Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad
The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th century to connect the cities of Baltimore and Annapolis. From 1897 to 1968 the railroad ran between Annapolis and Clifford along the north shore of the Severn River. From Clifford, just north of the present day Patapsco Light Rail Stop, it connected with the B&O's Curtis Bay branch so that trains could travel to Baltimore, though from 1914 to 1950 it bypassed this to travel instead to Carrol Junction and then to a terminal on Russell Street via the Camden Cutoff.
It had periods of bust and boom that resulted in different owners, changed names and abandonment and sale. It started operation in 1897 as the Annapolis and Baltimore Shortline, but changed its name in 1893 to the Baltimore and Annapolis Shortline, or often just the Annapolis Shortline. In 1914 it changed to electric power and in 1921 it was purchased by the larger Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway. The WB&A went bankrupt in 1935 and the railroad emerged from the bankruptcy as the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad. B&A electric passenger operation between the two cities continued until 1950 when the section of rail between Carrol Junction and Clifford Junction was purchased for the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. At that time the B&A switched to diesel and became solely a freight carrier while operating buses for passenger service. Freight service to Annapolis ceased in June 1968 and service south of Glen Burnie stopped in 1969. Tropical Storm Agnes damaged the Patapsco River bridge in 1972 stopping all service and the railroad unsuccessfully tried to abandon the whole line, but it was forced to resume service in the 1980s. In 1979, the line south of Glen Burnie was sold to various entities with the bulk of it turned into a rail trail. In 1991 the railroad was sold to the Maryland Transit Administration for a light rail line, service was stopped and the railroad was replaced.
After the light rail was completed, freight rail continued for a short time before being shut down in the 1990s. The B&A briefly continued operations in the Carolinas but stopped in the early 21st Century. The bulk of the right-of-way now serves as part of Baltimore's light rail system and as the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail.
Annapolis and Baltimore Shortline
The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad was chartered in 1880, by a group of New England promoters as the Annapolis and Baltimore Shortline and began running on March 3, 1887. This freight and passenger line was an integral link between Annapolis and Baltimore, transporting almost two million passengers per year until competition from nearby highways forced the railroads' closure. It was the second railroad to serve Annapolis and provided a faster connection to Baltimore, taking a more direct path along the north shore of the Severn River and then crossing the river into Annapolis. The railroad transformed the once-secluded banks of the Severn to a series of suburban communities.The railroad started as a steam powered line running from a station in Annapolis, on Bladen Street just south of St.John's College, crossing the wide Severn River estuary on a long timber trestle, and on to Clifford on the B&O line, where it used the B&O tracks to terminate at Camden Station in Baltimore. Because the A&B Shortline created an almost straight line southeast from Baltimore it snatched much of the Baltimore-Annapolis trade away from the Annapolis, Washington & Baltimore Railroad on which passengers had to change trains at Odenton or Annapolis Junction.
At some point prior to 1892, a small connecting line was built between the A&B and the AW&B at the Bay Ridge Junction wye where the AW&B met the Annapolis and Bay Ridge Railroad.
Baltimore & Annapolis Shortline
Reorganization
was slim in the early years, and in 1893 the railroad was sold to George Burnham Jr. and reorganized as the Baltimore & Annapolis Shortline the next year. Universally it was called simply “The Annapolis Shortline.”Modernization
In 1906 the B&A began the process of electrifying its line which had been steam-powered since it opened. That process was completed in 1908 and it changed its name to the Maryland Electric Railways Company, providing clean, comfortable, faster, and more frequent service. That same year, the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway built an electric rail line between Baltimore and Washington that ran adjacent to, and just to the west of, the B&A tracks between Linthicum and Clifford. Despite the upgrade, steam-powered trains continued to operate on the line until 1919.Unlike most electric railways of its time, which employed a low voltage Direct Current electrification, the line installed a 6,600 volt, 25 cycle, single phase Alternating Current electrification system newly developed by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. The pioneering AC system was less than fully successful, however, and in 1914, new owners switched to DC. When it did, the B&O was wary of a high-voltage, as both the WB&A and Shortline then used 3300v AC over its tracks, overhead line between the Clifford interchange and Camden Station; so the B&O built a new line
for the Shortline between Clifford Junction and its mainline at Russell Street. Leaving Clifford, the line ran immediately west/south of the Curtis Bay branch, passed under the Curtis Bay branch and then ran parallel to the South Baltimore branch, over the Western Maryland Railway and Gwynns Falls through Westport to Carrol Junction and the Camden Cutoff.
North Shore Line
Purchase
During its heyday, the years between 1918 and the late 1920s, the B&A transported as many as 1,750,000 passengers per year between Baltimore and Annapolis. Trains left every hour from 6 am through 11 pm. Because of its strong performance, the neighboring WB&A bought the Annapolis Shortline in 1921 and it became part of the WB&A system in which it was called the North Shore Line. Afterward, Shortline trains were routed over the WB&A between Linthicum and the WB&A's new Baltimore terminal at the corner of Howard & Lombard Streets, now the site of a Holiday Inn. At the same time, most of the old Shortline track between Linthicum and Westport was abandoned, except for a section between Baltimore Highlands and the B&O Clifford interchange which was kept to handle freight to and from the B&O. The "new" Annapolis Shortline ROW between Clifford and Westport was also retained for freight interchange, though this segment was later abandoned in 1979.Bankruptcy
Gross receipts for the WB&A began to decline almost as soon as it bought the B&A in 1921. For the next decade, the WB&A only survived because of a law exempting it from taxes. In January 1931, the extension of the law failed to pass by one vote and the line went into receivership. The line remained in operation for four more years until it officially ceased on August20, 1935. The WB&A was sold at public auction with scrap dealers buying most of the rolling stock. Selling the B&A rail for scrap would have cut off the capital from rail travel, so state officials and the Naval Academy convinced the bondholders not to scrap the B&A line. The right-of-way and some equipment were instead bought by the Bondholders Protective Society who then formed the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad Company. This company negotiated an agreement with the B&O to use Camden Station as its Baltimore terminal, as the WB&A Terminal was eventually sold to one of its tenants Harry G. Pappas. The new company took over on August 21, 1935, for continuous operation.Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad
World War II
With the start of World War II and gas rationing, the B&A often ran with all available equipment in service. At semester breaks, holidays and graduation times the trains were packed with midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy, and the B&O ran steam trains to pick up teams and supporters to transport them to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy games. The B&A typically trains between Baltimore and Glen Burnie, with 3-cars continuing on the additional to Annapolis. The rail had 990,000 passengers in 1939, but that had increased to 2,000,000 by 1943.In 1938 the company began running motor-coaches between Baltimore and Annapolis, and expanded in 1941 with a line serving Fort Meade from both cities. They expanded again in 1943 with service to Brooklyn-Curtis Bay. By 1943 the motor-coaches were carrying 1,000,000 passenger.
End of passenger service
Following World War II, gasoline and cars came back, highway expansion followed and passenger rail service became unprofitable. By 1939 the railroad was seeking permission to replace passenger rail with buses.In 1947, the city began to negotiate the purchase of about 4000 feet of the railroad to Baltimore for use as part of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The land ran from Russell Street to just north of the B&O's Curtis Bay Branch and consisted of the line that the B&A had used to access its Baltimore terminal. The B&A agreed to sell and clear the land for $450,000 on the condition that they could end passenger rail service because they were running an annual operating deficit of $100,000. At the time, the B&A was running 49 passenger trains and 3 freight trains between Baltimore and Annapolis.
In September 1949, the B&A formally requested permission to abandon passenger car service. In December 1949, the Public Services Commission granted their request to end passenger rail service but, as was demanded by city leaders along the line, required them to continue freight service. The B&A announced the end of passenger service that month. To prepare for the loss of passenger rail service the B&A began offering scheduled commuter bus service between Baltimore, Glen Burnie, and Annapolis, along with its passenger rail service. A proposal for the line to be acquired by the B&O Railroad for freight service was discarded when the B&O's studies concluded it would require $1.35 million in infrastructure improvements to bring it up to Class 1 railroad standards.
The B&A ended rail passenger service on February5, 1950, and used the money from the sale of part of the line to purchase 11 more buses and a new diesel electric locomotive. It reorganized into two companies, one that ran passenger buses and one that ran freight rail. The old bypass was removed north of the Curtis Bay Branch and part of it was replaced with the BW Parkway later that year; and the electric wires were removed from the remaining line.
In 1961, there was a 25-day experiment with commuter rail to Camden Station from Harundale, but it proved to be too slow. In addition the line continued to provide excursion rides into the 1980s.