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66-471: The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) 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

132-574: A Howe truss bridge over the B&;P line near Cheverly, MD . In August 1873, the Western Maryland Railway was connected to the B&P just west of the B&P tunnel at Fulton Avenue, thus creating a new connection all the way to Hagerstown . The first Baltimore and Potomac station in Washington was a simple wood-frame structure. A more substantial brick and stone building opened in 1873 at

198-528: 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

264-479: 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

330-605: 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 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

396-413: 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 a locomotive and rail car for a campaign ride that went to Brandywine - because of the weight of the car and the condition of

462-483: 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 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

528-591: 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 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

594-565: 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

660-557: 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 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

726-468: 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,

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792-442: 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

858-529: The Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and Upper Marlboro in the next year. Work on the line from Bowie to the District started around 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

924-486: 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

990-891: The Pennsylvania Railroad , it was the second railroad company to connect the nation's capital to the Northeastern U.S. , and competed with the older Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . Part of the B&P route is now part of Amtrak 's Northeast Corridor , the most heavily traveled American intercity passenger line; and of the Penn Line of the Maryland Transit Administration 's MARC commuter train service. The Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel , bored under north Baltimore in 1871-73 remains in use, for now. The Virginia Avenue Tunnel built in Southeast Washington in 1870-72,

1056-670: The United States Army from 1941 to 1946. After the War, he became a banker and a lawyer, later serving as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1954 to 1962. He served as assistant attorney in the Office of the Maryland State's Attorney of Prince George's County, Maryland from 1947 to 1951. He was city attorney for Cheverly, Maryland and Hyattsville from 1949 to 1958. Machen

1122-656: The fifth district of the state of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives for two terms from 1965 to 1969. Machen was born in Washington, D.C. , and graduated from Hyattsville High School in nearby Hyattsville, Maryland . He received his B.A. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park , his LL.B. degree and LL.M. degree from Southeastern University (Washington, D.C.) in 1939 and 1941 respectively. During World War II , Machen served in

1188-654: The "Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road Company", granting it the authority to construct a railroad from Baltimore via Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County and Port Tobacco in neighboring Charles County to a point on the Potomac River between Liverpool Point and the St. Mary's River in St. Mary's County , southernmost in the state. The charter also allowed the construction of branches of up to 20 miles (32 km) in length. Preliminary surveying began in 1855. The B&P

1254-612: The Anacostia. In 1872 construction continued and the first milestone was the completion of the Virginia Avenue Tunnel on January 13, 1872. Three days later they completed the bridge over the Canal at K Street and all of the track in Washington, DC. At the same time they had built a bridge over Collington Branch for the main line to Pope's Creek and by February they had built rail to within two miles of Upper Marlboro. On May 14, 1872,

1320-621: The B&P was granted permission by Congress to extend their Washington branch across the Potomac River Railroad Bridge to Virginia, if they would maintain it. When the bridge was damaged by an October 1, 1870, flood they chose to build a replacement bridge which they began working on in November 1870. At the same time, the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway , chartered in 1864, was gaining permission to connect to Alexandria and thus

1386-644: The Baltimore-Washington line started on July 2, 1872 - the same day the Alexandria and Fredericksburg line opened between Fredericksburg and Quantico. This allowed for service between Richmond and Baltimore, but only with service as far north as Lafayette Avenue in Baltimore because the tunnel there was not complete. Until the tunnel was complete people travelled between the Lafayette station and Calvert Station, where

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1452-464: 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 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

1518-635: The Little Patuxent River, they began laying track north from Odenton to the Patapsco River - while grading the road and digging a long cut south of Odenton. By the summer a construction train was running on the line delivering materials. The bridge over the Big Patuxent was finished on August 21, 1871, and the Little Patuxent shortly before that and track was lain to Bowie by August 31. The track

1584-787: The Long Bridge and the future B&P. By the summer of 1870, work was underway on both the Virginia Avenue Tunnel and the Anacostia Railroad Bridge ; and by the fall track was being laid in a few places. A short track was extended from the A&;ERR in Annapolis to deep water to allow for the unloading of rail and ties and the B&P began laying rail south from the crossing of the A&ERR in Odenton on May 15, 1871. When they reached

1650-487: 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

1716-410: 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 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

1782-675: The Northern Central Railway was, by Renshaw's omnibuses. Service to Richmond was possible because the Potomac Railroad between Quantico and Fredericksburg had opened in May 1872. The B&P opened with temporary depots in DC and in Baltimore which were replaced later with permanent ones and 20 stations, many of which were still not complete. On the same day, telegraph operations started along the line. The B&P started running freight trains on

1848-427: The PRR a charter to break the B&O's monopoly on Baltimore-Washington travel. The PRR saw 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

1914-576: The PRR and NCRY. Together the new railroads connected Baltimore, and the northern railroads, to Richmond and all of the Southern rail. In late 1873-74, the Washington City and Point Lookout Railroad, working with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, built the Baltimore, Washington and Alexandria Branch Railroad between Hyattsville, MD and Shepherd's Landing in Washington, DC which required the construction of

1980-458: The Pope's Creek Branch to Marlboro later in the summer of 1872 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 was immediately relegated to branch status. The final section of the B&P, the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel under Winchester Street and Wilson Street in Baltimore, opened on June 29, 1873, connecting

2046-424: The Pope's Creek Line, including a passenger and freight station at Collington . Today, a 5,200-foot railroad siding is all that remains of this stop, although the spur is still in use. It is located at milepost 3.0 on the spur, just south of where the spur crosses under Maryland Route 450 near Maryland Route 197 . Hervey Machen Hervey Gilbert Machen (October 14, 1916 – November 29, 1994) represented

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2112-518: 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 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

2178-460: The Potomac River because it was shorter, cheaper and more direct than any other option; and offered a desirable port which would allow for 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

2244-527: 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

2310-522: The Potomac. The B&P was working with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and its ally, the Northern Central Railway (NCRY), which wanted its own route to Washington, DC and Virginia. Congress granted permission in an act approved February 5, 1867, the PRR then purchased a controlling share of the B&P Stock and construction of the railroad started for the section between the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad (A&ERR) and Upper Marlboro in

2376-510: The control of the PRR. The Washington Terminal Company and its Union Station opened in 1907, serving the PB&;W, the B&O and several other railroads. All PB&W passenger trains from Baltimore were diverted to a new alignment called the Magruder Branch , splitting from the old one at Landover and running west to run parallel with the B&O Washington Branch on the approach to

2442-577: 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

2508-559: 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 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,

2574-523: 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 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

2640-579: 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, 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

2706-528: The line to the PRR's Northern Central Railway (north to Harrisburg ) and Baltimore's existing Calvert Street Station . A month later, on July 24, 1873, the Union Railroad also opened, extending the line eastward through another tunnel to the PRR's other Baltimore line, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) northeast to Delaware and Pennsylvania. It was almost entirely paid for by

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2772-514: The mid-1860's the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) had access to Baltimore via its own lines: 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

2838-462: The morning of July 2, 1881, U.S. President James A. Garfield was shot in the waiting room of the B&P station in Washington, D.C. Although the shot was not fatal, he died in September 1881 as a result of infections from the injury. On November 1, 1902, B&P was consolidated with PW&B to form the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PB&W) and the new railroad came under

2904-462: The new Long Bridge opened and the B&P was able to use it to bring in supplies from the south. Around the same time, Congress granted the B&P permission to build a depot at the corner of 6th and B (Now Constitution) NW on a site previously reserved for a park. The final spike for the "Main Line" to Pope's Creek was driven on June 10, 1872, but trains did not start running yet. Passenger service on

2970-521: The new station. In 1968, the B&P came under the control of Penn Central . Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on the Washington Branch in 1971, while Penn Central continued to operate commuter service, without subsidy, until it went bankrupt in 1976. Conrail gained ownership after the Penn Central bankruptcy and it continued to provide commuter services on the line until 1983, when

3036-611: The next year. Work on the line from Bowie to the District started around the same time. In 1869, the railroad was granted permission to use a right-of-way through the city of Baltimore, and to build an 800 foot long tunnel in the northwest of the city, to connect to the Northern Central Railway (NCRY). By the end of that year, the right-of-way had been graded from the Patapsco to the District Line and from Bowie to Upper Marlboro; and several small bridges had been constructed. In 1870,

3102-566: 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), 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

3168-525: 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 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

3234-509: The other to Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head . The Mechanicsville line was eventually extended to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station at Cedar Point. Later a line was built off the Cedar Point line that went to the Chalk Point Generating Station - called the Herbert Subdivision. The Cedar Point line south of Hughesville was abandoned in the 1960's and the Indian Head line There were several passenger and freight stations on

3300-682: The production of powder during World War II. It continued to be used to bring coal, supplies and other materials to Indian Head until 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,

3366-419: 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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3432-545: 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 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

3498-438: The railroad transferred its commuter rail services in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the Baltimore-Washington area to local and state governments. In the case of the Washington Branch, MARC took over commuter rail service but did not buy the line as in 1981 Amtrak had bought it. But MARC did buy some other property, like the Odenton train station which was not served by Amtrak. The Pope's Creek Subdivision to Faulkner

3564-573: The rails west of Mattingly Avenue in Indian Head and across Robert S. Crain Highway in White Plains remain. Most of the stations on the route are gone, but not all. The La Plata train station has been turned into the La Plata Train Station Museum. It features a U.S. Navy caboose, still lettered for the U.S. Navy, that used to run on the Indian Head subdivision. Baltimore and Potomac Railroad The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) operated from Baltimore , Maryland , southwest to Washington, D.C. , from 1872 to 1902. Owned and operated by

3630-458: The southwest corner of Sixth Street and B Street NW, later renamed Constitution Avenue . This is the present site of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art , on the National Mall . The station was built over the old Washington City Canal , which complicated the construction of the foundation. Tracks ran south from the station along Sixth Street to a wye junction at Sixth Street SW, Maryland Avenue SW, and Virginia Avenue SW. On

3696-448: 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 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

3762-498: Was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Congress in 1964, serving two terms from January 3, 1965, to January 3, 1969. Machen voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 . He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1968, and an unsuccessful candidate for nomination to Congress again in 1970. He died in Annapolis, Maryland , and is interred in St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Cemetery of Temple Hills, Maryland . This article about

3828-412: 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 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

3894-425: 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 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

3960-410: Was organized on December 19, 1858, and began surveying the route in earnest on May 3, 1859. Construction was then delayed by the American Civil War . 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 a contract to begin construction of the main line between Baltimore and

4026-400: Was part of the original chartered main line, but from opening in 1873 (It started running freight to Marlboro in 1872) it was operated as a branch of the main line from the junction at Bowie . The main line from Bowie to Washington, a distance of 17.1 miles (27.5 km), was provided for in the charter as a branch. Two lines were built off of off Pope's Creek, one going to Mechanicsville and

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4092-449: Was replaced in 2016-18. The leading advocate for expanding the railroad system into southern Maryland was Walter Bowie , who wrote newspaper articles and columns under the pen name Patuxent Planter and who joined Thomas Fielder Bowie , William Duckett Bowie , and Oden Bowie (later Governor of Maryland ), in lobbying the Maryland General Assembly to approve the idea. Their efforts bore fruit on May 6, 1853, when lawmakers chartered

4158-446: Was retained by Conrail. Following the breakup of Conrail in 1999, Norfolk Southern provided freight service over the Washington Branch and CSX Transportation handled the Pope's Creek freight traffic. The Catonsville Short Line Railroad opened in 1884 and was immediately leased by the Baltimore & Potomac. This provided a short branch from just south of Baltimore to Catonsville . The 48.7-mile (78.4 km) branch to Popes Creek

4224-401: 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 , 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

4290-473: Was the heaviest track ever used in Maryland up to that time. By September 1871, The B&P was actively building bridges across the Potomac, the Patapsco, Gwynn Falls and Anacostia ; and working on the tunnels in DC and Baltimore. The first freight service was performed by October 1871. By Oct 25, the tacks had been lain all the way from Bowie to Beaver Dam. By late November the bridges over Beaver Dam and Watts Branch were complete and track had been extended to

4356-432: 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 a 950-megawatt coal-fired plant on

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