Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Frederick, MD Branch

I was in Frederick this weekend and saw this branch for the first time since it was rebuilt for MARC service.

Is freight service still operated on it? I saw a couple of spur tracks, but they appeared unused. Also, I assume the continuation of the branch up the middle of East St. and further north is now abandoned? The project had severed its connection to the portion of the branch being used by MARC by removing the bridge over the canal in town.

Freight still comes north onto this line from Frederick Junction but I think all of the customers are south of I70 such as a lumber warehouse and Toys r us etc. There is also a large poultry plant either on the branch of just off of it on the baltimore to point of rocks line.

Yes the connection is gone but that portion of track had not been used for a LONG time.
MARC is a great job builing the line etc. The station in Frederick is really nice, but, there is hardly any parking so SURPRISE, it is not being used much.


abyler wrote:

> I was in Frederick this weekend and saw this branch for the
> first time since it was rebuilt for MARC service.
>
> Is freight service still operated on it? I saw a couple of
> spur tracks, but they appeared unused. Also, I assume the
> continuation of the branch up the middle of East St. and
> further north is now abandoned? The project had severed its
> connection to the portion of the branch being used by MARC by
> removing the bridge over the canal in town.
>
> [%sig%]

brunswick wrote:

> Freight still comes north onto this line from Frederick
> Junction but I think all of the customers are south of I70 such
> as a lumber warehouse and Toys r us etc. There is also a large
> poultry plant either on the branch of just off of it on the
> baltimore to point of rocks line.

I couldn\'t see anything going from the storage yard north, although there are several logical customers (propane dealers, feed dealers, fuel oil dealers, asphalt and aggregate companies, the brick yard).

> Yes the connection is gone but that portion of track had not
> been used for a LONG time.

That\'s a shame. North of there was a lumber yard, an aluminum scrap dealer, and the Coca-Cola Bottling plant. At least the track is still there.

> MARC is a great job builing the line etc. The station in
> Frederick is really nice, but, there is hardly any parking so
> SURPRISE, it is not being used much.

It looked like there was no parking. And nobody lives anywhere near it in town. How stupid was that? Are they going to build a garage or something? Maybe I should contact my friend Alex Mooney and see if some money can\'t be shoveled into it.

They could probably use a Park-n-ride lot and second station near their yard, since it is right off I-70.

Actually, it would be pretty neat to extend the line north on the street track to Rt. 15, which would be another good station location.

Andy Byler

The portion of the line on East Street north to Route 26/Liberty Road is currently unused. The line north of 26 to Walkersville is currently the domain of the Walkersville Southern Railroad http://www.wsrr.org. The line north from Walkersville to Thurmont has recently been abandoned by MMID (but it\'s still intact).

What is this about MMID abandoning up to Thurmont? Last I knew the quarry at Woodsboro was going strong and that\'s only about 5 miles north of Walkersville. This was an online rock move, with the loads coming out of Woodsboro and heading east at Keymar over to Finksburg. Also, isn\'t Thurmont along the line to Highfield, where the interchange with CSX takes place, in addition to the interchange at Emory Grove?

Mike Derrick
http://www.shortlinesusa.com

Nothing has been abandoned. The small section of RR between Woodsboro (where the stone quarry is) South to Walkersville has only one customer ( fertilizer plant) with no demand for carloads and has not seen service in a cpl years. This piece of railroad is actually state owned.

Here is MMID\'s website. It is complete with a roster of all equipment and a system map

http://www.mmidrwy.com

As for freight on the Frederick Branch: two customers are on the branch. Wicks lumber near the Monocacy station gets almost daily service.

A Willard chemical plant about 500 feet south or east of the downtwon Frederick station gets cars every so often. Sometimes it will go a week or two without cars and then get several for days in a row.

A local D786 works the branch in daylight right after the morning rush.

No abandoment on the MMID.

The section of track from Walkersville to Woodsboro is out of service. This was told to me by MMID\'s director of transportation.

The street track in Fred. his isloated on both end.

Just before the branch was rebuilt, there were four customers: Wickes Lumber, Willard Chemical, Southern States and another feed place. As stated in an earlier post, Wickes gets frequent service and Willard is sporadic. Wickes is not far from the main, just above the wye. I have not been up there since the rebuild but from what I hear, the other two are technically still servicable but have not been serviced since the rebuild. They are on the ROW of the Hagerstown and Frederick interurban line. Even before the rebuild, they were sporadic at best. Maybe a few cars a month...

Al Moran,
The SD80MACKing