All posts by bsullivan

B&O Caboose C2603 I-10 in Georgetown, ca 1967

This magnificent slide came up on eBay a week or so ago and although it was mislabeled as Philadelphia, PA, I immediately recognized it as the new yard in Georgetown, DC. There are a few things that make this image special, first and foremost is the caboose itself. This is no regular B&O I-5 caboose that we typically see on the Branch, no, this is an Ex Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg (BR&P) car! The slide listing dates it to 1967 and while the listing is wrong, I think the date is relatively close as it aligns generally with the timeline for this car as I understand it. Maybe someone can ID the vehicles seen in the photo. The repack date on the cab reads “2-27-64”.

Also of note is the B&O class M-26 boxcar peeking out to the left, #26xxxxx.

And, one of the more fascinating things about this caboose is that it’s still in existence today! Yep, hard to believe, and very much a random thing I stumbled on when I was looking for info on this car, but the car currently resides on the Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Museum, lettered as Livonia, Avon & Lakeville No. 2603.

Photo from Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Museum website: https://rgvrrm.org/lal2603/

https://rgvrrm.org/lal2603/

Built by Mt. Vernon Car Co. in 1918 as Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh 252, it was renumbered Baltimore & Ohio C2603 in 1935. It’s primary assignment was to the Riker Rounds Pool. It was sent to DuBois Shops in October 1959 for rebuild, from which it was released in October 1961 with updated cupola windows, toilet, new interior, and Ajax handbrakes. It was assigned to the LeRoy Switcher, before it was reassigned to the Rochester Subdivision Pool in 1963. C2603 was retired in March 1967.

This is all really exciting to me, as it portrays another really interesting piece of rolling stock on the Georgetown Branch – something I had never seen before. I wouldn’t have thought one of these cabs would have made its way all the way down to Georgetown, but here we are! I tried valiantly to secure this slide for the Georgetown Branch collection, but alas it slipped away. A bit too much for a cab roster shot alone. Hope it finds a good home wherever it ends up.

Creeping Through Bethesda, April 19, 1982

Chessie (B&O) GP38 no 3848 makes its way through downtown Bethesda in the Spring of 1982. Photo by unknown. eBay purchase.

The local is slowly crossing Bethesda Ave on a sunny April day as it makes its way West toward Georgetown. Today’s turn has a single boxcar and caboose. The same loco is seen in another photo from four days later, previously posted to the blog! Note the “Radio …” text written within the blue of the Chessie logo on the nose. “Radio Equipped” graffiti, perhaps?

Checking In

Taking a call on the Southern RR steam loco telephone while at the Great Scale Model Train Show last month.

It’s been three months since my last post and a lot has been going on. Between sending my kids off to college, presenting a clinic on the Georgetown Branch at the Mid Atlantic Railway Prototype Modelers meet, a trip to Portugal to watch my daughter compete in the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championship, prepping for and attending the Great Scale Model Train Show for the weekend as a vendor with my model RR club, presenting a clinic on upgrading Proto2000 GP7/GP9’s for the Potomac Division of the Mid East Region, NMRA, Parents weekend at aforementioned kids’ schools (JMU/Quinnipiac), traveling to New England to visit family for a long weekend, attending a Slowdive concert in Philadelphia and a Brothertiger show in DC, layout ops and open houses and much more…

So, yeah, it’s been hectic. The Georgetown Branch project has taken a back seat this Fall to “life” but fear not, it’s still very much active and moving forward in different ways. I have been talking to Kelly a lot lately as he pushes through with his designs of the Whipple Truss bridge across the C&O Canal. He’s been working on this for the last couple years and recently revamped his approach, integrating steel beams for support due to the wide span. Testing of the fine 3D printed parts continues with promising results. I think he’s close to a final design and will be producing test prints soon. It’s exciting times.

Test fitting bridge parts.
The first iteration at the top, with a carbon fiber center spar. Steel beams at the bottom for reference.
Kelly measuring the deflection on the steel bars across the span with the weight of one loco in the center.

Follow along on Kelly’s Blog.

Regarding the MARPM Georgetown Branch presentation, which hopefully some of you witnessed. Fear not. While that clinic was not recorded, I will be presenting it online for the OpSIG group Virtual Meetup on December 8th, at 7:00pm. It will hopefully be recorded and posted to their YouTube channel afterward for public viewing.

1970 National Christmas Tree in Georgetown

I stumbled on this image on eBay and had to snag it. Yes, I know it’s not great with “A-OK” Paddy taking up most of the frame, but these things are hard to come by so I’ll take what I can get. 🙂 Anyway, this depicts one of the most cursed shipments I’ve ever heard of on the Georgetown Branch.

November 28, 1970. Caption on the back: “Giving the okay sign is C.L. “Paddy” Ingvalson, president of the Keep South Dakota Green Association, who was on hand Friday when the National Christmas Tree was unloaded after a trip from Rapid City, S.D. The closely-guarded train was twice-derailed on the journey. The tree will be erected in the Ellipse, south of the White House. Lighting is scheduled for Dec. 16.”

Since 1954 the National Christmas Tree was shipped via rail from destinations far and wide across America, often arriving in Georgetown to be transloaded by crane to a flatbed truck, driven across DC to the Mall, and erected in front of the White House for the Pageant of Peace. In 1970, a 78′ spruce in Nemo, South Dakota was selected. The tree was felled on Nov 10th and loaded onto a truck for the 22 mile journey to Rapid City, SD. There it was loaded onto Chicago North Western 132577, a 70-ton 65’6″ gondola, to begin its journey to the Nation’s Capital on Nov 16th.

CNW 132577 with the National Christmas Tree, Proviso yard, Chicago, IL. Chicago North Western Historical Society

Unfortunately the train derailed twice along the way. The first was two days after departing Rapid City near the town of Beemer, NE on Wed Nov 18th when the train took a siding and derailed.

Train Derailment Slows Nations Christmas Tree – Fremont Tribune – Fremont, NB – November 18, 1970

The ill-fated train would derail again, this time outside of Pittsburg, PA. It arrived a bit early to DC and had to layover from November 24 to 27 on the US Army Map Agency siding, adjacent to the south entrance of Dalecarlia Tunnel. The train would continue on to Georgetown on November 28, where it would arrive in the yard to be transloaded onto a flatbed truck and head to its final destination, the National Mall, where it would be the centerpiece of the Pageant of Peace.

December 6, 1970. After erection, the tree was blown over by high winds over 50mph. Historic Images photo.
December 7, 1970. The next day, the tree was righted and repaired. Historic Images photo.
December 15, 1970. The lights were tested on the tree. “President Nixon will officially light the tree on 12/16 to open the Pageant of Peace.” Historic Images photo.

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.”

New Talbot Ave Bridge is Open

View across the new Talbot Ave bridge, looking North. Photo: MDOT

The new Talbot Ave bridge across the Metropolitan Branch at Georgetown Jct has officially opened.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/new-talbot-avenue-bridge-opens-in-silver-spring/3624819/

https://x.com/MCDOTNow/status/1795569974876270652

Facing Southeast. Photo: Purple Line

https://x.com/PurpleLineMD/status/1784587184927801627

Interesting Wilkins Rogers 1958 “OBJECTIONAL ODORS” sign

Wilkins Rogers Milling Co building sign. DC Historic Society. Emil A. Press slide collection. Item PR 0086A.

The Hopfenmaier rendering plant was a fixture on the Georgetown waterfront, producing constant odors of putrescence from 1873 to its demise in 1971. The Wilkins Rogers milling co across the street produced baking goods, receiving grains via rail and shipping out their mixes to local grocery stores and distributors via truck. In the 1950s and 1960s, as more and more of Georgetown became residential, folks were really starting to take notice of the incredible odors that permeated. Even when the plant wasn’t operating, on very hot days the caked-on slime and sludge from the plant would permeate the air along the waterfront. At some point around 1958, in protest, the Wilkins Rogers company had this sign created and mounted prominently on their mill where passing motorists on the Whitehurst Freeway could view it.

It read “THE OBJECTIONAL ODORS YOU MAY NOTICE IN THIS AREA, DO NOT ORIGINATE IN THIS PLANT. W.R.MLG. CO.

In the late 1960s the government even used a sort of “smell-o-meter” to try to detect dangerous levels of chemicals. This failed, but eventually the Government “won” by buying out the Hopfenmaier company and razing it ca 1971.

Additional reading:

Searching for that old Washington Flour sign about ‘objectionable odors’ along the Whitehurst Freeway

AIA Honors The Rebuilders Of History