Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad
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| Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland |
| Dates of operation | 1886?– |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
The Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania southwest to Baltimore, Maryland, and is now used by CSX for freight. It was built in the 1880s after the Pennsylvania Railroad kicked the B&O off their old route, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. The cost of building the route, especially the Howard Street Tunnel on the connecting Baltimore Belt Line, led to the B&O's first bankruptcy.
[edit] History
When the B&O started to run to Philadelphia, it did so via the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. Connecting trackage in Baltimore ran from the B&O's Mount Clare terminal east along Pratt Street and East Falls Avenue to the PW&B's President Street terminal. From there the PW&B ran east on Fleet Street and Boston Street before leaving onto its own right-of-way.
In 1857 Camden Station was built, about eight blocks east of Mount Clare, on a spur off the B&O's Locust Point Branch. Surface tracks ran past the station on both Howard Street and Eutaw Street to reach the tracks on Pratt Street. In 1867 the B&O built the Camden Cutoff, connecting the main line at West Baltimore to the Locust Point Branch at Carroll, and shortening the route by about two miles (3 km). [1]
In the early 1880s, the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and kicked the B&O off it. The B&O needed a new route, and obtained charters for the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (simply the Philadelphia Branch in Maryland). Except at its two ends, the line was built within a few miles to the northwest of the PW&B. At the Baltimore end, the line ended in the Canton neighborhood, with a car ferry across the Patapsco River to Locust Point. At the Philadelphia end, the new line crossed the PW&B and its old alignment (part of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway's branch to Chester) and crossed to the east side of the Schuylkill River just south of Grays Ferry. A branch split there towards the Delaware River, while the main line continued north along the Schuylkill, with a station downtown, and then passed through the Art Museum Tunnel to a junction with the Philadelphia and Reading Railway's main line; this tunnel, probably the last part of the line, opened on December 15, 1886. [2]
The Reading, originally using the Junction Railroad west of the Schuylkill to access its Chester branch, obtained trackage rights over the Baltimore and Philadelphia, and the B&O obtained trackage rights over the Reading's lines from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. (This route via the Reading originally ran via the main line, Port Richmond Branch, North Pennsylvania Railroad, North Pennsylvania Railroad Delaware River Branch, Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad and Central Railroad of New Jersey, later using the shortcut of the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad and New York Short Line Railroad rather than the North Pennsylvania.) The Baltimore and New York Railway and Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway provided their own freight terminal, at St. George on Staten Island.
Though a surface alignment through downtown Baltimore was authorized by the Maryland legislature, the B&O instead obtained a charter for the Baltimore Belt Line to provide a completely grade-separated route. This new route entered the long Howard Street Tunnel at Camden Station, running north under downtown, and then turning east through two shorter tunnels to a junction with the Philadelphia Branch at Bay View Yard. The Baltimore Belt Line was completed in 1895, and its expenses drove the B&O to bankruptcy in 1896.
The last passenger trains ran through the tunnel and over the Baltimore and Philadelphia in 1958; since then all traffic has been freight. The route is now operated by CSX as their Philadelphia Subdivision.
[edit] Branches
- In Philadelphia
- Crum Creek
- Market Street
- South Washington
- Landenburg
- Providence
- In Baltimore
