Mt. Airy - Point of Convergence and Divergence in Central Maryland

Mt. Airy is a small town at the geographical heart of central Maryland. It is the only place in the state where four counties meet, Frederick, Carroll, Howard and Montgomery. It is west of Baltimore and north of Washington. The headwaters of the Patapsco and Patuxent rivers are there only .6 of a mile apart.
The four counties meet at Parr's Spring, the headwater of the Patapsco on the historic Four Counties Farm on Parr's Ridge. The Patapsco river divides Carroll and Baltimore counties on the north and east from Frederick, Howard and Anne Arundel counties on the south and west as well as Baltimore City on the northeast from Anne Arundel county to the southewest The Patuxent river divides Howard,  Anne Arundel and Calvert counties on the east from from Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles and St. Mary's counties on the west. The historic National Pike from Baltimore to Illinois passes along the southern boundary of Mt. Airy, as does the Old Main Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, now owned and operated by CSX.

On the Road Again - Sykesville to Woodbine

On the rail road that is. Picking up where I left off in June on my quest to hike the B&O Old Main Line, I hiked from Sykesville to Woodbine, or at least to Morgan Road, about a mile from Woodbine. Four and a half mile each way. Nine miles in four hours with time to stop and smell the creosote and snap a few pictures. It was a perfect day for hiking; cool and partly cloudy, temperature in the mid 60's. Beautiful! Saw lots of wildlife:  at least a half dozen deer, hawks, geese, a blue heron, cattle, horses, bright colored song birds and even a box turtle trying to figure out how to get over a rail to cross the tracks. After a train passed over him, he turned back the way he came. Here is a view of the old Sykesville yard looking back toward the east.

I parked beside Baldwin Station in a lot on the old Sykesville freight yard, which has some old rail cars. It also serves as a staging area for Maintenance of Way vehicles for CSX. The 29 mile marker is about a quarter mile from Baldwin Station just around a bend heading west. The short Sykesville tunnel is another quarter mile down the tracks. It has two bridges over the Patapsco River, one on each approach. The river makes a sharp bend to the north around the ridge that the tunnel goes through. So, between the two bridges the track is in Howard County for a few hundred yards, then back into Carroll County. After the tunnel there are four at grade road crossings in the next four miles: Gaither Rd., Hoods Mill Rd., Rt 97 and Morgan Rd. about a quarter mile past the 33 mile marker on the approach to Woodbine. I encountered two eastbound trains during my hike and heard the whistle of a third train, headed west, as I drove out of Sykesville at the end of my hike.

I have posted more photos of today's hike at this link, but the pair of geese below, cruising the Patapsco, were too beautiful not to include here.

Woodstock to the Henryton Tunnel and Back

This morning I hiked the B&O Old Main Line from Woodstock to the Henryton tunnel, about three and half miles each way. It was a pretty stretch of track on a beautiful day. I saw two deer and a fox, which were too fast for me to get my camera ready.

The phrase "sylvan glades" captures the look of much of the track-side scenery, which included a fox's den.

The Henryton tunnel, built in 1903, is about a half mile west of Marriottsville Road and about a hundred yards past the 25 mile marker next to the track.          

There were no iron horses on rails today, probably because of tomorrow's holiday. However I did encounter some flesh and blood horses back at my starting point. It seems the "biker bar" at the Old Court / Woodstock Road rail crossing in Woodstock is as much a "horsewoman's bar" as it is a biker's. After I downed a brew with the boys, a few of the ladies let me photograph their rides.

This guy was the best looking of the herd and he just loved to pose.

All in all a very pleasant outing on a beautiful, sunny and cool day.

Another Cup of Coffee

The weekend job got cancelled this morning and I am so glad. It was a beautiful day for hiking. So, I hiked along the Old Main Line from Ilchester to Ellicott City for another cup of coffee at the Bean Hollow. Nice walk along the rails, maybe two miles covered easily in an hour.Took a break for a latte and a scone at the Hollow and walked back. Encountered three CSX trains along the way, two headed west, one eastbound. I did not expect to see anything interesting on this stretch of tracks, but I was surprised by a few items. First this interesting tipped over structure.

Obviously it was some sort of service building at one time. It's big, at least two stories tall when upright, and made of reinforced concrete. It appeared to have been tipped over backward right next to the rail bed. What the hell was it? I searched the web and learned that it was a coaling tower built during World War II at the small, but no longer existing, village of Lees to provide a coaling station away from the busy and congested rail yards in Baltimore. But what did it look like during its useful service? The answer to that question was a bit more difficult to find. But find it I did, and you can see a vintage photo of the Lee water tower penstocks and the very same coaling tower here. In the vintage photo you are looking west toward Ellicott City.

The other item of interest was a pair of maintenance of way machines parked at a dead end siding on the approach to Ellicott City.

This line of track was in a terrible state of disrepair seemed not to have been used in many years. Turns out is was a special siding devoted to the flour mill on the Baltimore County side of the Patapsco at Ellicott City. There is an old disused trestle bridge that once carried tracks from the mill to the siding along the Old Main Line. The siding is now used as a convenient parking place for rail maintenance machinery. And of course it would not be right to end without a shot of one of the trains encountered on my hike.

View From Above The Dorsey Tunnel

Hiked from the Alberton Road lot off Dogwood Road all the way to the east portal of the Dorsey tunnel. I decided to see if there was a walk around trail to the west opening. There wasn't a real path, but I followed a deer trail down onto the flood plain of the Patapsco until the hill came all the way down to the river and I was forced up at a very steep grade. Only a few deer hoof prints were visible on what was barely a trace. I did make it to the west portal as you can see, but I do not recommend doing this. Very steep, rough, slippery going. And you have to retrace the same tricky return passage. It was a workout. The hike made clear the reason the B&O decided to blast the tunnel through this ridge, which is 400 feet high. On the return hike I ran into the fellow below. He seemed kind of lonely, so I gave him some space for a personal ad.

Train Station at Point of Rocks, Maryland

This beautiful station, designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin and completed in 1876, sits at the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio RR Old Main Line out of Baltimore and its Metropolitan Branch out of Washington. It is also where the B&O met the C&O Canal. The railroad and canal, after a nasty legal fight from 1828 to 1832, shared the right of way side by side along the Potomac river as far as Harper's Ferry. I visited the site this morning with my brother Chris before we hiked a few miles on the adjacent C&O Canal towpath. More photos here.

Reinforcement

There are many small stone arched bridges carrying the Old Main Line over tributaries of the Patapsco river. I have never seen one reinforced and stablilized in this manner. It is on the stretch of rails between the Davis tunnel and Woodstock.

Dorsey Redux

Same location as last post. Looking east from the opening of the Davis tunnel toward the Dorsey tunnel. I love the day to day variations in the color tones any one location. This photo was taken today. The cloudy sky and muted colors appeal to me.

Rolling on the Old Main Line

CSX 802 just out of the Dorsey tunnel heading east toward Baltimore.

...out of town on a rail