There's
no denying it. It's now been 40 years since the last of the
city's venerable streetcars took their last trips on the remaining two
routes of what was once an efficient and comprehensive system.
Since then, politicos have spent millions trying to emulate what the
streetcars once did handily, swiftly moving people comfortably from one
part of the city to another.
With each new generation of "innovation," from heavy rail to light
rail, proponents try to downplay the admittance that the region once
had its best mass transit system, and that Baltimoreans allowed their
rail system to be taken away by out of town corporate interests, in the
name of profit. The picture often painted of the streetcars of
generations ago is of a quaint, slow, and obsolete technology.
But in reality, the cars, particularly those built in the 1930's and
after, were actually very efficient people movers that pumped a great
deal of life into the city decades ago.
Today, the streetcars have become an increasingly distant memory.
Still, to the trained eye, one can find a decent amount of evidence of
the rail system that once hurtled thousands along in their commute
through the vibrant Monumental City. The rails still glimmer in
select spots about town, to tell, at least for a few seconds, a tale of
the great transit system that time has largely since forgotten and
ignored.
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Among the nicest pieces of ghost track is this stretch above Wilson
Street on what little remains of true Linden Avenue in Bolton
Hill. Once a main corridor, the street has become greatly
disjointed, though this one block, and its tracks of the #32 streetcar,
remain to offer clues of what this corridor was once like.
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For decades, these short figments of rail spanned 29th Division Street
(once Hoffman Street) along the old path of Linden Avenue, just above
the "new" State Office Building Complex. Note how the rails would
head right into the present Bolton Towers. Sadly, the rails were
removed in 2002, and the surface relaid.
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Sometimes, ghost rails can do
some distubing things - like jutting out and then curving off into nowhere.
This rail on Madison Street used to carry 19 line cars onto Aisquith Street,
but now leads into the athletic fields of Dunbar High School, as a result of 1970's redevelopment.
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Public works projects have
a habit of revealing the old rails for a short time, before covering them
over once again. Here, tracks on Redwood Street used by the 18 line (among others)
get some air after many years submerged. Note the neat cross from
Brick to Belgian Block Paving.
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Streetcar rail does still get removed from beneath the streets, though
usually when it's in the way of some other subterranian project.
Here, welders prepare to remove a length of rail from beneath Lombard
Street near Paca, in the course of a plumbing project.
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A new ghost - but for how long? Recent redevelopment on Exeter
Street near Lombard Street's "Corned Beef Row" has exposed a small
stretch of girder rail once used by the #26 line streetcars, for at
least the present.
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Further out on the #26 line, never covered rail still lines D Street in
Sparrows Point, appearing perfectly ready for an appearance by a
semi-convertible car.
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Following the curve in the alignment at left, yet another old alignment
remains amid Sparrows Point. A mill expansion in the 1950's
routed cars off of this trackage onto the curve in the photo at left.
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Though not the primary terminus for the #32 line, Howard Park loop on
Gwynn Oak Avenue at the City Line is still very much in evidence for
its entry curve, even though it vanishes into a hillside just to the
right of this photo.
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One would assume that a vast rebuilding of the old #15's Gardenville
Yard property into a Park & Ride Lot would have erased every trace
of the old streetcars, but such is not the case. For a few feet,
a handful of crossties in one corner of the lot tell part of the tale
of what once occupied this property.
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Few people are alive who can remember streetcars running along tiny
Lancaster Street in Fells Point, but indeed the cars on the #21-
Preston and Caroline Streets Line did just that. During a project
a couple years back, it was revealed that the old rails are still
submerged within the streetbed. Photo by JoAnne Schmitz.
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Some rail is oddly recycled into protective rails for, or all things,
automobiles. Witness this length of retainer on Long Lane next to
the former property of the Roland Park Car House on the #29 line.
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Despite the city's best attempts, this curve in the rails from
Cloverdale Lane into Madison Avenue, a relic of the #16 line, refuses
to be submerged. This route called it quits in 1948.
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Windsor Hills Loop, a turnabout used mostly by the #4 line, though last
used by the #15 in 1956, remains inset into the ground of the now
closed bus loop of the same location. Posed with an MTA bus
carrying a suitable PCC streetcar fleet number, the loop's rails are
visible within this shot.
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A web of rails leads from this ladder track at the Carroll Park
facility of the MTA. A few stretches remain visible on this
property, which last serviced rail cars in 1959.
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A short piece of dual guage rail is visible at the entrance to the
Carroll Park facility, the inner rail, set to standard guage (unlike
the wide Baltimore Streetcar guage), was used by the B&O for the
delivery of new cars. Is it too late to order 200 PCCs?
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