Streetcars of the Monumental City

Photos by Adam Paul

It was a rail line that was nearly a century before its time. Long before the Subway route stretched to Owings Mills in 1987, the area was served by a winding, bucolic streetcar route that wound its way from Mount Washington across then foggy empty fields now known to us as the Cheswolde and Ranchleigh areas, and following the Southern edge of a Cemetery before finally emerging at the Reisterstown Pike in Pikesville.

This route was originally built as a mainline to Emory Grove, with some hopes by its financers to constuct the line as an Interurban into Pennsylvania, where a connection would be made to another line there. However, the line made it no further than Emory Grove.

About the turn of the Century, two events would occur which would orphanize the center, lightly trafficked portion of the line. For one, operation of the line to Emory Grove reverted to a separate entity which operated their trunk service into town along Park Heights Avenue instead of Falls Road. Earlier, an extension of the B&N line to operate on a new alignment West of Mount Washington passing the then popular Electric Park Amusement Park made the original line passing Cheswolde largely unneeded. As a result, operation of the line was soon converted to a shuttle operation between the junction (known as Arlington Junction and located at the present corner of Kelly Avenue and Cross Country Boulevard) of the main line and the Druid Ridge Cemetery, where the line connected with the Emory Grove line.

Click on the map for a slightly larger version. Numbered ticks are photo locations. Path of old line is shown in orange.

Operation of the shuttle was revised slightly in 1909, to operate from between Druid Ridge and a crossover at Mount Washington, thus allowing greater convenience to patrons connecting to train service at the Mount Washington Station. In 1923, however, service West of Greenspring and Cheswolde Road (then Key Avenue) was abandoned, due to low ridership. Little is known about the abandonment, nor the quickness with which the line was scrapped. Soon afterwards, the area West of Greenspring where the cars ran through became a small airfield for a time, known as Curtiss Airport.

The little quirky shuttle did perservere for quite some time, not being converted to a parrallelling bus route until September of 1950, spending a short time after WWII officially designated as the #47 line. The conversion allowed the retirement of the Double ended cars which served the little route.

Click on the map for a larger version. Old street map shows the old line in red.

The line's most remembered relic was a curved wooded bridge crossing Western Run, located just Northeast of the intersection of Greenspring and Cross Country. Portions of the foundations remain to haunt the area. Meanwhile, segments of the original rights-of-way can be traced at the Eastern and Western ends of the portion of the line abandoned in 1923. Between these segments, the line has been completely redeveloped, giving way to apartments, houses, and even places of worship, making the exact path of the line through this area quite mysterious, as the photos should hopefully show. In any event, the old Baltimore & Northern remains an extremely fascinating ghost of our long-lost streetcar landscape.

ALERT: SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, I
WAS CONTACTED BY SOMEONE WHO
GREW UP ALONG THE MIDDLE "LOST"
PORTION OF THE RIGHT OF WAY WHO
KNEW OF FRAGMENTS OF THE RIGHT
OF WAY ON THEIR PROPERTY, WHERE HIS
PARENTS STILL LIVED. BEFORE I HAD
THE CHANCE TO REPLY, I LOST MY SYSTEM.
IF BY CHANCE THIS PERSON SEES THIS PAGE
PLEASE CONTACT ME AGAIN! THANKS!


(Photo location not shown on the topo map) Looking North from the South bank of Western Run, one can witness the original abutments of the curved trestle of the B&N (and Key JW) line. Note that the center pier has shifted to the right from its original location.	Looking West from Greenspring Avenue (tick #1), the path of the B&N line is easily traceable in non-leaf seasons, by simply following the wires on the Utility poles.
Just a block later (tick #2), the right of way skirts the grounds of the Willow Brook Apartments, although the grade is still untouched. Camera looks Southeast along right-of-way.	The iffy one (tick #3 area) - using old survey maps, this grade South of Fallstaff Road carries neither the heading nor location to be the B&N Right of Way, but stil looks intentionally graded for a purpose. If not a right-of-way, perhaps it was an airfield runway.
After delving into an untraceable netherworld of development and private property that makes tracing the line quite difficult, ghost hunters of the B&N are treated to a stretch of right-of-way North of Old Court Road, and skirting the grounds of Druid Ridge Cemetery (tick #4), in a depression that once carried a single track. Camera looks Northwest in this view.	Another view of the same curve, this time looking Southeast towards the camera position in the shot above (tick #5). Despite the passage of nearly 80 years since operation, right of way is easily traceable in this area.

CURTISS-WRIGHT AIRPORT

CURTISS-WRIGHT AIRFIELD