The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum, Over 50 Years of Preserving the Past

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum today is one of the most recognized, respected and highly regarded railroad museums, not only in this country but also the world. It houses historic railroad equipment (not only from its namesake railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio but also many important historical pieces from other railroads around the country) in the B&O’s famous Mount Clare shops (which throughout the years would create and build a number of innovative cars and locomotives for the railroad). The museum also features two scales of large model railroads in G and HO as well as annual layouts brought in by model railroading groups during the holidays.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum began in 1953, created by its parent, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to house the railroad's growing collection of historic equipment (a number of which would come from the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse) and archival material over the railroad’s 126 years of existence up to that time. When the B&O’s name was dissolved by the recently created CSX Transportation on April 30th, 1987, the new railroad had little need for a museum and sold the property and buildings to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in 1990, a newly formed non-profit organization to continue on the traditions the B&O had started nearly thirty years earlier.

To give a brief history of the B&O, it holds the distinction of being this country’s very first common-carrier railroad (meaning a railroad chartered specifically for public use) being officially incorporated and organized on April 24th, 1827. – Just as a side-note the B&O was not the first railroad actually chartered in this country, that distinction goes to the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad which was created a year earlier in 1826. – By being this country’s first common carrier the railroad was instrumental in helping to build and grow not only our economy but also the country itself when the “west” meant the Ohio River. While never a wealthy railroad throughout its existence (when compared to the likes of its much larger and powerful northern competitors, the Pennsylvania [PRR] and New York Central [NYC] Railroads) its legacy will forever be remembered as a survivor and that it put customer service above all else.

In 1962 the railroad's marginal financial situation finally ended independent ownership as the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway took control of the B&O that year. By 1972 the C&O, B&O, and Western Maryland jointly came under the Chessie System banner and by 1980 the CSX Corporation was formed, which included several systems, most notably the Chessie System and Seaboard System (which comprised several Southern systems).

Perhaps the most recent obstacle the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum has had to overcome was an overwhelming snowstorm in 2003 (the President's Day Storm) which collapsed the roundhouse’s roof. The devastation was so enormous it was worried that the museum could not overcome the disaster. However, undaunted, the museum staff planned to rebuild the roof and restore as much historic equipment that was destroyed as possible. After nearly two years of work, it reopened in November of 2004. Albeit the cost of admission had to be raised (mostly to pay for the restoration of damaged equipment), the museum has made a near full recovery and has even grown a bit by adding a repair workshop.

Today the museum is going as strong as ever and besides the historic equipment you can see which is located throughout the property; there are train rides for the kids, facility rentals, and lots of gifts and memorabilia at their gift shop or online store. Also available are memberships for you to not only help the museum with it many restoration projects but also to receive special perks and discounts.

For more information about the B&O consider one (or both) of the books below. Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited from author Joe Welsh details both trains from their inception to final runs under the B&O featuring 160 pages of color and black & white photography. It's an excellent historical look at both trains and any B&O fan or historian would likely very much enjoy it!

You might also be interested in Baltimore & Ohio Railroad written by Kirk Reynolds and David Oroszi. While there are several more excellent books, with superb illustrations, out there covering different aspects of the B&O in more detail this publication includes a fine general history of the railroad with wonderful historical photos (many in color).