most other local stations between Washington, D.C. and Wilmington were left with only limited commuter service still operated by Penn Central. Conrail took over the unsubsidized Baltimore-Washington service at its creation on April 1, 1976; the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) began subsidizing the service soon after. In 1978, Amtrak began operating the commuter-oriented Chesapeake between Washington and Philadelphia, making local stops including at Bowie. Amtrak took over the operation of the Baltimore-Washington service (retitled AMDOT) under contract to MDOT on January 1, 1983. Now largely redundant to Amtrak intercity and the AMDOT regional service, the Chesapeake was cut on October 30, 1983. The MARC brand replaced AMDOT in 1984. On February 27, 1989, MARC service moved to Bowie State station at Bowie State University, which had room for a large park-and-ride lot and more direct access to Route 197. Bowie Tower was used until 1986, when the signal and interlocking system on the line was computerized. The three buildings – station, shelter, and tower – were boarded up and unused. A 2009 Maryland Transit Administration analyzed the possibility of restoring passenger rail service to La Plata and Lexington Park via the Pope's Creek Branch. Under that proposal, a Bowie Center station would have been built to the south near Route 50 to serve the new MARC branch. Bowie Railroad Museum In 1992, the City of Bowie bought the buildings and moved them about away from the mainline off Amtrak property. The Maryland Historical Trust assisted with restoration, under which the buildings were restored to their Pennsylvania Railroad livery of gray with burgundy trim. The complex of buildings are significant for their contribution to the development of rail transportation in the region, and as examples of the types of buildings commonly associated with small-scale rail junctions in the early 20th century. The railroad depot structures in Old Bowie are rare survivors of the numerous early 20th century railway stations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The buildings were reopened as the Huntington Railroad Museum, later the Bowie Railroad Museum, a small railway museum maintained by the city government. A wooden 1922 Norfolk and Western Railroad caboose was also located on the museum grounds. Its deteriorating condition led to it being replaced in August 2016 by a former B&O Railroad caboose obtained from the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. The station building houses exhibits and artifacts, while the tower contains the