The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum... America'a Railroad Museum

We visited the B&O Railroad Museum in Ellicott City about a month ago and decided then to explore "America's Railroad Museum" in Baltimore, the larger B&O Railroad Museum. The 40-acre historic site is home to beautiful buildings with unrivaled collections of railroad cars, engines, and memorabilia. It is within these 40 acres that railroading first started in America with the building of the first passenger station and laying the first commercial long-distance track. Our five-year old grandson, Nick, is visiting this week and wanted to see the "Iron Horses" so off we went!

Nick likes trains... and was excited to see so many old trains up close and personal!  

Baltimore, a thriving port city in the 18th and early 19th century, faced economic decline if it didn't open routes to the western states (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, etc.) like New York did with the Erie Canal in 1820. Recognizing that the Erie Canal was very slow, twenty-five bankers and merchants from Baltimore developed a plan to build a railroad that would speed goods westward... and the B&O (Baltimore & Ohio) Railroad was born. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, a US Senator from Maryland and perhaps the wealthiest man in America at the time, was tremendously involved in creating the railroad.

The bust of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, through the magic of animatronics, spoke to us about his part in laying the first stone of the B&O Railroad on July 4, 1828, an event he said was second only to signing the Declaration of Independence. The stone he laid (on right) is now on display.

The roundhouse was originally constructed as a passenger car shop and at the time, was the largest circular industrial building in the world. It covered more than an acre of ground and rose 125 feet into the air! It later became the main building of the railroad museum complete with a turntable for turning engines around, as well as bays to store them. 

The Roundhouse is a beautiful piece of architecture- inside and outside! The picture on the right is the inside of the dome (you can see the very top windows in the corners). Unfortunately, the picture gives no perception of the height... it's TALL!!

In February, 2003, a record-breaking snowfall caused half of the massive roof of the roundhouse to collapse resulting in TONS of snow, wood, slate and cast iron falling on the exhibits. The building was restored (so the roof you see is not the original... but restored to look like it) and so far all but two of the engines have been restored. The museum reopened in November, 2004.

While only the bottom part of the doors were open when we were there, the top portion also opens to allow the engines and train cars to be pulled onto the turntable, which is then turned to position the cars in one of 22 bays.  (The engines behind the glass partition are the ones that have not yet been restored after the roof cave-in.)

One of the best things about this museum is that you can touch the engines, get close enough to see the workings... and even crawl around some of them. It's a very hand-on kind of museum.

The wheels of some of the locomotives are enormous... about twice the height of Nick! He enjoyed exploring the trains, seeing the gears and mechanics.

Boys of all ages like model trains. This outdoor model train display is huge... and Richard and Nick watched the trains go round and round.

We had a great afternoon... and learned a lot about the history of the railroad and its importance to America's history.