In General
Getting Here
Maps
Pictures


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In General


Location / Name:
Baltimore MD

What's Here:
The B&O Railroad Museum

Data:
GPS Coordinates: 39.285652, -76.631956
901 West Pratt St, Baltimore MD 21223
410-752-2490

Access by train/transit:
Light Rail - approx 7/10mi to the east

The Scoop:

The B&O Railroad Museum couldn't be in a better place for a museum that represents the birth of American Railroading.  They have pretty much recovered from the unfortunate incident of February 2003, where a heavy snowfall caused part of the original roundhouse roof to cave in, and destroyed a number of irreplaceable pieces.

The museum is generally considered to host the largest collection of 19th century locomotives in the country.  Much of the collection is housed in the original roundhouse built in 1884.  The museum sits on the 40-acre site of the original Mount Clare Shops, the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States and a national historic landmark.  The museum is considered the birthplace of American railroading.

After the snow accident of 2003, and they brought in professional people to run the museum, they decided to concentrate on mostly artifacts, trains, and equipment of the B&O Railroad, having gotten rid of such great pieces like a Pennsy GG-1 and a South Shore "Little Joe".

They have a few signals, but noticeably missing from the pre-snowfall days, is their full dwarf CPL, which used to be on the outside wall of the roundhouse.  None of the signals in their collection are animated or controllable by visitors, a big disappointment for the signal fan.

Interesting story (or not) about Clinchfield #1.  Clinchfield #1 used to reside in Erwin TN, which was the headquarters for the Clinchfield RR.  When CRR became part of CSX, for some reason, the folks in Jacksonville decided to move the steamer to the B&O Museum in the early 80's.  During that time period, I used to visit Erwin for work at Nuclear Fuels, and the guys there rode my ass about CSX "stealing" "their" steam engine and taking it to Baltimore.  CSX also took a couple of Clinchfield F units from Erwin for their Business Train.  The F's were still sitting in the rear of the shops when I came thru in 1980!

"They have" a policy that states pictures of their "stuff" shall not be used on the internet without permission, I don't know how enforceable that is.... If they come after me, I will take the page down and they will lose a page of free advertising :-) :-)

Acknowledgements:
None yet

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://www.borail.org/
https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/33679
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26O_Railroad_Museum
https://baltimore.org/listings/baltimore-ohio-railroad-museum/
https://www.facebook.com/BandORailroadMuseum/
https://www.visitmaryland.org/listing/attraction/bo-railroad-museum


Getting Here

By Car:

From the west, via I-70 - when you hit the Baltimore Beltway, I-695, stay to your far right, heading south on the Beltway.  Take this to I-95, exit 11.  You want to be on the right side of the Beltway for the exit, but not all the way over, or you will wind up going to DC or getting off at Sulpher Spring Rd.  Just pay attention to the signs to go north on I-95, into Baltimore.  Next, take exit 53, I-395, to go into Baltimore proper.  Yes, you can take the exit before, but there are more traffic lights to deal with.  Besides, it's more scenic to come in this way.  When you finally come up to a traffic light at Conway street, go straight.  Go three blocks to Lombard St, and take a left - it's a one way street.  In slightly less than a mile, hang a left at Poppleton St, and this will take you to the gates.

Coming up from the south via I-95, follow the route above starting with the exit for I-395.

Coming in from the north via I-95, like Philly or New York, you have to go thru the Harbor Tunnel, but follow the same directions as above.

From the north via I-83 such as York or Harrisburg, and beyond, follow the signs to follow I-83 when you hit the Beltway.  Stay to the right to go west on the Beltway.  In about a mile, I-83 will continue south with an exit off to your right, both lanes are good.  Take I-83, or the Jones Falls Expressway all the way down till it turns into President St.  Go a few blocks till you hit Lombard Street, and take a right.  The museum is about 2 miles west.

By Transit:

The closest the light rail gets is about 3/4 of a mile.  The walk isn't too bad, the neighborhoods are OK.

The Metro Subway is a little further, as seen in the map below.

My advice would be to purchase a day pass, which is good all day long, unlimited trips, and usable on the Metro, Light Rail, and busses.

Remember there is no direct connection between the light rail and the metro, the closest they get is at Lexington Market.

There is also the free Charm City Circulator, the ORANGE route will take you to the Museum - catch it on Lombard St.

If you're coming in by train at Penn Station, I would take a bus into downtown, as service is more frequent than taking light rail.  If you're taking MARC into Camden Station, you can either walk or take a bus.






Maps









Pictures


Equipment Outside









             

Equipment Inside









           

       

Signals









         

     

All of these pictures are from a 2007 Father's Day outing with my daughter Jennifer!


Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.  This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! 

By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given!  Please be NICE!!!  Contact info is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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NEW 06/28/2007, JAN01/2014, JUL24/2021
Last Modified: 24 Jul 2021