I was suspecting that the original poster here was the lostrailroads.com writer. I haven't been able to find a way to contact them.

And yes, I discounted the wye indicated on openrailwaymap.org (along Dairy Rd), since I believe that to be the NCR's own wye. The cut that crosses Hillcrest Ave south of Dairy Road is distinct in the topo imagery and is not indicated on openrailwaymap.

Looking at the topographic map, you can clearly see the mystery ROW spun off just south of the Parkton Y.

I can tell you that I know that from appearances, the tail track ff the wye to turn passenger trains looks like it was the track leading onto this line.

I'll need to check my collection of railroad val maps this weekend to see if anything comes, alon wiht check some early records of track sidings for that area as well.

I always wondered about that during this time of year when you could see it through the trees off of I-83. The Google Maps terain view shows it clearly.

Might it be possible that the 'current' wye isn't the location of a wye whose tail track would be extended as the visible grade?

Here's the Maryland government's LiDAR site, if any of you guys want to look there...

https://imap.maryland.gov/pages/lidar-overview

You can follow bits and pieces of the roadbed on the Google Earth 1994 images up Owl Branch, over the top of the hill and down into Frog Hollow Cove where it disappears into the water just before the cove enters Prettyboy Reservoir. Dunno where it went after that. Seems like that would have been a stiff grade to get over the hill. I think the grade precedes the construction of the wye and moving the yard to the north. I haven't check Google's LIDAR yet to see if there are any more hints.

No railroad shows on any USGS topos.

The Y is in red.
The mystery grade starts south of it

It's a gorgeous day and I didn't have anything on the schedule so I took my dog for an adventure.

We drove a couple roads that didn't have street view images. This one is looking west from Cooper Rd. Definitely a rail grade here. I thought about knocking on the door but decided to save that for another time.



Taken looking west here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hbJ7eksUwnAaYHwY9

Also interesting, the sign for Parkton on the trail mentions that the RoW visible west of 83 was part of the tail of the wye.



My guess is that there used to be a branch line that extended the wye's tail for a ways to a customer (maybe a mill of some type) that was likely disused by the beginning of the 20th century. That rock cut in the first photo is clearly man made, but also had had plenty of natural erosion to fill it in.

@scratchyX1 - yes, exactly.

@Ed Kapuscinski

Thanks for scouting along Cooper Rd. Maybe the next step is to chat with someone at Genessee Valley to see if anyone knows if the grade continued though their property. The railroad wasn't completed, so the grade construction had to end somewhere.

@jayrod
It's hard to trace any path past GV's lakes. Maybe there's one leading down from the lake to Frog Hollow Cove; I certainly see the a graded path (several cuts) leading along the eastern edge of FHC, interrupted a few times by the water. However, it's difficult to tell. There are several road remnants in the area - on the north side of FHC and across the water on Shambergers Peninsula which are almost-certainly pre-reservoir road alignments.

On the north side of Prettyboy, there was another branch railroad, but it never made it south of Hemlock Gorge (or reach all of the Hoffman mills).

I forgot to post my follow up.

1) I did a thorough check of the PRR and legacy owner Valuation Maps and nothing came up for this line, not even a switch, siding, any idications of land purcahsed in that general direction. However, interesting it was indicated that the NCR owned Oxl Creek up to the point it installed a small dam, most likely to divert water into the reservoir up over the hill from where the station sat.

2) I also did a thorough search of PRR Station and siding listing back to 1899 and found nothing indicated for any spurs or customers either.

With this in mind, the line most likey was graded but never had any track built on it.

Saw this come up on Reddit today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MARCtrain/s/waPOPO4qxi

It mentions the Parkton and Manchester over the exact RoW.

Lots of paper railroads