Unquestionably Maryland’s most charming railroad, the “Ma & Pa” (as everyone called it) was a picturesque, bucolic, short line connecting Baltimore with York, Pennsylvania, over a hilly, roundabout route replete with endless curves and trestles. It meandered northeast from Baltimore through Towson, Fallston, Belair, and Baldwin, Maryland, then crossed the Maryland-Pennsylvania line to Delta. There it made a right-angle turn and headed northwest along the twisting, remote Muddy Creek valley toward Red Lion and York. By highway, it is about 45 miles between Baltimore and York; via the Ma & Pa, 77 miles.

The railroad was never a significant part of Maryland’s railroad network. It eked out a precarious living transporting milk, agricultural products, and marble and slate from quarries in the Delta-Whiteford (Maryland) area. A handful of stop-everywhere local trains carried passengers and brought Harford County milk into Baltimore.

The Maryland & Pennsylvania was actually an amalgamation of two narrow gauge railroads that started off in different directions with different purposes. Its Baltimore end first came to life in 1876 when some Belair businessmen incorporated the Baltimore, Towsontown, Dulaney’s Valley & Delta Narrow Gauge Railway Co. Conceived as a back-country local line, it was to connect the Harford County seat with Baltimore, and also reach north to the quarries at Delta, Pennsylvania. Two years later, this corporate mouthful became the Baltimore & Delta Railway.

Building northward, the Baltimore & Delta opened to Towson in 1882, and in the same year it changed names again by merging with the long-dormant Maryland Central Railroad--an 1867 creation that had the grandiose goal of building a Baltimore-Philadelphia line, roughly following the route of present U. S. Route 1. As the Maryland Central, the narrow gauge line reached Bel Air in 1883, and by January 1884 was finally completed into Delta.

As all this was going on, another narrow gauge line had been completed from York southeast to Delta. York County entrepreneurs incorporated the Peach Bottom Railway Co. in 1868 to build to Delta and the Susquehanna River at Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania. This was to be part of a grandly ambitious project, connecting Philadelphia with the Broad Top coal fields in Central Pennsylvania. After a long struggle, the Peach Bottom finally got to Delta in 1876 and to Peach Bottom in 1883. In the meantime, it had entered receivership in 1881 and the Philadelphia-Broad Top dream had vaporized.

Afterward, both the York and Baltimore companies went through a succession of reorganizations and name changes, finally merging in 1901 as the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad. Shortly before, both had been converted to standard gauge, allowing direct freight car exchange with the national rail network.

From then on, the Ma & Pa kept its folksy ways, enchanting railroad enthusiasts with its lovely scenery, its ever-twisting right-of-way, and its antique steam locomotives.

Hilton, George W. The Ma & Pa: A History of the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad. Berkeley, Calif.: Howell-North Books, 1963, 1980; Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 (reprint).