Monday, May 15, 2017

CSX/B&O Carrollton and Thomas Viaducts over Patapsco River at Arbutus, MD

Carrollton: (Bridge Hunter broke Mar 22, 2023; Satellite)
Thomas: (Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite, Google Photo)

Carrollton Viaduct


Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum posted
On Dec. 21, 1829, the Carrollton Viaduct officially opened. The Carrollton Viaduct took its name from Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. 
On July 4, 1828, Carroll ceremonially laid the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. On Dec. 21, 1829, Carroll, who was 92 years old at time, would become one of the first passengers of the B&O Railroad. He rode out with the directors of the B&O from the city to the Carrollton Viaduct in the railroad’s brand-new horse drawn rail cars and ceremonially laid the last stone of the Viaduct named in his honor.  
The Carrollton Viaduct spans the Gwynns Falls River in Baltimore. It is 300 feet long and 58 feet high. Unlike later B&O railroad bridges. it was constructed from heavy granite blocks that were procured from the nearby quarries of Ellicott's Mills. Because of its solid granite construction, it is still in use today. The Carrollton Viaduct is the oldest continuously used rail bridge in North America and is one of the oldest standing rail bridges in the world [my bold].  
The Carrollton Viaduct in 1929 as the B&O celebrated the centennial of the viaduct: Robert Vogel,
Norm Rust: And the Thomas Viaduct in Relay, MD is right behind it, opening in 1835…both coming up on 200 years. 
Bridges Now and Then shared
Scott S Dornbirer shared
 
Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum posted
Did you know: On January 1, 1830, the directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad celebrated New Year’s Day with the inaugural journey on the railroad. The Board of Directors traveled the first mile and half of the railroad between Baltimore’s Pratt Street and the recently completed Carrollton Viaduct in a horse-drawn rail car. A week later, on January 7, 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad would begin its first revenue passenger service to the Carrollton Viaduct. The mile and a half journey could be completed in six minutes, the rail cars could reach the rapid rate of 15 mph. One-way tickets cost 9 cents each or three tickets for 25 cents. Public demand and excitement for the brand-new railroad was high in the winter months of 1830 and a single horse could be required to pull four cars with a combined capacity of 120 passengers. These trips were important for the railroad as after almost two long years of construction, the Baltimore and Ohio would finally start producing its first revenues for its shareholders. The short trips to the Carrolton Viaduct were also a means of raising public awareness for the new railroad, which enabled the railroad engineers to test the performance of the track structure of the new railroad.  
Image: The Carrollton Viaduct
Scott S Dornbierer shared


Thomas Viaduct


"The Thomas Viaduct was the first masonry arch bridge built on a curve and remains the largest of its type" [BridgeHunter_Thomas]

Mark Hinsdale posted
"The Orange Blossom Special"
In April, 1986, a pair of blue & gray GP40-2's belonging to Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (RF&P) bring the southbound Orange Blossom Special (OBSS) across historic Thomas Viaduct at Relay MD, on the Baltimore & Ohio main line just outside Baltimore. By this time, the "Blossom," inaugurated in 1982 by Seaboard System, had expanded from its original Orlando to Wilmington DE market to operate from Tampa to the New York-New Jersey area, as a result of disasterous back to back freeze years in Florida, wiping out a sizable portion of the citrus traffic the specialty train carried. It was also during 1985 and '86 that RF&P power began to appear fairly often on the train, so that locomotive exchanges associated with the need to comply with RF&P's automatic train control (ATC) requirements on its line could be avoided. It was a relatively short period of time to catch these RF&P locomotives on the OBS, as steady installation of ATC equipment on newer, more powerful CSX locomotives would eventually render the practice obsolete. Photo by Mark Hinsdale
Not to be confused with the original Orange Blossom Special, a passenger train.

Francis Otterbein posted three photos with the comment:
The Thomas Viaduct is a stone masonry railroad bridge that spans the Patapsco River and the Patapsco Valley gorge between the towns of Relay and Elkridge, Maryland and is the first multispan masonry bridge constructed in the United States to be built on a curve. It is the world's second oldest railroad bridge still in use (the oldest is the Carrollton Viaduct located a few miles north) and is the world's largest multiple arched stone railroad bridge built on a curve. Check the website below for more photos and drawings of the viaduct
http://thomas-viaduct-relay-maryland.blogspot.com/
1, 1911

2, 1970
Ron Tutt posted
Thomas Viaduct near Elkridge, MD, ground level view looking north, showing east side of viaduct. It was built between July 4, 1833, and July 4, 1835; and named for Philip E. Thomas, the company's first president. It remains the world's oldest multiple arched stone railroad bridge. The viaduct is now owned and operated by CSX Transportation and still in use today, making it one of the oldest railroad bridges still in service.

3, 2014

Randall Hampton updated
Al Hafner
Q276 crossing the Thomas Viaduct
10-20-2018

Bill Rettberg Jr. posted
 
Bill Rettberg Jr. posted
Baltimore bound commuter train at Thomas Viaduct in Relay Md.
Matt Obrien: State of MD subsidized commuter trains. Pre MARC.

Mike Lusher posted
1961
Justin Young: How did this happen?
James Stout: In the Summer of 1965 B&O had a "Take Your Auto" service whereby Capitol Limited passengers could have their cars put on the Chicago Limited (#9) in Washington for Chicago delivery. Service lasted until September 11, 1965 and never replicated.
Mike Lusher: James Stout, the photo I posted is from September, 1961 so it was four years before the "Take Your Auto" Service. Also, the autos all look the same which leads me to believe they were new.
Harry Knipp: This pic looks like it may have been an experiment, as the cars are all compact, pretty uniform, and most have window stickers. As in the ad picture in the comments here, normal passenger's vehicles would have had much greater variability. I bet they “borrowed” a batch of lower cost new compacts from a big dealer or from the manufacturer to just try out the dynamics of the scheme.
Mike Lusher: Harry Knipp, yes, it was just an experiment.
 
James Eells commented on Mike's post
Taken from B&O Passenger Service Book by Harry Stegmaier. These were ran on 9 & 10 in the Summer of 65.


No comments:

Post a Comment