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24-634: The B&O began construction in 1828. The original terminal was located in Baltimore at Pratt and Poppleton Streets. This location, initially a temporary wooden shed, became known as the Mount Clare Station . The Mount Clare Shops , the first railroad manufacturing facility in the U.S., was also built in this area. The rail line exited the city in a southwesterly direction. The company encountered varied terrain that required several large cut and fill earthmoving operations. The B&O built

48-658: A car float across the Baltimore harbor to bring trains from Philadelphia to connections at Locust Point and to the south and west. By the early 1880s this line was controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad , which proceeded to deny access to the B&;O. The B&O then built the Philadelphia Branch (known formally as the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad ). To move trains more efficiently around

72-539: A larger shipping terminal at Curtis Bay was opened in 1884. Subsequently, all coal traffic was routed to the new terminal. The B&O built two larger roundhouses at Riverside in 1907 (totaling 50 stalls) and no longer used the Bailey's facilities for locomotive operations. The B&O's initial route from Baltimore to Philadelphia was on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad . The B&O operated

96-558: A mile of track, considered the most historic mile of railroad track in the United States. Train rides are offered on the mile of track on Wednesday through Sunday from April through December and on weekends in January. In 2002, the museum had 160,000 visitors annually. The museum also features an outdoor G-scale layout, two indoor HO scale model, and a wooden model train for children to climb on. From Thanksgiving through

120-422: A plexiglass barrier. As of September 2015, all damaged exhibits have been restored to their original appearance. After the roof collapse, subsequent fundraising and restoration allowed the museum to upgrade many of its facilities. In 2005 the museum opened a new service facility west of the roundhouse for restoration of historical equipment and maintenance of active equipment. The B&O Railroad Museum possesses

144-546: Is being made available through an online searchable database. The museum's rolling stock collection include both originals and replicas, some of which were built by the B&O for its centennial " Fair of the Iron Horse " in 1927. Collection highlights include: Freight rail transport Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

168-548: Is the museum's "celebrity spokesman". The museum definitively documented 24 Freedom Seekers that used the B&O Railroad on their journeys on the Underground Railroad – 8 of which traveled through the museum's historic site of Mount Clare. In 2021, the museum's Mount Clare Station building was designated as a National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site. The museum also hosts an annual Day Out with Thomas event every year, complete with

192-462: Is where, in 1829, the B&O began America's first railroad and is the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States . Mount Clare is considered to be a birthplace of American railroading, as the site of the first regular railroad passenger service in the U.S., beginning on May 22, 1830. It was also to this site that the first telegraph message, " What hath God wrought ?"

216-540: The Carrollton Viaduct , the first stone masonry bridge built for a U.S. railroad, during this project. The company provided an inaugural ride on the line from Pratt Street to the viaduct on New Year's Day 1830. The bridge, a National Historic Landmark , is still used by CSX today. Construction of the tracks continued southward to the Patapsco River near Halethorpe, and then turned west following

240-484: The Presidents' Day Storm collapsed half of the roof of the museum's roundhouse. Although the structure's central support columns remained standing, the supporting iron struts and ties of the destroyed roofing sections failed under the snow load. The museum suffered heavy damage not only to the roundhouse itself but also to the collection within the roundhouse. Some of the items were damaged beyond repair. Reporting on

264-670: The New Year, local model railroad groups set up large layouts on the roundhouse floor and in select locations on the grounds of the museum. A museum store offers toys, books, DVDs, and other railroad-related items. The museum and station were designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1961. In 2008, the museum won three awards in Nickelodeon 's Parents' Picks Awards in the categories of Best Museum for Little Kids, Best Indoor Playspace for Little Kids, and Best Indoor Playspace for Big Kids. Television and film actor Michael Gross

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288-685: The city it also built the Baltimore Belt Line and the Howard Street Tunnel during 1891 to 1895, at considerable expense. The car float operation was shut down after the new facilities opened. The Mount Royal Station , along the Belt Line, opened in 1896. This became the second of two Baltimore stops for the Royal Blue passenger train, which began service in 1890 between Washington and New York City . (The other stop

312-429: The devastation the following day, The Baltimore Sun said, "...hours after the collapse, columns of mangled steel stuck out from the roundhouse ... Locomotives and passenger cars in the museum's collection, some dating from the 1830s, could be seen covered with snow and debris." The roundhouse, with a newly repaired roof, reopened to the public on November 13, 2004, and the damaged locomotives and cars were surrounded by

336-412: The line by the state-run MARC Train service. The MARC Camden Line operates between Camden Station and Washington's Union Station . Mount Clare Station The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum and historic railway station exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland . The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) company originally opened the museum on July 4, 1953, with

360-420: The name of the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum . It has been called one of the most significant collections of railroad treasures in the world and has the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the U.S. The museum is located in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's old Mount Clare Station and adjacent roundhouse , and retains 40 acres of the B&O's sprawling Mount Clare Shops site, which

384-424: The oldest and most comprehensive American railroad collections in the world. Dating from the beginning of American railroading, the collection contains locomotives and rolling stock, historic buildings, railroading artifacts, and an extensive archives and research library that documents the impact of American railroading and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on American economics, culture, and history. The collection

408-681: The river near Halethorpe and began construction of the Washington Branch south toward Washington, D.C. (This branch was later named the Capital Subdivision.) The section of the line proceeding west from Relay, along the Patapsco, eventually became known as the Old Main Line. The B&O built a branch line to Locust Point , on the Baltimore harbor, during 1848–49. The branch had a rail yard and terminal that

432-641: The river. Today Halethorpe is the southern terminus of the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision. The railroad offered the first regular passenger train service in the U.S. in May 1830, from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills (now called Ellicott City ) along the Patapsco. The first permanent train station , the Ellicott City Station , was completed in 1831. Also in 1831, the B&O built a junction, known as Relay , just north of

456-522: The train's excursion including a non-powered Thomas the Tank Engine replica. The inaugural horse-drawn B&O train traveled the 13 miles (21 km) of the newly completed track from Mount Clare to Ellicott Mills (now Ellicott City, Maryland ), on May 22, 1830, the first regular railroad passenger service in the U.S. The existing Mount Clare station brick structure was constructed in 1851. The adjacent roundhouse designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin

480-558: Was Camden Station.) Passenger traffic declined significantly after World War II and the B&O closed the Mount Royal station in 1961. The junction of the Philadelphia Branch and the Belt Line, in east Baltimore, is the northern terminus of the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision. CSX completed formal acquisition of the B&O in 1987. The Baltimore Terminal Subdivision continues to support both freight and passenger train operations. Local commuter passenger trains are operated on

504-514: Was built in 1884 to service the B&O's passenger cars. For much of its history, the B&O had been collecting locomotives and other artifacts from its history for public relations purposes. This collection was stored in various places until the railroad decided to centralize it in a permanent home. The car shop of the Mt. Clare Shops was chosen, and the new museum opened on July 4, 1953. The museum ended up outliving its parent B&O Railroad, and

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528-539: Was kept intact by both the Chessie System and CSX Corporation . In 1990, CSX deeded the property and collection to the newly formed, not-for-profit museum organization governed by an independent board of directors and provided it with a $ 5 million endowment. In 1999, the museum became affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution . In the early morning of February 17, 2003, heavy snow from

552-419: Was sent on May 24, 1844, from Washington, D.C. , using Samuel Morse 's electric telegraph. The museum houses collections of 19th- and 20th-century artifacts related to America's railroads. The collection includes 250 pieces of railroad rolling stock, 15,000  artifacts, 5,000 cubic feet (140 m ) of archival material, four significant 19th-century buildings, including the historic roundhouse, and

576-417: Was used for shipping coal and bulk minerals, and later for grain and merchandise. A permanent station at Mount Clare was completed c. 1851. The railroad opened the larger Camden Station nearby in 1857, and expanded it in 1865. In 1875 new roundhouses were built at Bailey's (Ostend Street, near the site of the present-day M&T Bank Stadium ) and Riverside Yard on Locust Point. Another branch line and

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