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85-515: In 1891, Baltimore lawyer (and later Maryland governor) Edwin Warfield and others organized the Washington & Chesapeake Beach Railway to connect Washington, D.C. , with 3,000 acres (12 km) of virgin bay front property at Fishing Creek where they would build a resort. Their Chesapeake Beach, Maryland , resort was to be a vacation spot for the rich and middle class alike, with two grand hotels ,

170-576: A boardwalk , racetrack, and amusements. A pier would accommodate Chesapeake Bay excursion steamers from Baltimore, Annapolis , and Eastern Shore points. In 1894, the W&;CBR was granted a charter to incorporate the Town of Chesapeake Beach. Its grand schemes never bore fruit, and the railway was placed in receivership in 1895. A new company , the Chesapeake Beach Railway Company, took up

255-695: A draw span bridge would have to be built over the Patuxent River below Bristol to permit steamboat traffic. Plans were approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , a contract to construct the bridge was awarded to the Youngstown Bridge Company , and, after numerous delays, the bridge was open by May 1899. Like much of the rail infrastructure throughout the United States, the CBR was built and maintained predominantly by African-American workers. The CBR

340-533: A 2018 groundbreaking, the trail has yet to be constructed. In 2021, the county acquired Gilligan’s Pier, a 17.54-acre site located along Popes Creek, bordered on the north by the rail line for the purpose of building a park adjacent to the rail trail. In 2024, Phase I of the trail received a $ 1.8M grant from MDOT. Most of the Indian Head spur has been turned into the Indian Head Rail Trail, but some of

425-526: A 950-megawatt coal-fired plant on the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center and using the rail line to deliver the coal, but then decided that if they built the plant they would not need the rails. In 2008 the rails and ties were removed and recycled, and the line was converted to a rail trail that opened late in the year. The six LIRR cars were dismantled and scrapped. The Pope's Creek Subdivision currently hosts 2 to 3 trains

510-528: A GE 45-ton centercab locomotive, then an ex-U.S. Army 65-ton Whitcomb and finally a former Washington Terminal Alco RS-1. The Seat Pleasant streetcar line was abandoned in 1949, but Capital Transit continued to operate the line to the Benning plant until January 1955 when it sold the section to the East Washington. When Kenilworth Avenue was converted into a limited-access highway, PEPCO sought permission to build

595-480: A Maryland inspector again ruled that the tracks were unfit for passenger travel and the Navy ordered them to shutdown. Following a series of other lease violations, including storing two dozen derelict rail cars on the tracks, the lease was terminated in early 2001. With the failure of the tourist train the Navy briefly considered using the line to have coal delivered to the base, but found the investment required for repairs

680-649: A contract to begin construction of the main line between Baltimore and the Potomac. Permission was granted by an act approved Feb 5, 1867, the PRR bought a controlling share of the B&;P Stock and construction of the railroad started for the section between the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and Upper Marlboro in the next year. Work on the line from Bowie to the District started around

765-433: A few years after World War II, the Navy scrapped ships at the pier at Pope's Creek and the train would carry scrap metal north, but that work dried up. The rail also carried powder from Indian Head but at some point after World War II the Navy closed the smokeless powder production operations there, which cut business on the line as well. By the time passenger service ended in 1949, only a local freight on an irregular schedule

850-502: A liquor wholesaler, a cement company, a bakery and PEPCO , the local power company. PEPCO needed coal delivered to its Benning Road Plant from Chesapeake Junction, the interchange with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . During the late 1930s and early 1940s operations changed with EWR's two secondhand 4-4-0 locomotives switching the hoppers the three blocks between the B&O and Capital Transit. In 1946 East Washington dieselized, first with

935-411: A local "orphan railroad" had connected the base to barge traffic, but the war necessitated a better connection. The road was opened on Armistice Day - May 29, 1919 - but was not completed for actual service for several months. It continued to provide an important link for the production of powder during World War II. It continued to be used to bring coal, supplies and other materials to Indian Head until

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1020-437: A locomotive and rail car for a campaign ride that went to Brandywine - because of the weight of the car and the condition of the rail the PRR wouldn't let him go any farther south. Boswell came in 3rd in the primary, losing to Hervey Machen . Freight service also declined. In 1943 the freight operation was still moving feed and farm supplies, coal, beer from Baltimore and pulpwood and payphone coins from Southern Maryland. For

1105-577: A modern institution responsible to the public, rather than the political party. On September 23, 1948, Edwin Warfield Jr. commemorated a memorial at the Howard County Courthouse to honor Confederate soldiers from Howard County. In Columbia, Maryland , Governor Warfield is remembered with a street named for him, Governor Warfield Parkway . In 1914, a dredge named the Gov. Warfield helped to dig

1190-402: A per-car charge. So the whole operation was carried out on the track of three companies using B&O and then streetcar locomotives. In the early years, the fare for the round trip train ride from District Line station to Chesapeake Beach was 50 cents (approximately equivalent to $ 15 in 2017). Express trains took about 60 minutes to make the trip; “locals” took about 90 minutes. In 1884,

1275-513: A professor at Maryland's Agricultural College . Although Maryland was a Union State, many families were southern sympathizers, and two of Warfield's brothers served in the Confederate States Army . Gassaway Watkins Warfield died at Camp Chase , while Albert G Warfield Jr. survived the conflict. After the abolition of slavery in the United States , Warfield returned home frequently to help run his family's estate. He also spent time as

1360-462: A protest of their abandonment by a liquor warehouse owner. The same year they ceased operations, the tracks were sold to Maryland Midland Railway which pulled them up and sold most of the rail and some of the ties. The remainder were kept in storage by the Maryland Midland. The District of Columbia had considered, in their 1976 bicycle plan, using the railroad right-of-way as a bicycle trail but

1445-634: A railroad bridge over it to ensure coal deliveries from the Pennsylvania Railroad, a move Capitol Transit and the East Washington—which delivered coal from the B&O—opposed, but the bridge was built anyway. At the time, the Highway Department wanted Capitol Transit to abandon the line, since the new bridge would provide a more direct service and at great cost to the District and the three rail companies (B&O, Capital Transit and EWR)

1530-590: A reunited State of Maryland following the division of the Civil War. This was further supported by the Maryland National Guard flying the reinvigorated Maryland flag . Another historical "final act" for Wakefield's term as Governor was the success of a long search and process by the United States' then-Ambassador to France to discover the whereabouts of an American naval hero's burial site in Paris, and to oversee

1615-570: A steamboat connection to the RF&;P. During that year they also surveyed the entire route. Work on the line to Pope's Creek began before the end of the year. By 1871, B&P track had been lain from the Patapsco River through Bowie to Beaver Dam, and once that work was complete on Oct 25th, tracklayers started laying track from Bowie towards Marlboro. By early 1872 they had built a bridge over Collington Branch and by February they had built rail from

1700-405: A teacher in the county schools, and studied for admission to the bar in his spare time. In 1888, Warfield founded The Daily Record as a newspaper covering finance, commerce, business, and court matters or legal proceedings. The publication continued into the 21st century, along with a corresponding "Warfield's" magazine published from the 1980s through the 1990s. Through his father's line, he

1785-567: A week (a down and back rock train to Aggregate Industries in La Plata; a rock train to Chaney Enterprizes in Waldorf and an occasional local serving a few businesses in the Waldorf and La Plata area) from its interchange at Bowie with Amtrak 's Northeast Corridor main line. A wye track exists at Bowie to allow trains to enter Amtrak's main line and go north or south, so that a second engine or cab car

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1870-470: Is not needed. Amtrak limits these trains to late night/very early morning runs and no more than 160 cars. The line is mostly single tracked , with long sidings in Collington , Upper Marlboro and Brandywine . The coal fired units at Morgantown and Chalk Point Generating Stations have been closed, and there is no longer regular service to these points, but the lines have not been abandoned. In 2007,

1955-626: Is scheduled for full decommissioning in 2027. In 2022 the Chalk Point switchers were moved out of state. Without coal trains there are no more regular customers on the subdivision. In 1918-19, during World War I the Navy used German POWs to build a spur off the Pope's Creek Subdivision from White Plains to the Naval Powder Factory at Indian Head to aid in the production of smokeless powder (a propellant used in firearms and artillery). Prior to that

2040-447: Is still extent and either in use or available for use. Much of the railbed of the abandoned section between Faulkner and Pope's Creek, including a rail trestle over Pope's Creek remains. The county acquired the abandoned Pope's Creek Railroad corridor south of Faulkner (and several adjacent properties) in 2014. It had been planning to turn the corridor into a rail trail and park since at least 2007. Despite completed plans in 2017 and

2125-1031: The Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts . Pope%27s Creek Subdivision The Pope's Creek Subdivision is a CSX Transportation railroad line in Maryland , running from Bowie to the Morgantown Generating Station in Morgantown, Maryland . The Herbert Subdivision to the Chalk Point Generating Station connects to it at Brandywine and the Indian Head-White Plains railroad used to connect to it at White Plains. Its name comes from Pope's Creek in Newburg, MD to where it originally ran. The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P)

2210-543: The Chesapeake Beach Railway , which had reached Upper Marlboro from Washington, DC the year before, was built over the Pope's Creek Branch. In 1902, the B&P was merged with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad to form the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad . The B&P ran two trains a day on the Pope's Creek line, a passenger train and a combination passenger/freight train from

2295-555: The Civil War . Following the election, Cleveland appointed Warfield to serve as Surveyor of the Port of Baltimore beginning April 5, 1885. Warfield served in that position until May 1, 1890, after the Republicans returned to power. In 1890, Warfield married Emma Nicodemus, with whom he had three daughters and one son. In 1890, after his removal from the position of Surveyor, Warfield founded

2380-518: The Democratic nomination after he was opposed by influential Maryland politicians, including Arthur Pue Gorman , a powerful U.S. Senator who was allied to the interests of "old pols" in Baltimore City. Though it was apparent that the party bosses did not hold him in favor, he again sought the nomination in 1903, openly discouraging African Americans' ability to vote. He was successfully nominated by

2465-534: The Fidelity and Deposit Company , where he served as president until his death. He was chosen as a delegate to the 1896 Democratic National Convention , but otherwise remained out of politics for nearly a decade. In September 1903, Warfield served as the main speaker and orator for the ceremonies dedicating the Lt. Col. William H. Watson (1808–1846) Monument . Warfield chose to run for Governor of Maryland in 1899, but lost

2550-521: The Morgantown Generating Station to facilitate construction of that facility. When the Morgantown plant opened in 1970 it used fuel brought by barge, and some coal brought- mostly by truck. In 1973 traffic was so low that a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Economic and Community Development said that no trains had run on the line in 5 to 6 years. However, due to the oil crises of 1973 ,

2635-582: The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) from the north and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad from the northeast. However, to travel southwest to Washington, D.C. , it had to use the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) and its Washington Branch. Since the PRR and B&O were rivals, the Maryland General Assembly refused to grant the PRR a charter to break the B&O's monopoly on Baltimore-Washington travel. The PRR saw

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2720-475: The Southern Maryland Railroad (SMR) began constructing a rail line from Deanwood towards the District line which it eventually planned to connect to Brandywine and the rest of its rail line. They laid out the right-of-way and graded the line, laying down ties and rail by 1886. In 1898, the CBR took possession of this section of railway, presumably via a tax auction and used it for its operation. When

2805-708: The Benning Road Power Plant spur from N.H. Burroughs Avenue to Foote Street NE was removed. The only remaining section of rail is buried beneath Foote Street. A one-block long section of the right-of-way in Seat Pleasant was turned into a section of the Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail in 2011. The railway's DC railyard, located north of Sheriff Avenue along the CSX tracks, has been used for parking and for an auto repair facility, but in 2017 work began to convert

2890-563: The Cedar Point line from the north side of Hughesville to the new Chalk Point Generating Station to deliver coal starting in 1964. This spur was called the Herbert Subdivision. While the name of the line to Chalk Point is a not well documented, one source attributes it to John C. Herbert, who was a Vice-President of PEPCO at the time. A few years later, in the late 1960's, Pepco built 6 miles of rail from Faulker, MD\Lothair Station to

2975-531: The Columbia Railway's street car line from Navy Yard. In 1911, they started leasing the District section of the line and continued until the WP&;CR went out of business in 1918. At that point they purchased the section. The railroad was never financially successful and never paid off any interest on its original one million dollar mortgage. Starting in 1921, when the railroad carried a peak of 352,000 passengers,

3060-475: The District on the once-abandoned right-of-way of the Southern Maryland Railroad . It exited D.C. at Seat Pleasant , where it met with the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway at a stop called District Line. From there, it went through Upper Marlboro , passing over the PRR ( Pope Creek Branch ), and then on to Chesapeake Beach. On July 7, 1913 their agreement to use B&O tracks ended and afterwards all CB passenger trains ended their runs at

3145-487: The National Capitol Planning Commission studied options for rerouting freight traffic around Washington, and two of the three options considered using the Pope's Creek Subdivision. One option took trains down to the Indian Head branch and then across the Potomac on a new 2.5 mile long rail bridge to Arkendale, VA. Another option used the Pope's Creek subdivision all the way to Newberg, MD and then across

3230-478: The Navy took over the line and expanded it to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station at Cedar Point. In 1954 the Navy gave up ownership of the line and it was handed over to the Pennsylvania Railroad which, in 1962, built a spur from the north side of Hughesville to the new Chalk Point Generating Station to deliver coal and equipment. This track is called the Herbert Subdivision, while the source of

3315-529: The Potomac on a two-mile long railway drawbridge to Dahlgren, VA. The plans were never funded. A 2009 study considered the route for commuter rail and found it to be circuitous, slow, and costly. The rail's right-of-way is being considered for a parallel light-rail project called the Southern Maryland Rapid Transit Project. A 2017 study proposed running a light rail line alongside the Pope's Creek Subdivision from White Plains north to

3400-643: The SMR emerged from bankruptcy in 1901 as the Washington, Potomac & Chesapeake Railway (WP&CR) it sued the CBR in 1902, claiming they still owned the railbed. The case went to the Supreme Court and in 1905 WP&CR won and took title to the railway. The Chesapeake Beach stopped running on the DC section of the railway, instead stopping at the train station in Seat Pleasant called District Line. Passengers would get there by using

3485-405: The Seat Pleasant trolley terminal called "District Line." Chesapeake Junction remained the railroad's primary freight interchange, but the railroad's rural territory produced little freight. The junction grew steadily more important after the building of the Benning power plant in 1906. Coal destined for the Benning power plant was at first moved into the plant by electric locomotives operating over

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3570-639: The Senate, Warfield began his own law practice in Ellicott City, Maryland , and purchased the Ellicott City Times , where he served as editor from 1882 to 1886. During the 1884 Presidential election , Warfield made significant contributions to the campaign of the 22nd (and later also 24th) President Grover Cleveland in Maryland. Cleveland would become the first Democratic president to be elected since before

3655-668: The Sons of the American Revolution. Edwin Warfield was born to Albert G. Warfield and Margaret Gassaway Warfield at the "Oakdale" plantation in Howard County, Maryland . He received early education at the public schools of Howard County and at St. Timothy's Hall (formerly an Episcopal Church institution , now known as St. Timothy's School ) in Catonsville, Maryland , a " streetcar suburb" southwest of Baltimore . In 1877, he became

3740-781: The board of the Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company until his death. In addition to retaining his presidency at the Fidelity and Deposit Company, he was a prominent member of the Maryland Club and served as president of the Maryland Historical Society . Warfield was proud of his family's Confederate legacy, representing Maryland in reunions and events like the 1911 Southern Commercial Congress in Atlanta. Warfield's health began to deteriorate in late 1919, and he

3825-465: The county line and then from the rail line to the Branch Avenue Metro, but if the line were ever abandoned the study recommended modifying the plan to use the rail corridor. In 2021, the Maryland legislature passed legislation mandating the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) to promptly complete the design, engineering, and environmental reviews, and secure a federal record-of-decision on

3910-931: The demise of the East Washington Railway it was acquired as the first motive power for the new Maryland Midland Railway . After a career working as a quarry switcher in Ohio, it was acquired by the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway , a tourist line in Ohio. No. 103, an Alco RS-1, was built in 1944 for the Washington Terminal Company in Washington, D.C. It was purchased by the East Washington Railway in April 1968 and sold to Union Equity Grain in Pasadena, Texas, in January 1970. Later acquired by an individual owner, it

3995-598: The early 1970's. In 1999, the Navy gave "Northern Central Railways" permission to run a tourist train, known as the "Indian Head Central Railroad," (IHCR) on the line. The first train ran later that year on what the IHCR reported was a refurbished line and the IHCR ran an excursion train in March 2000. In May of 2000, they reported that an upgrade had been completed to allow passenger travel but in June, following reports of several derailments,

4080-468: The establishment of direct voting by popular election for U.S. Senators, in contrast to that time's processes of election via each state's legislative body. He argued this before the General Assembly in 1906, and direct election of senators was eventually codified into national law with the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . In his time as Governor, Warfield also authorized and approved of an official state Flag of Maryland , representing

4165-472: The existing Baltimore and Potomac charter's clause allowing branches to be built within 20 miles (32 km) of Washington as an opportunity to get around that. The PRR joined into a partnership with the B&P to build the rail line, with the branch, for that purpose. As a result in 1866 the B&P sought permission to build a branch into Washington from a point within 2 miles of the Collington (now Bowie) Post Office in Prince George's County and also signed

4250-432: The idea in 1896. In 1897, Otto Mears was placed in control of the company. He started construction in October 1897 at the B&O Railroad 's Alexandria branch north of present-day Deane Avenue between Benning and Kenilworth. On April 7, 1898, the Chesapeake Beach Railway was given the franchise of the W&CBR. Mears optimistically anticipated that the railroad would be completed by July 1898—though before it could open,

4335-468: The increased use of automobiles began to cut into revenue. The destruction of the luxurious Belvedere Hotel by a fire which originally started at Klein's Bakery two blocks away on March 30, 1923, further limited business. In 1929, under new management, an attempt to rehabilitate the line was made and operations continued with the hope that a new ferry across the Chesapeake Bay to a point on Trippe's Bay in Dorchester County would drive new business. The ferry

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4420-402: The junction at Deanwood, which confusingly took on the name of "Chesapeake Junction" in later years, and the 0.756 mile spur from Chesapeake junction to the PEPCO plant was abandoned, as that section had significant freight business. The remaining section was bought that same year by the East Washington Railway, formed specifically for that purpose, and the rail east of Maryland Park was removed in

4505-401: The line from Hyattsville to Upper Marlboro was officially opened. Their primary goal was to tap into the Baltimore market by connecting directly with the Baltimore-Washington trains that stopped at Hyattsville. As part of the contract, B&O built a separate siding in front of its Hyattsville station for CB trains to lay over. Most of the time, they ran two round trips a day. By 1899, the line

4590-502: The main way Washington passengers reached the beach trains. When the Benning Road Power Plant was opened in 1906, a three-block section of the railway became a critical part of the freight route for coal heading to the plant. Cars were moved on CBR tracks from the junction with the B&O to a connection with Washington Railway and Electric Company tracks three blocks away. In the early years, trains left Hyattsville and used B&O tracks to Chesapeake Junction. Then it traveled out of

4675-415: The name is not confirmed, one source attributes it to John C. Herbert, who was a Vice-President of PEPCO at the time. In 1965, the PRR quit running trains south of Hughesville and in the 1970's the track was removed, leaving Chalk Point as the only customer. Chalk Point operator GenOn Energy Holdings closed the two coal-fired units at the plant in June 2021 reducing rail traffic to almost zero. The plant

4760-498: The north to within two miles of Upper Marlboro and from the south a bridge over Pope's Creek where they had landed a locomotive and construction cars. The final spike for the Pope's Creek Branch was driven on June 10th, 1872 by Capt. John E. Whitter, who was in charge of construction, but the road needed to be ballasted before opening and was not ready when the line between Baltimore and Washington started passenger service on July 2, 1872. The B&P started running freight trains on

4845-406: The opposition of local residents who wanted single-family housing on the strip, budget constraints and the presence of an alternative option along Watts Branch led them to forego that plan. In 1979, planning began to construct 31 detached homes on the portion of right-of-way between 43rd Place and Division Avenue, NE. In 1982, as part of the reconstruction of the westbound Benning Road viaduct, most of

4930-418: The party, and defeated his Republican opponent, Stevenson A. Williams , by over 12,600 votes. He was inaugurated as the 45th Governor of Maryland on January 13, 1904. The most significant event of his tenure as Governor came when Arthur Pue Gorman, who had opposed Warfield's election, proposed the " Poe Amendment " to the Maryland State Constitution of 1867, which would have disenfranchised most black voters in

5015-417: The plant switched exclusively to coal and, due to the volume, brought it by train on the Pope's Creek Subdivision. The increased traffic necessitated significant rehabilitation of the line. Ownership of the old B&P line passed from the PRR to the Penn Central Transportation Company in 1968 and to Conrail in 1976. In 1981, the section from Baltimore to Washington, known as the Northeast Corridor (NEC),

5100-408: The plant switcher at the James River Cogeneration Company in Hopewell, VA. The plant was retired in 2019. Following the plant's closing, it was acquired by the Richmond Railroad Museum in Richmond, Virginia. The locomotive itself was transported from the plant to the museum's satellite yard in Hallsboro, Virginia. No. 102, a Whitcomb 65-ton centercab, was built in July 1944 as U.S. Army 8465. Following

5185-421: The project. In 2022, Congress approved a $ 5 million grant, matched by the state, for the project. In 2023, the legislature appropriated $ 100 million in the state budget for SMRT and the Red Line in Baltimore, and as a result the full planning was funded. But in 2024, the budget was cut from $ 30 million to $ 2.1 million, bringing the future of the project into question. Most of the rail line, from Bowie to Faulkner

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5270-458: The property into a major firehouse, EMS and storage facility to replace the one at 4201 Minnesota Avenue. All of the diesel locomotives operated by the East Washington Railway survived for many years after the railway itself was abandoned. No. 101, a GE 45-ton centercab, was built in 1946 and purchased by the EW in September of that year. It was retired in 1970 and sold to the Pinto Islands Metals Company in Mobile, Alabama, and for decades has been

5355-441: The rail spur was moved and accommodated. In 1975 the power plant converted to oil to meet District environmental regulations which resulted in the demise of the East Washington Railway as PEPCO accounted for 97% of their revenue. The last coal train down the PEPCO spur ran on August 18, 1975. In 1978, the railroad, which by then was down to four employees from 10, and a single Whitcomb ceased operations after successfully overcoming

5440-461: The regular coal trains to Morgantown. In the spring of 1872, before the line to Pope's Creek had even opened, the Southern Maryland Railroad began to grade a rail line from Brandywine to Point Lookout, Maryland . Due to funding delays, the line didn't start running trains until 1883, and even then only to Mechanicsville, MD . That line was later expanded to Forrest Hall, Maryland in 1926 and then scaled back to Mechanicsville again in 1940. In 1942,

5525-400: The return of the body of American Revolutionary War Captain John Paul Jones to a specially-prepared marble crypt at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland . Warfield left office in January 1908. After his tenure as governor, Warfield returned to his previous activities. He became president of the Fidelity Trust Company with Baltimore Sun Publisher Van Lear Black . He served on

5610-432: The route to Marlboro later in the summer and passenger trains there by November. The line to Pope's Creek was finished in late December, formally opened on January 1, 1873 and the first trains were run the next day. It remained the main line in title only but was treated as though it had branch status. The main line was connected to the NCRY when the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel opened on June 29, 1873. In 1899

5695-407: The salvage company closed in August of 1962, the railroads south of La Plata went out of service and by 1965 traffic south of Brandywine had essentially discontinued. The same year, the PRR stopped running trains on the Cedar Point line south of Hughesville, Maryland and the next year the Navy declared it excess. New life came in the form of electricity plants. In 1962, the PRR built a spur off of

5780-435: The same time. It was almost entirely paid for by the PRR and NCRY. By the end of 1869, the right-of-way had been graded from Bowie to Marlboro; and several small bridges had been constructed. In 1870, the B&P selected Pope's Creek as the point at which the railroad would connect to the Potomac River because it was shorter, cheaper and more direct than any other option; and offered a desirable port which would allow for

5865-425: The state. The bill easily passed the Democrat-controlled General Assembly , but Warfield refused to support the proposed amendment and delayed placing it before the voters. While Warfield was in favor of some of the amendment's provisions (such as denying the vote to the less-educated black voters of the state) he feared it would eventually lead to greater levels of disenfranchisement which could threaten all voters in

5950-399: The state. The proposed amendment was put before voters in a 1904 referendum and was defeated by 30,000 votes, a defeat to the crypto-segregationists in the party in which Warfield played a major role. Warfield's actions in this affair further alienated him from the Democratic machine in Maryland, which was openly hostile towards him by the time he left office. As Governor, Warfield supported

6035-469: The summer of 1935 and the best of it sold to plantation railroads in Cuba. Most of the cars were burned and the metal sold for scrap, except for two that were transferred to the East Washington—the Dolores and San Juan—and a mail car. Two of the three remaining engines were transferred to the East Washington as well. The 3.4 mile long East Washington Railway survived for 40 years after the Chesapeake Beach Railway stopped running in 1935. Its main customers were

6120-457: The time service started until 1921 when it increased the number to four trains a day. But in 1937, with dropping passenger service, it tapered down to just one train a day. Finally all passenger service from Bowie to Pope's Creek ended on October 29, 1949. An excursion train road the line to Pope's Creek in 1955, possibly the last passenger train on the line that far south; but in 1966, Democratic Congressional candidate Harry A. Boswell, Jr. rented

6205-426: The tracks of WREC and its successor, Capital Transit. They transferred from the B&O on about three blocks of the CBR tracks from Chesapeake Junction to the connection to the streetcar and then along the streetcar line past Kenilworth Junction to the plant. The plant was the central power facility for the onetime Washington Railway & Electric Company, the largest of the city's two street railway companies. Later it

6290-578: Was a third cousin to the Duchess of Windsor (originally named/née Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore), wife of the abdicated king of the United Kingdom , King Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor . Warfield's lineage also allowed him membership into the Sons of the American Revolution , where he served as 8th President General from 1902 until 1903. In 1874, Warfield

6375-523: Was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of Register of Wills for Howard County. He was elected to a full six-year term the following year, and served until 1881. He was appointed to the Maryland Senate following the resignation of Arthur Pue Gorman to accept a higher office, was re-elected in 1883, and served as President of the Maryland State Senate during the 1886 session. While in

6460-481: Was blocked by the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company, a competing ferry out of Annapolis . A hurricane in 1933 irreparably damaged the resort's facilities, and the subsequent loss of business led to foreclosure and a request for abandonment in 1935. On April 15, 1935, after entering receivership, the last train left Chesapeake Beach. All but the 2.631 miles from the roundhouse at "Maryland Park" to

6545-518: Was chartered on May 6th, 1853 with the purpose of building a railroad from Baltimore to Upper Marlboro, Maryland then to a point on the Potomac River near Port Tobacco, Maryland with permission to build branches off the line not exceeding 20 miles in length. Surveying for the route began in 1855, but the company was not organized until December 19, 1858. In the mid-1860's the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) had access to Baltimore via its own lines:

6630-540: Was completed all the way to Chesapeake Beach; the first excursion train ran on July 31, 1899. The hotel was not ready, so normal operations on the eastern leg of the railroad began on June 9, 1900. In April 1900, the Washington Traction & Electric Company extended the old Columbia H Street car line to Seat Pleasant, connecting with the Chesapeake Beach at the extreme eastern corner of the District. It became

6715-504: Was confined to his home in Baltimore during the last few months of his life. He died there, and was interred in his family burial ground at " Cherry Grove " in Howard County . Warfield was eulogized by The Baltimore Sun not as a man of definitive accomplishments, but one who stood up to the Democratic machine, supported the public interest, and transformed the office of the governor into

6800-495: Was inherited by Potomac Electric Power Company and progressively expanded over the years as the city's major generating plant. The streetcar company handled all plant switching and interchange with its own electric locomotives. To avoid the necessity for the CB to switch the cars over the three block stretch between B & O and the trolley interchange, CBR made an agreement in 1919 to allow B & O locomotives to use their track, paying CBR

6885-562: Was segregated by race, with separate waiting rooms and rail cars for African-Americans. The CBR entered into successful agreements with the B&O to extend service from their Hyattsville station on the Washington Branch and then along the Alexandria Branch for four miles to Chesapeake Junction, located in today's Deanwood neighborhood where current-day Minnesota Avenue NE and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE. On December 5, 1898,

6970-471: Was sold to Amtrak, and the line from Bowie to Faulkner was retained by Conrail. When Conrail was split in 1999, CSX Transportation was assigned the line. The power company owns the railroad line south of Faulkner. In the early 1970's, the line from Faulkner to Pope's Creek was scrapped. In 2022, GenOn closed its two coal-fired units at the Morgantown Generating Station which put an end to

7055-662: Was stored in Texas until it was damaged in a collision and subsequently scrapped in 2013. Edwin Warfield Edwin Warfield (May 7, 1848 – March 31, 1920) was an American politician and a member of the United States Democratic Party , and the 45th Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1904 to 1908. From 1902 to 1903, he served as president general of the National Society of

7140-465: Was too great, so in 2003 the Navy announced plans to donate the railroad line to Charles County for the creation of a trail. The spur, including the tracks and 6 Long Island Railroad cars that had been abandoned by the IHCR, was donated to Charles County as part of the Federal Lands-to-Parks program in 2006 and the Navy's two locomotives were sold at auction. In 2007, Alcoa considered building

7225-467: Was used. The SMECO power plant at Pope's Creek, which it had supplied with coal, went out of service in 1953 and the Navy stopped running trains to Patuxent River the next year. However the rail line still served the Pope's Creek Salvage Company, which scrapped ships and sent the steel to the Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrow's Point via gondola. It also hauled occasional cars of coal, logs or beer. When

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