Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - Branches

Branches

Mount Airy Branch

The Mount Airy Branch is the surviving, in-use portion of the 1839-opened Mount Airy Loop. The Loop had been mainline track on the Old Main Line until superseded by the Mount Airy Cutoff and Tunnel in 1902.

Frederick Branch

The Frederick Branch was built from Frederick Junction, on the Old Main Line, to downtown Frederick. The 3.5 mile (5.6 km) branch opened on December 1, 1831. In planning the route of the Old Main Line, the B&O decided against building the main line directly through Frederick, preferring instead to take advantage of a valley grade to the south of the city. The continuation of the main line from Frederick Junction opened April 2, 1832.

Metropolitan Branch

Connected Washington, D.C. to the Old Main Line at Point of Rocks. Constructed between 1866 and 1873, and originally single-tracked. Now called the Metropolitan Subdivision.

Patuxent Branch

The Patuxent Branch was constructed in the 1880s and split off from the Washington Branch at Savage, Maryland to serve a mill, a quarry, and other small industry. After 1925, the line was gradually cut back, and disconnected completely in 2005.

Georgetown Branch

The Georgetown Branch ran from a junction on the Metropolitan Branch north of the Silver Spring, Maryland station to the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. Built between 1892 and 1910. Originally intended as an extension of the railroad to a crossing of the Potomac River near the Chain Bridge, the agreement between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the B&O resulting from the rerouting of track for the Washington Union Station project put an end to the crossing, and the branch settled down to being just a country railroad until the Washington, D.C. suburbs grew around it (Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, and Bethesda). The branch was abandoned in 1986, and much of the right-of-way is now used by the Capital Crescent Trail.

Washington Branch

Original name for the line built between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. during 1833 to 1835. Now called the Capital Subdivision.

Alexandria Extension

The Alexandria Extension (originally the Alexandria Branch) was built from Hyattsville on the Washington Branch in 1874, ending at Shepherd's Landing. Now connects to the Anacostia Railroad Bridge through Washington, D.C. toward Virginia, serving as a bypass around Washington Union Station for freight trains.

Washington County Branch

The B&O had decided against a direct line to Hagerstown, though the city had petitioned the Directors. Several north-south routes like the Cumberland Valley built through Hagerstown and the construction of the Western Maryland Railway to that city persuaded the B&O management to build a branch. It was decided that the branch would leave the mainline at Weverton and wind its way through the hills of Western Maryland to Hagerstown. A station was constructed at the stub end of the line in downtown Hagerstown.

Baltimore & New York Railroad

Constructed from Cranford Junction on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, in Union County, New Jersey, New Jersey east to St. George, Staten Island, New York to give the B&O access to its own deepwater port and ferry terminal. The line no longer runs between Union Avenue and St George on Staten Island. Many attempts have been made to restore it for passenger service, but have hit political, financial, or legal barriers. See entry on Staten Island Railway. More history is at this page.

Ohio River Branch.

The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad (M&C), later absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Southwest, included a stretch of track called the Ohio & Mississippi (O&M) that stretched westward from Cincinnati to East St. Louis. "The O&M featured two branches, one south from North Vernon, Indiana to Jeffersonville (Indiana) opposite of Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River.(8) The other was from Beardstown, Illinois on the Illinois River to Shawneetown on the Ohio, which crossed the O&M main line at Flora."

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