Annapolis at one time hosted three railroad lines. A branch of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis (WB&A), formerly the Annapolis and Elkridge Railroad (A&ER), ran northwest to Annapolis Junction. The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad (B&A), formerly the Annapolis and Baltimore (A&B) Short Line, ran north, roughly parallel to MD 648, and connected to a branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), just south of Baltimore, so that trains could travel to Baltimore. The Bay Ridge and Annapolis Railroad (BR&A) ran southeast from Annapolis to the Bay Ridge Resort, at the mouth of the Severn River.
Today, decades after their demise, fragments of these railroads can still be spotted if you know where to look. The construction of these railroads reshaped topography, established the alignments of future roadways and utilities, sliced through land parcels and even established towns and places such as Annapolis Junction and Ft. Meade. Most of the tracks have since been removed and many sections of the railroad Right-of-Ways (ROW) have been repurposed for a variety of uses, but their one-time dominance still has an influence on the logistics of our daily lives.
The WB&A Railroad
The A&ER provided a spur off the main Pennsylvania Railroad from Odenton to Annapolis. Completed in 1840, it ran along the present General's Highway on the South shore of the Severn. It never reached Elkridge nor was it extended to the waterfront in Annapolis until the Civil War.
“Soon after the B&O Railroad completed its branch from Baltimore to Washington in 1835, the A&ER came into being to link this line with Annapolis. Incorporated in 1837, the A&ER first planned to start at Elk Ridge Landing, where it could connect not only with the B&O but with ships on the Patapsco River... ...instead the route was projected to run west from Annapolis to meet the B&O at a point roughly midway between Baltimore and Washington, to be called Annapolis Junction...
...Formidable competition arrived in 1887 in the form of the A&B Short Line, an almost straight line southeast from Baltimore, which snatched much of the Baltimore-Annapolis trade away from the roundabout A&ER route and its train changes at Annapolis Junction. Reorganization followed, and, in 1886, the A&ER emerged as the Annapolis, Washington & Baltimore Railroad (AW&B)... …in 1903 a new high-speed electric interurban line between Baltimore and Washington, (originally incorporated in 1899 as The Potomac and Severn Electric Railway) later named the WB&A bought the AW&B to serve as their Annapolis branch. The new owners strung electric wires over the old AW&B, and, in 1908, opened their new system.
...when World War I started, its resourceful owners landed themselves a temporary bonanza. Gathering up property along the onetime A&ER midway between Odenton and Annapolis Junction, they provided the site for a large Army cantonment called Camp Meade and obtained a monopoly for its passenger business. Afterward, though, the WB&A continued to struggle. Paved roads and the Depression sealed its doom, and the entire system was abandoned in 1935.”
- Herbert H. Harwood Jr., CSX Transportation (Retired)
Sources:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070926225007/www.mdoe.org/annap_elk_rr.html
Relic Series: WB&A - Camp Parole
Apologies in advance to Civil War historians for my hasty and probably inaccurate summary.
Parole is a French term meaning "word". In the days of formal warfare, it was customary to exchange prisoners of war by a complex formula of numbers and relative rank. Often, to avoid being burdened with large parties of prisoners, forces in the field would "parole" them; that is, release them to go home on oath not to perform any military service until exchanged. This was a Union camp that held Union soldiers until a prisoner trade was negotiated, in which case they were sent back into service. The Confederacy, by contrast, simply sent their paroled POWs home until they were called back to service.
At first the camp for paroled Federal prisoners was established on the St. John's College campus but proved to be undersized and inadequate. In May of 1863, the Federal government signed a lease for a 250 acre farm near the Annapolis and Elkridge railroad. The camp eventually featured 83 buildings by the time it was vacated in July of 1865.
The camp supposedly occupied the residential neighborhood to the east of Solomon's Island Rd and Annapolis Towne Centre to the west of Solomon's Island Rd, but I have not found any documentation indicating its precise location.
The cache sits on the ROW, which runs along Defense St and is delineated by utility lines on both sides at this location. Overhead you can see the lines follow the ROW west across Rt 50 towards Annapolis Mall and east towards West St.
Sources:
http://www.pa-roots.com/pacw/campparole.html
Edit (3/12/16): Figured out where the actual station was, so revised title from 'Camp Parole Station' to 'Camp Parole'.
Congrats to FossilFae on a hard fought FTF