Monocacy station

Monocacy
MARC commuter rail station
General information
Location 7800 Genstar Drive, Frederick, Maryland
Coordinates 39.3820°N 77.3947°W / 39.3820; -77.3947
Line(s) Frederick Branch
Platforms 1 side platform
Tracks 2
Connections MTA Maryland Bus
TransIT Services of Frederick
Construction
Parking Yes
Accessible Yes
History
Opened December 17, 2001
Passengers
November 2022 92 (daily) (MARC)
Services
Preceding station MARC Following station
Frederick
Terminus
Brunswick Line Dickerson
towards Union Station

Monocacy () is a passenger rail station on the MARC Brunswick Line between Washington, D.C. and Frederick, Maryland. This station is one of two stations on the Frederick extension. It is also the only station on the Brunswick Line other than Union Station to have a high-level platform. There is also a low level platform at the north end of the station.

Monocacy station is located at 7800 Genstar Drive, a cul-de-sac with a large parking lot off the east side of Maryland Route 355 in Frederick. It was built on the old Frederick Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The architects of Cochran, Stephenson & Donkervoet, Inc. designed the small station to resemble B&O stations from the past.

Station layout

P
Platform level
No service No passenger service
Outbound/
Inbound
     Brunswick Line toward Frederick (Terminus)
     Brunswick Line toward Union Station (Dickerson)
Side platform
Street level Exit/entrance, station house, parking, buses

Bus connections

MTA Maryland Commuter Bus

  • Route 204
  • Route 515

TransIT Services of Frederick

History

Monocacy Station, served at the time by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, played a brief but key role during John Brown's 1859 raid on the Federal Armory in nearby Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). Because John Brown's rebels cut the Railroad's telegraph line, no news of the rebellion reached Baltimore, the Railroad's center of operations, for several hours. The one train Brown eventually let proceed through Harpers Ferry and over the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing into Maryland stopped at Monocacy, which was the next station with staff and a telegraph, something not available in the stations at the hamlets of Sandy Hook, Maryland, and Point of Rocks, Maryland. The conductor stopped the train and sent a message about the abolitionist rebellion to B&O headquarters. After confirming it, the Railroad notified President James Buchanan, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, and other officials about the raid/revolt, beginning the operation to suppress it.