Baltimore Belt Line
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The Baltimore Belt Line was constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1890s to connect the railroad's newly constructed line to New York City with the rest of the railroad. It included the first mainline electrification project in the United States.
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[edit] Origins
The B&O's original connection to New York in Baltimore was through surface street transfers to the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. In 1884 this line was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad, cutting off the connection. The B&O built a new line to connect to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, which in combination with the Central of New Jersey, provided a connection to the Staten Island Railway, which served as the terminal switching company for the B&O's New York service.
[edit] Construction
Connecting the new line to the rest of the system was a considerable engineering challenge. A new surface line across the center of town was politically impossible and prohibitively expensive; building around the outskirts of town would have required massive regrading and bridging, as the terrain is extremely hilly and the line would cut across every watershed flowing into the harbor. As a temporary expedient, traffic was handled through Baltimore on carfloats, but it was clear that a direct connection would have to be built.
The route chosen started from the existing end of track at Camden station, at the west end of the Inner Harbor. A brick-lined tunnel was constructed directly under Howard Street, heading north until just before it crossed the existing PRR line. The Howard Street Tunnel took four and a half years to build and at 1.7 miles was the longest tunnel in the B&O system. At the north portal of the tunnel, Mount Royal station was constructed. The track then curved around to the east, passed through six other (much shorter) tunnels, continued across town, finally heading southeast to meet the already constructed line just north of the Canton neighborhood. The cost of construction drove the railroad into bankruptcy shartly after the line opened.
Initially there were plans to build three new stations, but concern for interference with freight haulage and expense reduced this to the single station at Mount Royal.
[edit] Electrification
By this time the Pennsylvania Railroad line through Baltimore and south had been in operation for twenty years. Due to the built-up nature of the area traversed and the hilly terrain, much of its line through town was in tunnels, which posed severe ventilation problems. Large chimneys were constructed above the Pennsylvania line in a not entirely successful attempt to disperse the fumes from the coal-fired locomotives. However by 1890 eletric locomotion was beginning to appear possible, and in 1892 the B&O thus contracted with General Electric for electric locomotives. These were delivered beginning in 1895, and electrical working began that year.
The grade on the electrified portion was downhill to Camden Station; therefore traffic heading westbound simply drifted through the tunnels. Since the engine was not working, the smoke produced was relatively light. Going the other direction, the electric locomotives coupled to the front of the train and pulled the whole thing, steam locomotive and all, through the tunnels until they reached east Baltimore. Then the steam locomotive closed its cylinder cocks, took up the load, and the electric locomotive uncoupled on the fly, accelerating ahead to a pocket siding between the tracks.
Initially power was supplied through a unique system in which a pickup shoe rode in a channel above and to one side of the track. This proved vulnerable to contamination from coal smoke, and after a short time it was replaced by a conventional third rail system. When the Howard Street track was made into a gantlet to allow higher clearances, the pickup contacts on one side were mounted on swinging arms to accommodate the varying distance to the third rail. The electrification was finally discontinued in 1952 when dieselization made it unnecessary.
[edit] Latter day operation
Throughout much of its history, the line was relatively low traffic. The massive Pennsylvania main line carried most traffic to the northeast. In 1976, however, this line became Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC), and its role as a freight line became relatively minor. The 1987 accident at Chase, Maryland involving a Conrail locomotive led to further reductions in freight traffic on the NEC. The Belt Line (Now operated by CSXT) is therefore a key link in what is the principal line from Baltimore to Philadelphia, made all the more critical by the single tracking of the Howard Street Tunnel.
[edit] The Howard Street fire
On July 18, 2001 a 60 car CSXT freight derailed in the Howard Street Tunnel, sparking a fire that burned for six days and blocked traffic for much longer. The Howard Street Fire called attention to the Belt Line, both as a risk to the surrounding structures and as a link in rail traffic. CSXT has implemented various improvements to increase the integrity of the link, but is limited by the shallow depth of the bore (only three feet below the surface at the south end) and the instability of the surrounding soil.
[edit] References
- "The Howard Street Tunnel- Moving the Freight Through Baltimore", Smith, Jeffrey, The National Railway Bulletin, Volume 66, Number 5, 2001
- "Baltimore's Unseen Artery: A Brief History of the Baltimore Belt Railroad and Its Howard Street Tunnel", Lee, J. Lawrence, ASCE Civil Engineering Conference and Exposition 2004
- B&O Power: Steam, Diesel and Electric Power of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1829 - 1964, Sagle, Lawrence W., Alvin F. Staufer, 1964
