Most everyone who lives in our small community is quite familiar with the trail which runs along Stony Run between Cold Spring Lane and Wyndhurst Avenue. This trail has its origins in 1868 when the Baltimore & Swann Lake Passenger Railroad was formed to build a suburban rail line from Baltimore to Towson.  This company accomplished little to nothing and was reorganized in 1874 as the Baltimore, Hampden & Towsontown Railway and began grading for a direct seven-mile line from North A venue in Baltimore, up Stony Run, to Towson. By 1878 all grading was completed to allow the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad.

Another railroad was seeking to build a line connecting Baltimore with Harford County and then on to Delta, Pennsylvania where it would connect with a line from York, and eventually with the coal railroads of Pennsylvania.  The line to Towson merged with this other company in December 1878 and formed the Baltimore & Delta Railway Company. In late August the company began laying rails on the graded right-of way out of Baltimore. The first four miles to Lake Avenue from North Avenue were all uphill and in many ways the toughest part of the entire railroad between Baltimore and Delta to build.

Finally on April 17, 1882 the line opened between Baltimore and Towson with eight round trips daily. The promoters of the railway envisioned eventual hourly train service, but this was never to be a reality. The line to Delta was completed on January 21, 1884 (the railroad reorganized August 28, 1882 as the Maryland Central Railroad) and now connected with York via the York and Peach Bottom Railway Company. A one-way trip from Baltimore to York took about 4 ½ hours.

These two lines finally merged in February 1901 to form the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad (affectionately know as the Ma & Pa Railroad). By this time both sections of the route had converted from narrow gauge to standard gauge. Monday through Saturday there were two round trips between Baltimore and York, two round trips between Baltimore and Bel Air, and one round trip between Baltimore and Delta. In 1906 two additional round trips were added between Baltimore and Bel Air, one a 5:15 "commuter" and an 11 :30pm train for theater goers called "The Owl."

By 1915, state road construction on all paved weather roads began to take its toll on the line. Its main traffic in Maryland was mail, passengers, milk from Harford County dairies, and coal for residential heating. With better road connections and competing bus service the railroad was forced to begin passenger service cutbacks in 1915.

In 1928 passenger service began with the conversion from steam trains to gaselectric motor cars. The last "local" train was dropped in 1935, thus ending any sort of service remotely resembling commuter service. All that remained now were the two round trips between Baltimore and York. In 1946 diesel trains arrived on the route displacing some but not all of the steam trains. By 1951 only one train remained, and this had an average of only twelve passengers per trip, these being mainly domestic servants living in walking distance of the North Avenue station and commuting to work at the estates in Long Green Valley.

On August 31, 1954, passenger service was discontinued after the contract to haul mail was cancelled. Freight service continued until June 11, 1958 when the line was abandoned and the tracks were removed that summer.

Baltimore City considered the route for a freeway but it was only 30 feet wide in some points which prevented this option. Another proposal was to build a single lane expressway for busses along the route, but this was also rejected. And so now we have a magnificent walking trail, with an interesting though not forgotten past.

This story was published in our 2006 newsletter. Written by Harry Aycock.