Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum – Baltimore, Maryland

Well hello there WebTraveller!

This post I am gonna share my experience with you on my first visit to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD. I have always had a love of railroads and trains, steam engines more specifically, I had recently heard about this museum through a couple of venues, the latest would be the museums YouTube page, The Museum’s web link is here. The Museum’s YouTube channel really gave me a lot of insight to the history of the museum and a lot of handy information to plan my trip.

I arrived at the museum approximately 30 minutes before the main area had opened to the public. I decided to stop for a coffee before hand and let the excitement build for the days adventures. Driving into the parking lot it was nice to see some railroad rolling stock and a bunch of engines that had once been used by the railroads themselves. The one engine that had caught my attention was engine number 1, she’s a steam engine and had a banner on her entitled “American Freedom Train.” From what I had read about this engine was that she was used to pull a train on the eastern side of the United States in 1976 when it was the Bicentennial for this great country of ours. The other engine (which is one of my personal favorite is Southern Pacific engine #4449, also known as the “Daylight, ” which had been touted as the “most beautiful train in the world, ” when Southern Pacific had commisioned the engines and the passenger cars were built), #4449 was used to pull a train on the western side of the United States in 1976. Seeing this beautiful engine sitting in the parking lot on display made me think what it was like back in the days of when the railroads were really the only way to get around anywhere relatively quickly. The fact that I was looking at a piece of history with my own eyes brought a humbling feeling over me.

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum was because of it’s history. The railroad is the first commissioned railroad in the United States. The site where the museum is located was once part of the work shops of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a true nostalgic piece of history for sure and for this day,  I was proud and very happy to be a part of it. Here is a gallery of pictures from the pieces of railroad cars that I had the pleasure walk around and view prior to entering the museum itself:

It was just about 11 am (I had visited the museum on a Sunday), it was time to get in line and see what nostaligic history there was inside the doors of the museum. I had purchased my admission fee and had opted to take a ride on the “Mile One Express” (which I will explain in detail as it came up through out the day, and yes it is a railroad museum, why not have a train ride!). With admission ticket in hand, I turned to my left and I was greeted by Volunteer Wayne , who had asked me if this was my first visit to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum, I told him that it was. He had asked if it was alright to get me started on a a good foot at the museum. How could I resist. We had passed through two sets of double doors and we were standing in the main roundhouse area where there was a lot of nostalgic history just sitting there waiting to be viewed and explored. We had started the tour of the roundhouse area by heading to the left …

The roundhouse building was originally used for  passenger cars that needed to be serviced while in use on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, it wasn’t intended for service of steam engines as I had learned from talking with volunteer Wayne. While walking to the left of the entrance to the roundhouse museum area, it is set up in a timeline of early railroading, I was not aware that the first railroad was actually drawn by the use of a horse! Volunteer Wayne had pointed out on the next exhibit, which is a series of like stage coach cars placed together in a train fashion,  that the carriages that been used where using leather straps as springs which I had not really thought of, but cool facts to know for sure.

I have to say that Volunteer Wayne had spent a good 20 min with me and pointed out lots of great tidbits of information that any railroad fan would enjoy (I am purposely not giving away all the tidbits either, I have to leave something for others to enjoy in person). I would like to take a moment here and just say that Volunteer Wayne really made my visit an awesome experience. Thank You so much Wayne, you really left me speechless and made me feel very welcomed to the museum. Wayne had offered to let me stand on one of the cow catchers of one of the steam engines to take my picture.

Here is a gallery of some of the Roundhouse section of the museum I had the pleasure of admiring:

As I was concluding my tour with Wayne I had one last question for him and that was about the turntable. Now a turntable is what the railroads used to spin railroad rolling stock around and move it to a side spur in the roundhouse (one reason why it is called that). The turntable sits in the middle of the round house, now it is all shining for the purposes of the museum, but the understructure is that of a bridge. The railroad was clever in the way they built this one, once loaded, if the turntable is perfectly balanced, with the weight of what if placed on it, the table essentially “floats”.  There is a cut out in the floor of the turntable that one person can rotate whatever is on it. On the day of my visit, this wasn’t part of the adgenda, but I thought that was a cool fact. Check out the gallery of the turntable itself:

So much had been learned in a very short period of time, I decided to head outside to do some exploring and I discovered there is a snack bar that served pizza, hotdogs and chicken tenders to name a few. Who knew that learning could work up an appetite (not to mention all the pictures that I had snapped!). It was time to fuel up because in approximately 25 min I was to report to “Platform #2,” and what was waiting there?

After finishing up my chicken tenders, I was to be at “Platform #2” which appeared to part of the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger loading platform from days gone by. At “Platform #2” there was a passenger train the museum labels “Mile One Express,” why do they do that, well this particular passenger train travels the very first mile of track laid in the United States heading west out of the museum yard. I was fortunate that a friend had shown up to spend part of the day with me and we were heading to the platform to get in line with the other museum visitors to board the “Mile One Express.” The line proceeded to the entrance of a passenger car, the conductor was there to check everyone’s ticket boarding the train. Upon entering the passenger car I had stumbled acrossed Volunteer Wayne from earlier, I had asked him which direction that we were allowed to go, Volunteer Wayne said, “well, you two are to exit the car, turn right and head up to the engine, tell the engineer that Wayne sent you” My jaw dropped! That is precisely what we did, upon exiting the car, the engineer was waiting with the conductor as the line boarded. I told the engineer what our instructions were and to the engine with the engineer my friend and I went! (And the one time I forgot my engineers hat!)

We had gotten ourselves situated in the cab and I had the chance to speak with the engineer, who’s name was James.  Brief story about him, he had work for CSX Railroad for 28 years and volunteers at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum to drive the “Mile One Express.” He also mentioned to me his family is a railroad family. What a treat this was going to be. I know I personally had never ridden in the cab of an engine. The bell started to ring, the horn was blown and James the engineer pulled a lever or two the we started rolling backwards away from the station! What a treat indeed to be sitting up in the engine for a train ride. It is a whole different experience. The trip on the “Mile One Express” is approximately 20 min or so, the train is a slow moving one and I can tell you there is a lot to see, feel free to check out the videos here of some of the train ride! (There is a playlist included close to the end of the post).

I have to say that riding in the cab of the engine defineatly makes for a whole different train riding experience, of course to be able to toot the horn would be awesome as well! I would like to take a moment to thank engineer James for a pleasant and safe trip!

The train ride had concluded and there was still more museum to see! Just after grabbing a snack of chicken tenders earlier, I made a mental note of the garden railway layout. It seemed to have a few different loops associated with it, but none the less it was a layout and why not stop, take a bunch of pictures and a walk around video. Here are a few views of the garden layout (the walkaround video is included in the video playlist close to the end of the post)

Quite a nice garden layout if I do say so myself, but it was time to head onto the next stop which was the Passenger Car Facility. It was just a short walk from the garden railroad and  passenger platform of the “Mile One Express”. Once inside the sights to behold, a lot of steam engines from days gone by, however, the engine I really wanted to see was “the Allegheny, ” Volunteer Wayne had told me about this engine. It was a few rows back and tucked away, but the sheer size of the engine and tender alone was a sight to behold! The engine and tender had to be 75-80% of the length of the building that it was being housed in, the wheels were about as tall as I am which is about 6′ 2″.  However reaching the top of the boiler on the steam engine I believe it is approximately 20 feet in height (don’t quote me on that) looking at this super engine was a sight to marvel at. I remember what Volunteer Wayne had mentioned to me that the engine was once used to pull a passenger train through the Allegheny Mountains (it was normally used to pull freight), at 60 MPH it consumed approximately 3000 gallons of water per mile, THAT is a lot of water! The tender held 25,000 gallons of water (I could stand to be corrected, when Volunteer Wayne was telling me I was in sheer awe of all the history of the Museum, shops , and the engines that I was looking at, so much information to absorb).

Here is a gallery of the pictures I had taken near “The Allegheny” steam engine. Sheer size for sure!

The next stop on the tour of the museum was another type of passenger platform that had some exhibits of the use of military cars during war time. Due to the fact I have memebers of my own family that have served this great country of ours, I found it only right to stop and pay homage and a few moments of silence to “Thank” those who have served, I am sure that if the walls could talk the stories that would be revealed. The military cars that were on display, one could walk in and see how the soldiers had to travel by train to their destinations, a little tight on the sleeping quarters. Here are a few pictures from the military cars:

After paying homage to the Military cars the next stop was to a preview I had seen on the Museums’s YouTube page and that was the “china” car. The “china” car was a display of the Baltimore and Ohio’s flatware and silverware collection that was used on the railroad when food was being served on the train. The collection of china was very detailed on the scenery painted onto the cups, plates and bowls. Very impressive! I can only imagine what it would have been like to work on the railroad back in those days. There is a great story on the railroad museum’s YouTube channel that tells that story much better than I can.

Here is a look at the China Collection:

The final stop on the Museum tour was that of a model railroad that was held in a passenger car. Definately a neat idea to house a model railroad in a once used passenger car! I better start saving my pennies.

Here is a gallery of the pics of the model railroad and a video is included just a little further down:

Here is a short video list of the happenings from the day and the visit to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum.

WOW! What a day this was visting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum. The amount of history that I had the chance to experience of what life was like back in those early days of the United States, this is one museum I will be proud to return to and see again for sure in the future. Believe it or not there are a few things that I did not mention, but the day was a fun fact filled day. However to close out this visit and prepare for the next stop on my railroad adventure, it was time to give my friend that was with me a huge hug (you know who you are), and head out for the next stop, which was about two hours away.

To where is this next stop you wonder, well, if you, the WebTraveller, have been following along from the Amtrak post previous to this post, you will know that the next stop will be in Lancaster County, Pa. The Red Caboose Motel and Restaurant would be my next post to write about and the next day’s journeys, to be written in posts by themselves.

Until next time WebTraveller, the journey will continue shortly, thanks for reading and feel free to share this post with the world, thats why it is being written from my experience to you.