.
If you're hungry, I suggest either Becks or the Sykesville Station, where you can sit
outside in the good weather, and be right next to the freights as they rumble thru!
Eldersburg offers just about everything else in the way of food (well, OK, they don't
have a Fridays, Checkers, Papadeux's, or Schlotzsky's :-). They do
have a Liberatore's however, but it is not as good as the one in
Timonium.
Don't forget to bring your wife or girlfriend along, as there are numerous
antique and knick-knack stores here.
Hobby Shops: At one time, there were three hobby shops in the area, one in
downtown Sykesville: Purkeys. The Moose Caboose out west on
Liberty Road closed around 2015 or so, and Pro custom Hobbies in Eldersburg
closed in 2022 or so. Pro Custom Hobbies -many- years ago was a big seller
of scanners for listening in on the trains back in the 70's and 80's when they
were located in Catonsville MD!
In the bummer column - Bing no longer has "birds-eye views" of Sykesville :-(
Acknowledgements:
Kim Baugh
Steve Okonski
Dave Hiteshew
Denver Todd
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/omld8.htm Tour of the Old Main Line
http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/omlspur2.htm Tour of the Springfield Hospital branch
https://www.sykesvillestation.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykesville_station
https://www.townofsykesville.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/Little-Sykes-Railway-Park-8
http://www.procustomhobbies.com/.... sorry, it's been bought by some home building corp :-(
Getting Here
The easiest way to get here is to find your way to I-70 between Baltimore and Frederick
MD, and take MD 32 (exit 80) north. It's about a 4 mile trek off the interstate.
If coming down from the NW of Sykesville, you could also come down US 15 to Liberty Road,
MD 26, and take that to Eldersburg, then head south on MD 32 into Sykesville.
Map
click here for the map in PDF format
Sights
B&P Tower
the Former B&O Depot
the Springfield Branch
the Westinghouse Spur
the Little Sykes Train
the Sykesville Siding
the Baltimore Zoo Train
the Rt 32 Aluminum Bridge
the Sykesville and Patapsco Rwy
Former PRR B&P Tower
B&P Tower served the Pennsylvania Railroad
from 1910 to 1988, and
was located at the south end of the Baltimore platform. The tower was
named after the junction with the Baltimore and Potomac
RR. When the tower was slated for demolition in 1995 to make
room for the light rail, the town of Bowie MD stepped in and said they would
take the tower for a park project they had in mind. So the top of the
tower was dismantled, and moved into storage in Bowie, unprotected from the
elements (the bottom of the tower is still in place, so I'm not sure why it had
to be demolished for the L/R). When the park never happened, the town of
Sykesville stepped up to the plate in 1999 and said they would take it. So
Sykesville built a new base, and put on top of it what was left of the original
salvageable materials. The tower now serves as the Mainline Visitor Center and Post Office.
Views of B&P Tower / Old Main Line Visitor's Center.
B&P Tower and the block Purkey's was in.
ex
B&O Sykesville Depot
The Baltimore & Ohio RR
built the Sykesville depot in 1883. The station was, until June 2020, named after the
architect, E. Francis Baldwin. Supposedly, if you look at the chimney, it
is patterned after the smoke stack of a period steam locomotive. The B&O
used the station up till the end of passenger service to Sykesville in 1949.
The station that preceded this one was built around 1828, and survived for 40 years until
the flood of 1868 came thru and took with it the station and half of Sykesville.
The restaurant was sold in June of 2020 to it's new owners, Kim and D'alan
Baugh. They spent the summer remodeling the building, and re-opened in
August as the Sykesville Station, bringing back the name it was originally
known as. They took up old floor coverings and repainted among other
things, and I like the improvement in the atmosphere the changes made!
My wife and I had dinner there Saturday, October 24th, 2020, and we were excited
to see what the changes had brought. The restaurant isn't quite the
"upscale" place Baldwin's station was, and the prices are more reasonable, more
in line with what Beck's up the street charges. If you are hungry tho,
they do offer a 32 ounce steak! I had the smaller steak, and it was most
tasty, tender, and properly cooked. I will give them a 9/10, only because
I am a iced tea fanatic, and it wasn't up to my standards - for anyone else, a
trip here would be a 10/10.
A set of WB train photos taken the first week of April 2010, while having lunch when it was Baldwin's.
the
Springfield Hospital Spur
The Springfield Branch went from the siding "down"
in Sykesville "up to" the Springfield Hospital to
deliver coal to the power plant. The climb in Springfield is pretty steep, but by the
early 1900's, engines were powerful enough to make the grade. The spur was
put in in 1908. The hospital stopped using coal in 1972 when it converted
to oil, and some of the spur is still evident today.
The Springfield Branch bridge over main street, and tracks long unused.
"Up on the top of the hill", the end of the branch, just after the access road
into Northrop Grumman (above), and the split (below). All of this track was
removed during the Rt 32 makeover. In the picture below, the Westinghouse spur is
facing me, and the Springfield branch continues off to the right.
Steve covers the Springfield Branch in detail here.
The aerial view below shows the end of the Springfield Branch at the power plant (the blue
arrow), and the yellow arrows point at the right of way.
From Google's Streetview comes this 2019 view of the end of the branch.
Not much of anything around to let you know there was once a railroad here.
the
Westinghouse Spur
Back in the 1960's when this was a Westinghouse motor repair facility, the
building had it's own spur coming onto the property. The siding was
removed in 2006 when the physical resources people wanted to spruce up the
property in conjunction with the county's effort to building a new intersection
on MD32 and a new entrance into Springfield and the (now) Northrop Grumman
property. In case anyone is wondering and wants to debate the timing, I
worked at NGC 2003-2016, so the removal date is from personal observation -
the fellow who is/was in charge of physical resources even asked me if I knew
anyone that wanted the track (cause EVERYONE knew I was into trains :-),
and the only people I knew - the Baltimore Streetcar Museum - said nope.
The shot below shows the Springfield Branch (yellow arrows) where it passes
the ex Westinghouse building, the green arrows point at the Westinghouse spur.
the
Little Sykes Train
the Sykesville Siding
I don't believe the siding gets used any more, but I guess it costs more to take out the switch than it is worth.
In the newer aerials, we can also see a couple of the buildings adjacent to the depot have been removed.
There is an intermediate signal between the switch and the depot.
Bing maps no longer has a "birds eye" view of the Sykesville area.
from 2007
Picture is a partial from a photo by Dave Hiteshew from Steve's page on the hospital branch.
the
Baltimore Zoo Train
Chance B-20 Aerotrain, formerly at the Baltimore Zoo, in process of being restored.
the
Route 32 Aluminum Bridge
Built somewhere around 1963, the bridge had to be taken out
of service around 2005 or so once a new bridge was completed. Because the
bridge was made from aluminum, but other structural parts were made from steel,
galvanic action took it's toll, and the bridge had to be taken out of service.
It's one of the very few bridges in the country made of aluminum.
the
Sykesville and Patapsco Railway
Model Railroad club that (usually) meets once a month during non covid times. They sometimes
set up a layout in the second floor of the B&P Tower.
The caboose is numbered C1909, and the C&O baggage car is unnumbered and unnamed.
Fire and Police
the Sykesville Volunteer Fire Company
A few shots of the Sykesville Volunteer Fire Co.
the West Friendship Volunteer Fire Company
I would like to thank Kevin for a great tour of this new
station house, which opened for business in April 2009. The fire
station is staffed by a combination of full time paid county firefighters, and
volunteers, who make up about 75% of the staff. There are at least two
paid guys around all the time. Downstairs there are about 20 bunk rooms,
and with the snow we had here back in March, they were full... there are also 4
dorm rooms where a number of volunteer guys reside all the time. In
addition, there are plenty of rooms for meeting, exercise, watching TV, cooking,
eating, etc. This past winter, they also had a chance to check out the
heated apron with the 3 feet of snow we got. #32 will be replaced shortly
with the arrival of a new engine. All of their engines are manufactured by Pierce.
West Friendship VFC Open House - Sunday - 10/14/2012
I would like to thank everyone for their hospitality, it was a great open house.
Training a new recruit! :-)
Howard County police helicopter, flown by both Howard County
and Anne Arundel County police officers and flown in both counties. I
believe they fly out of Tipton Airport at Ft Meade.
L to R under the helicopter- Spotlight, camera, and RF tracking antennas and the microwave downlink.
Howard County sheriff and police cars are parked behind the fire hall.
the Sykesville Police (and town office building)
Area Hobby Shops
the Moose Caboose Hobby Shop
The Moose Caboose is located 2.3 miles west of MD 97, and is catty-corner from
the Winfield Volunteer Fire Department. The owner, Glen Stegmiller, has a large
variety of trains and accessories for N, HO, Lionel, and G Gauge, and will treat
you like family when you visit. He also has a good bit of
models, parts, and accessories for RC cars! 2010 marks his 8th year in business.
Pro-Custom Hobbies
Pro Custom Hobbies has had a long hobbyist presence. "Back in the
old days", they used to advertise in magazines like
Trains and Model
Railroader and became the "go to" place for railroad scanners when
they were located in Catonsville MD, a western suburb of Baltimore. I'm
not sure when they gave up the suburban address for a more rural location, but
it might be back in the 2000 time frame or so. Look for the signs in the
right picture for the place to turn, it is easy to miss!
Purkey's
Views of B&P Tower / Old Main Line Visitor's Center.
Training a new recruit! :-)
Howard County sheriff and police cars are parked behind the fire hall.
