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Perhaps most interesting? Not all such stories are told by railroaders.įolks continue to recount incidents which defy answers such as ghost trains that appearĪnd disappear just as quickly, strange lights and noises along railroad So, with that, please enjoy those presented below (they are categorized by type). The B&O Railroad Museum is currently working on various restoration projects and exhibitions to prepare for a national celebration of the 200 th Anniversary of American Railroading and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 2027.Some stories featured here are serious true accounts while others are hilarious anecdotes. After 14 months of restoration, the Museum was reopened in November 2004 with a state-of-the-art restoration facility. However, tragedy struck in the winter of 2003 when an unprecedented amount of snow accumulation led to the collapse of the Roundhouse roof, severely damaging a significant portion of the Museum’s 19th Century locomotives and train car collection. And in 1999, the B&O Railroad Museum achieved the status of an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, being the first in Maryland and the first US railroad museum to receive this designation. In 1998, the North and South Car Shops received a special designation from the Maryland Historic Trust. Towards the end of the 20th Century, the Museum continued to grow and receive accolades.
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Since that time, the Museum has been independently managed by museum professionals and is overseen by a board of directors. Clare property and the Museum’s core collection and independent non-profit, the B&O Railroad Museum, Inc., as well as a $5 million endowment. By this time, federal and state governments had taken over most of American passenger travel while CSX operated the old B&O lines for freight service. In 1986, the Chessie System merged with the Seaboard System Railroad to form CSX Transportation. In 1973, the Western Maryland Railroad was acquired, and all three companies were consolidated to form the Chessie System.
UNITED STATES RAILROAD STORY SERIES
By 1963, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, during which time the railroad continued to own the B&O Railroad Museum, the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad gained control of the B&O – and its museum. The B&O faced financial difficulties, which led in part to the closing of various shops and buildings at Mt. Clare is the birthplace of American Railroading, the Sesquicentennial of the B&O Railroad was also the 150th anniversary of America’s railroads, and in 1977, the B&O Railroad Museum hosted a series of public festivities to celebrate.įrom the end of WWII through the 1960s, passenger rail traffic continued to drop and freight traffic faced stiff competition as America’s highway system and air travel infrastructure grew. In 1961, the Museum campus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior. The North and South Car Shops, built in 1869 and considered the world’s oldest existing railroad maintenance shops, over time became part of the Museum, as well. Clare Station, the Annex building (built in 1891), and the historic Roundhouse (built in 1884), which is an iconic structure on the Baltimore skyline. The public museum consisted of the old Mt. In 1953, the B&O created the B&O Transportation Museum (later renamed the B&O Railroad Museum) as a division of its external relations department. Clare Shops remained in continuous operation from the 1830s until 1990. Clare in 1851 to provide improved passenger service, containing two waiting rooms, a ticket booth, and offices, which still stands today on public display at the B&O Railroad Museum. Clare Station was the home of many firsts, including the first American steam engine in 1830, the Tom Thumb. It also came to include an iron works, foundry, blacksmith, bridge fabrication shop, sawmill, machine shop, a grain elevator, and a tender shop. It continued to expand and eventually became a 100-acre complex of buildings in downtown Baltimore containing shops for the construction and repair of steam engines, passenger and freight cars, rails, and bridges. Clare remained the primary facility of the B&O throughout the rest of the 1800s. Over time, as the B&O’s tracks stretched from Baltimore to Washington, DC, as well as to further points west. On our historic site, in 1830, the B&O built America’s first railroad station, calling it the West Pratt Street Depot (later renamed Mt.
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The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was founded in 1827 and broke ground on July 4, 1828, for the construction of its headquarters and America’s first commercial railroad tracks.