Visitor status: Public openings reported suspended — confirm with town
La Plata’s restored depot is the only surviving passenger station from the Pope’s Creek Line of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, according to the town. It stands beside a caboose on Kent Avenue and houses historical material associated with the town and the railway. A station of this size offers a close view of the public end of a branch line, where passengers, mail and local business met a route extending well beyond the community.
Trains began running between Bowie and Pope’s Creek in January 1873. The town’s historical account connects the line with a broader competition for traffic. The Baltimore and Potomac’s charter permitted branches, allowing a connection from Bowie to Washington that competed with the Baltimore & Ohio. The branch-line station at La Plata helps put a local face on those decisions. A railroad developed to serve particular destinations could also become a route into a larger regional system.
The town’s museum program has collected and sought photographs, personal recollections and artifacts associated with La Plata and the railway. A picture of a train passing through can establish how buildings and tracks fit together. A schedule shows when journeys were possible, while a waybill can identify the goods the railroad handled. These small pieces of evidence offer a way to explore the relationship between the station and the town whose growth it helped shape.
Public access is currently uncertain. The Southern Maryland Chronicle reported that the town manager planned to suspend public openings in November 2026 following the depot’s participation in the October Trick or Treat Trail. The depot and adjacent caboose remain the central objects in the story. Their different roles help make sense of the collection, with the depot representing the town’s point of entry to the line and the caboose illustrating the working environment of a train crew.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Maryland
- National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation (formerly B&O Railroad Museum) — Baltimore: Major railroad museum
- B&O Ellicott City Station Museum — Ellicott City: Historic station and railroad museum
- Bowie Railroad Museum — Bowie: Depot and railroad history museum
- Irish Railroad Workers Museum — Baltimore: Railroad workers’ homes and social-history museum
- Oakland B&O Railroad Museum — Oakland: Depot and railroad history museum
- Queponco Railway Station Museum — Newark: Historic depot and railroad collection
- Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum — Walkersville: Railroad museum and operating collection
- Western Maryland Railway Historical Society Museum — Union Bridge: Railroad museum and archival collection
- All 9 railroad museums and sites in Maryland
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region