Switching the Georgetown Branch in 1995?!

You read that right! Friend Matt Robertson shared two photos he shot himself back in October 1995 of local D782 (out of Jessup, MD by this time) working the Mason-Dixon Recycling plant, which of course used to be E.C. Keys; one of the oldest industries on the GB.

Matt writes: “Local is the D782 which operated out of Jessup on weekday afternoons. They worked industries on the Capital Sub and Metropolitan Sub as far west as Derwood in this era. Honestly I don’t know where the tank car came from. They are working the only place left on the GT branch by this time. I believe it loaded scrap paper and the two Railbox cars will be placed. I think maybe they pulled some cars out too but unfortunately these pics are the only two I took.”

Oct 9, 1995: Local D782 backs down the Georgetown Branch spur, headed toward the Mason Dixon Recycling plant. Photo by Matt Robertson.
Oct 9, 1995: Local D782 working the Mason Dixon Recycling plant. EMD GP38-2 CSX 2699 (Blt 1979 as SCL 6048) is the power for the day. Photo by Matt Robertson.

Going back through my notes, to add some context to the Junction in the later years, I found a reference from the old Yahoo! Group where Christopher Parker wrote: “I first saw Georgetown Junction in 1981 and the coal trestle hadn’t been there for some time. It was an empty gravel lot, with only a concrete abutment and the bit of track that rested on solid ground. No switch. At that time the Mason-Dixon Recycling siding was gone too. It was Silver Spring Recycling then, and I remember seeing lots of Garden State Paper trucks up there. Sometime between 1982 and 1984 (?) the siding was relayed. The USGS topo map from 1971 shows the coal trestle, but that’s not terribly reliable.”

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