Does anybody here know whether there are still any trackside industries located along the CSX (formerly B&O) Old Main Line in central Maryland? I’m especially interested in the area between Relay and Frederick Junction, businesses that ship or receive only a few carloads per week.
T-I-A!
I can give you a little info on shippers in Frederick County (Maryland). The only shipper that I knew of in Frederick County east of Frederick Junction was the cold storage warehouse on the Mount Airy branch, how ever it is my understanding that the warehouse has moved to a new location north of Baltimore in Harford County, and is no longer shipping.
The LaFarge (formerly Genstar) limestone quarry on the Frederick branch still has tracks in place and may very occasionaly ship stone or receive heavy machinery. The small MARC commuter train yard also gets some things like diesel fuel for their above ground tank.
West of Frederick Junction things are pretty busy. In the area south of Frederick around the Route 85 crossing, Georgia - Pacific’s lumber distribution center, the Toys “R” Us warehouse and Tamko roofing products are regulars. The Essroc cement plant at Lime Kiln (Loys on the RR) also ships and receives cement in covered hoppers since it is both a cement manufacturing plant and a distribution center for the Baltimore - Washington area for the company. One former shipper, Eastalco Aluminum shut down last year and is currently closed.
Hope this helps. Terry
Thanks, Terry!
About that Mt Airy cold storage warehouse - do you know if it was there as late as 1997?
I think English Muffin Way in Frederick also had a Thomas’s Muffin Facility there that had a track to it.
Alot of the OML Industries was in thier highest activity in the 1840’s through to about roughly 1950.
I dont think Mt Airy had that cold storage facility working in 97, I could be wrong. That part of the OML is Mainline and set up to recieve trains from points west. There was also Western Maryland to the north along with Maryland Midland that sees traffic. There is a tunnel under Mt Airy at that location of some distance.
Coplay in Lime Kiln (That was the cement facility long ago) shipped cement by truck. My company would assign me to haul cement, lime or mortor as far as about 200 miles distant anywhere in that radius. Also we brought in alot of material to Tamko by tanker (Lime) and dont really recall rail service there. We took just about everything out of there by flatbed. Shingles, roofing rolls etc. You name it.
Aluminum also. I dont know if they took railcars, I stayed on the east side of the plant where they loaded slabs, rounds, ignots etc onto flatbeds and some boxtrucks as well. Only reason they gonna close that great big aluminum plant is that they cannot stand to pay the electric bill… that is my best guess. The place hummed and crackled with the stuff. That’s too bad because they are a true heavy industrie that feeds alot of towns such as Lancaster PA and other places with useful material.
Down to DC on the old Washington Branch may have still some industry remaining.
I have been away from Ellicott City too long to tell you anything on that part of the OML. I think there is still a B&O station there and a river that occasionally tries or did wash tracks away in hurricanes.
Downtown Frederick had many tracks off the B&O Stub radiating into town into different little places. I dont recall enough about these places to determine if they were shippers, recievers, active or inactive. I think MARC rules that area now with passenger serv
That would’ve been my first guess. But yesterday at Woodstock crossing, I saw a single SD40-2 heading west with only a boxcar and a half-dozen bulkhead flats. So I figured it must’ve been a local.
Im not surprised. There is alot hidden here and there. I think recently I learned of a large propane LNG type facility on the washington Branch while researching fuels some time ago.