Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway

Infobox rail
railroad_name=Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
logo_filename=WBAlogo.gif
logo_size=104
system_

---

map_size=300
map_caption=WB&A System map
old_gauge=
marks=
locale=Maryland and Washington, D.C.
start_year=1908
end_year=1935
successor_line=abandoned
gauge=4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm)(standard gauge)
hq_city=Annapolis, Maryland

The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A), now defunct, was an American railroad of central Maryland and Washington, DC built in the 19th and 20th century. The WB&A absorbed two older railroads, the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line, and added its own electric streetcar line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It was built by a group of Cleveland, Ohio, electric railway entrepreneurs to serve as a high-speed, showpiece line using the most advanced technology of the time.cite web|author=Herbert H. Harwood Jr. | url=http://www.mdoe.org/wash_balt_annap_rr.html| title= Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad| date=2004-2005| accessdate=2006-10-26| ] It served Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, MD and Annapolis, MD for 27 years, but the Great Depression and the rise of the automobile marked the end of the WB&A. Passenger service ceased in 1935 and only the Baltimore & Annapolis portion continued to operate. Parts of the right-of-way are now used for light rail, rail trails and roads.

History

Origins

The WB&A was originally incorporated in 1888 as The Potomac and Severn Electric Railway. On April 10, 1900, it changed its name to the Washington and Annapolis Electric Railway [cite web| url=http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000097/html/am97--454.html| title= Laws of the 1900 Maryland General Assembly Session| year=1900| accessdate=2006-10-23| ] and finally, on April 8, 1902, to the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway. [cite web| url=http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000476/html/am476--515.html| title= Laws of the 1902 Maryland General Assembly Session| year=1902| accessdate=2006-10-23| ] In 1903 the WB&A purchased the Annapolis, Washington & Baltimore Railroad (AW&B) - formerly the Annapolis & Elkridge Railroad - which was closed, electrified and reopened.cite web| author=Herbert H. Harwood Jr. |url=http://www.mdoe.org/annap_elk_rr.html| title=Annapolis & Elk Ridge Railroad| date=2004-2005| accessdate=2006-10-12| ] At the same time an almost straight double-track route was laid out parallel to the B&O and Pennsylvania railroads, but located slightly to the east in less populated territory. On February 7, 1908 service began running from Liberty Street in Baltimore to its terminal at 15th and H Streets NE in Washington.cite web| author=Richard Layman |url=http://www.voiceofthehill.com/HStHistory-2.pdf| title=H St: A Neighborhood's Story Part II| month=February | year=2003| accessdate=2006-12-11| |format=PDF] After 1910 the line reached the heart of downtown on 15th Street near the Treasury. Additional single-track service ran from Annapolis Junction on the B&O, crossed the WB&A main line at a spot just east of Odenton, and headed east to Annapolis via Millersville and Crownsville.

The line built by the WB&A, later called the "Main Line", ran from Baltimore to Odenton through Bowie, Glenn Dale Hospital, and Glenarden to Fairmont Heights where it met with the Chesapeake Beach Railroad just outside the Washington, D.C., line at Chesapeake Junction. From there, it continued to Deanwood on the Washington Railway and Electric Company's Seat Pleasant Line, running parallel to the Chesapeake Beach Railroad tracks and across the Benning Road Bridge into downtown Washington.

Once onto their own right-of-way, the WB&A’s expresses regularly hit 60 mph, but street running in the terminal cities slowed their overall time. A typical B&O express made the trip in 50 minutes, but the best the WB&A could do was an hour and 20 minutes. Offsetting these handicaps were its cleanliness, lower fares, half-hourly express service, and better-located downtown terminals.

Business Along the Route

Always looking for new sources of business, the railroad, in 1914, convinced the Southern Maryland Agricultural Fair Association to establish Bowie Race Track along the Main Line.

In September 1917, as the U.S. entered World War I, George Bishop, the WB&A’s well-connected president, persuaded the U.S. Army to acquire land owned by the railroad and open a training facility. Camp Meade was established in the area roughly bounded by the B&O Washington Branch on the west, the Pennsylvania Railroad on the east, and the South Shore Line of the WB&A to the south. The installation was supposed to be a temporary facility, used only for the duration of the war (it is still in use today). The WB&A saw record traffic during this time as a result of freight and passenger service to the camp. In 1918, the railroad was running as many as 84 special trains a day.

Expansion

With the business seemingly successful the WB&A purchased the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line in 1921. It became known as the "North Shore Line" and the Annapolis to Odenton line as the "South Shore Line". At this time, the B&A gave up the terminus at Camden Station and started using the WB&A terminal on Liberty Street (between Lexington and Fayette) in Baltimore. Prior to 1921 the WB&A and B&A had run on separate, parallel tracks from Linthicum to Baltimore. But on March 16, 1921, a crossover connected the two parallel tracks at Linthicum, operations ceased on the B&O track, and a [http://www.mdoe.org/wash_balt_ann_image.html new terminal] was built at Howard and Lombard Streets.cite web|author=Herbert H. Harwood Jr. | url=http://www.mdoe.org/balt_annap_rr.html| title= Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad| date=2004-2005| accessdate=2006-11-08| ] The WB&A now consisted of 81 miles of track and the only practical way to get from Washington, D.C., to Annapolis.

Decline

Around the time of the purchase of the ASL, the Defense Highway was built providing an alternative route into Annapolis. As a result gross receipts for the railroad began to decline. The railroad only survived because of a law exempting it from taxes. In January 1931, during the Great Depression, the extension of the law failed to pass by one vote and the line went into receivership. [cite web| url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?friend=nytimes&court=us&vol=289&invol=36| title= Williams v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 289 U.S. 36 (1933)| month=March | year=1933| accessdate=2006-10-23| ] The line remained in operation for four more years until operation officially ceased on August 20 1935. [cite web| url=http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr464.htm| title= Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Ry.| date=| accessdate=2006-11-09| ] The WB&A was sold at public auction with scrap dealers buying most of the rolling stock. The right of way of the North Shore Line and some equipment was bought by the Bondholders Protective Society who then formed the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad Company. Over time, the rails were hauled away, though by the beginning of World War II some remained and at least one post-War home in the area used old rails in lieu of I-beams.

The right of way within Washington, D.C. came under the ownership of Capitol Transit Company. [cite web| url=http://historical.maptech.com/getImage.cfm?fname=wshe45se.jpg&state=MD| title= USGS 7.5 Minute Series map of Washington East, MD Quadrangle| year=1945| accessdate=2006-11-21| ] At some point after 1945 the tracks in DC were removed.

tations on the Main Line

* Baltimore
* Westport
* English Consul (Magnolia Avenue)
* Rosemont
* Baltimore Highlands (between Georgia and Illinois Avenues, across from the Baltimore and Annapolis Short Line Railroad station)
* Pumphrey
* North Linthicum
* Linthicum: Junction with North Shore Line
* Downs
* Wellham
* Kelly
* McPherson (WB&A Rd)
* Elmhurst
* Delmont
* Clark
* Severn Run
* Naval Academy: Junction with South Shore Line
* Waugh Chapel (Waugh Chapel Rd)
* Francis
* Bragers (Bragers Rd)
* Conway (Conway Rd)
* Meyers (Meyers Station Rd)
* Bowie
* Lloyd
* High Bridge
* Hillmeade
* Bell
* Randle
* Lincoln
* Vista
* Cherry Grove
* McCarthy
* Ardmore
* Glenarden
* Dodge Park
* East Columbia Park
* Huntsville
* Gregory
* District Line where the WB&A entered Washington, D.C., and the trains transferred to tracks interior to the city line.

Stations on the South Shore Line (Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad)

Stations on the North Shore Line (Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad)

urviving Landmarks

* The WB&A Terminal in Baltimore, now a bank at North Liberty Street & Marion Street
* The Scott Street substation on the NE corner of Scott & Ostend Streets
* The Westport tunnel, its southern portal is visible just north of the B-W Parkway's Annapolis Road exit.
* The Hunt Valley-Glen Burnie line of Baltimore's light rail system uses the rail's right-of-way from Baltimore Highlands through North Linthicum to a point north of Maple Road and again from south of Linthicum to BWI Airport (at other times it uses the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad's parallel right-of-way).
* Linthicum railroad station [http://www.bullsheet.com/news/phc-linthicum.html]
* WB&A Boulvard in Severn was built on the right-of-way.
* A section of Railroad track exists in Odenton, Maryland starting from a location inside Crossroads Business Park and Crossing Maryland Route 175 as a railroad crossing. The tracks turn right and cross Maryland Route 170 as another railroad crossing. The track continues and merges onto Amtrak's Northeast Corridor which, at the time was part of Pennsylvania Railroad.
* Two portions of the WB&A Trail, one in and around Odenton and another 5.8-mile section from the Patuxent River to Glenn Dale run on the old right-of-way of the Main Line. Anne Arundel County plans to connect those trails in the next few years.
* The Race Track Spur, connecting the Penn line at Lemons Bridge to the WB&A and to the Bowie Race Track, now serves as an ATV trail
* Martin Luther King Jr. Highway was built on the right-of-way.
* A freight motor, Washington Baltimore & Annapolis #1, is maintained at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California.

References

*

External links

* [http://www.dnr.state.md.us/greenways/b&a_trail.html Baltimore & Annapolis Trail Park]
* [http://www.borail.org/ Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum]
* [http://www.pgparks.com/places/parks/wba.html WB&A Trail]
* [http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/wasaer1.htm Modern-day photo tour of South Shore Line]
* [http://davesrailpix.com/odds/md/md.htm#wba Photos of the rolling stock]
* [http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/photos/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?id=61675 Photo of Car in Annapolis]