Catonsville Rails to Trails News Archive
Catonsville Rails to Trails News Archive
CRTT will have a booth in the Catonsville Arts and Crafts Festival on Sunday September 7, 2008. Please stop by and chat!
CRTT Board members presented the CRTT mission and future goals
to Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith on July 9, 2008. We look
forward to receiving his response on the best path for moving forward
in our partnership for a better, walkable Catonsville.
Download the presentation
Download the presentation [pdf 6.3MB]
Eagle Scout Candidate Brian Sommer of of Boy Scout Troop 307 organized
trail clean-ups in January, February, March & April, 2008. His work crews
cleaned up the downed brush and logs along the Short Line Trail between Shady Nook and Paradise Avenues.
Well done Brian, and thanks!
CRTT will participate in the Catonsville Arts and Crafts Festival on Sunday September 9, 2007. We will be in Booth 114 on the North Side of the street at Melvin and Frederick. Come visit and chat about the trail! We will be happy to answer your questions.
The Columbia Ski Club is planning a bicycle ride around the Catonsville, Ellicott City, and Patapsco Valley area. The ride is planned to use the trail coming out of Ellicott City from River Road/Frederick Ave/ trail to Edmonston Ave., over to Rolling Road and back to the park. This ride is also used by the Balto Bike Club, so the trail is a great connector.
The ride would be for those with a road bike not a hybrid or mountain bike because of the hills on the Ellicott City side of the ride . The return out of the park is Lawyers Hill and Landing Rd, both not suitable for any wide tire bikes.
CSC Listing: Bike Ride - Patapsco Valley, 22 very hilly miles 7/4/07 and 9/3/07.
Meet at 10:00am at the Ilchester Elementry school. Ice cream stop along the way. Bike helmets are mandatory on all CSC bike rides.
Contact Diane M. by email at
diane-brightview@comcast.net
Columbia Ski Club Activities Listings
Eagle Scout Candidate Mike Bledsoe of Boy Scout Troop 306 organized
trail clean-ups on May 26, June 23, and July 7, 2007. His work crews cleaned up
the downed brush and logs along the Short Line Trail east of
Maiden Choice Lane.
Garlic Mustard is an invasive species first brought to the new world for food and medicinal purposes. Garlic Mustard poses a severe threat to native plants and animals in forest communities in much of the eastern United States.
You can help remove this threat! See the Plant Conservation Alliance, Alien Plant Working Group's web page, or download their description in a PDF file. [pdf 189KB]
Twenty five to thirty folks showed up for a beautiful Saturday April 14,
2007 to clean up the Catonsville Short Line Trail between Maiden Choice
Avenue and Charlestown. We collected another pick-up truck full of trash.
We also collected a large amount of metal debris for recycling.
Thanks to all who showed up for both our clean-up days, and for all
neighbors who pick up trash as they walk!
The Catonsville Rails-to-Trails held the Annual Public Meeting on
Saturday, March 31, 2007 at the Catonsville Public Library. About 25
folks attended.
The new officers are:
David Dionne, Superintendent of Anne Arundel County Trails gave a
very interesting presentation on the trail system of Anne Arundel County.
Anne Arundel County Trails: http://www.aacounty.org/RecParks/parks/aacotrails_park
A few members of the Paradise Community expressed ongoing and historically-based concern about undesireable loitering and dumping that can be associated with a trail- especially in the sections that currently dead end at the beltway. The concerns articulated have been important points of discussion at subsequent community outreach meetings
About twenty intrepid folks showed up in the rain on Saturday March 24, 2007 to clean up the Catonsville Short Line Trail between Maiden Choice Avenue and Shady Nook Lane. We collected a pick-up truck full of trash. We also collected a large amount of metal debris for recycling. Some folks were separating the metal from the trash. Some were using wheelbarrows to cart the metal to a recycling dumpster, and others were collecting trash in trash bags.
About a third of the folks were cub scouts from Ellicott City, a third were neighbors from the Paradise area, and the remainder were Catonsville Rails-to-Trails Board members and families.
Many thanks to all who helped!
The Short Line Trail was the main topic of the February Paradise Community Association Meeting. As part of the Community Association business meeting, CRTT gave a 15 minute presentation, and then the floor was opened for comments. Many interested folks attended from Paradise and neighboring communities. Most expressed support for the trail. A few were adamently against the trail. Judy Boitz maintained order by using a timer to allow each question & response 2 minutes.
A new sign marks the trail entrance opposite the Armory on Mellor Ave. A 10 foot clear trail has been cleared from the Mellor Mews to Bloomsbury Ave. The trail is dirt and gravel and accessible for multi-use at this time.
Many thanks to Brian Yakel of Boy Scout Troop 306 for all
the work he did to clean up this part of the trail for his
Boy Scout Eagle Project. Brian and the Scouts removed trash,
cleared brush and rocks, smoothed out the entrance from
Mellor Ave., made and erected the new sign at the Mellor Ave.
trail entrance. Read the details of his
Eagle Project (rtf 330KB)
Great Job Brian!
Rails have been removed on the Catonsville Short Line Trail from Charlestown to Maiden Choice, from Maiden Choice to Paradise Ave, and from Paradise to Shady Nook. We are negotiating with Spring Grove on removal of the rails from Wade Ave to Bloomsbury. Sometime in the future, the Rails from Wade Ave. to I-695 will be removed by volunteers from the Baltimore Street Car Museum who will use the rails on their restored streetcar tracks at the Museum.
The Friends of the Patapsco Valley and Heritage Greenway in cooperation with The Patapsco State Park, The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and Howard County Tourism, are proud to announce a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Grist Mill Trail Extension and its cable stay pedestrian bridge.
Patapsco Heritage Greenway
Patapsco Heritage Greenway Grist Mill Trail
Catonsville Rails to Trails had a booth at the Catonsville Arts and Crafts Fair on September 10, 2006. We had maps and photos of the trails and copies of the fall newsletter. We discussed the trails with many citizens of Catonsville. We also discussed the trials with several politicians including the Governor & Lieutenant Governor, and County Councilman Sam Moxley.
CRTT was proud to participate in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Clean-up in April 2006. Volunteers from CRTT and Patapsco Heritage Greenway cleared downed trees, brush, and sticker bushes from between the rails over most sections of the Short Line right-of-way. Environmental Science students from Western High School and Howard Community College collected several truckloads trash from the trail. Baltimore County then picked up the collected trash from Maiden Choice and Shady Nook.
CRTT now has a lease on the Short Line right-of-way from the Caton & Loudon Railway Company. The lease gives CRTT full rights to make physical changes to the property consistent with use as a hiking/biking/multi-use trail.
Catonsville Rails to Trails hosted a general membership meeting in the Catonsville Room of the Catonsville Library on November 10, 2004 . Jim Bailey, CRTT past President and unofficial historian, discussed the history of the Catonsville Short Line Rail Road from its inception in the 1880s until now. Included were old photographs, maps and other visual reminders of the past. Questions from the audience were answered.
Catonsville Rails-to-Trails, Inc. published a Feasibility Study and Resource Guide for converting the abandoned Catonsville Short Line Rail Road into a multi-purpose recreational trail. The Study describes the trail corridor and history of the area, provides in-depth look at natural resources and cultural resources, identifies issues that need to be addressed, and proposes linkages to existing recreational resources. The Study also includes letters of community support, a usage survey and crime analysis of a similar trail, and a history of the local trolley system. This study was released in March 2001.
Feasibility Study Files in Acrobat PDF format:
Due to the size of the Study, the document has been broken down into parts to facilitate downloading. The narrative portion of the document is the "master" file. The figures are 11X17 maps that are inserted into the study.
Last Updated: July 30, 2008
Please send additions and corrections to:
Curator: Thomas C. Bagg, III,