BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Baltimore -- B&O Railroad Museum -- North Car Shop

MD -- Baltimore -- B&O Railroad Museum -- North Car Shop:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BORRNC_140309_008.JPG: B&O No. 51
2. BORRNC_140309_018.JPG: C&O No. 490 "Hudson"
3. BORRNC_140309_022.JPG: Luxury & Refinement: Passenger Car Construction in the 19th Century: By the time the Passenger Car Works structure was completed in the 1870s, the B&O's Passenger Car Department was producing roughly three cars per month. At that time, cars measured about 51 feet long, nine feet wide, and featured six-wheel trucks. Most had 54 seats, two stoves, and a water closer (or restroom). Car interiors featured woods such as walnut, satinwood, and mahogany. Many were constructed in a shop located where the present-day museum roundhouse sits, then moved to the passenger car works for painting and finishing with chocolate brown paint and gold trim. By 1888, the B&O laid off 300 Mt. Clare workers when it contracted sleeping car construction to the Pullman Palace Car Manufacturing Company. A year later, the company decided to outsource passenger car construction to companies like Jackson & Sharp of Delaware. Even with outside contracts, the shops occasionally produced passenger cars from scratch and remained an important repair and rebuilding facility into the 20th century.
4. BORRNC_140309_024.JPG: The Car Builder's Dictionary: Although better known for his contributions to steam locomotive technology, Mathias N. Forney also contributed greatly to the railroad historian's knowledge of nineteenth-century railroad car construction. Born in 1835, Forney began his railroad career in 1855 at the B&O's Mt. Clare shops under car and locomotive builder, Ross Winans. In the 1870s, he became an editor for the Railroad Gazette, a professional trade magazine for the railroad industry. Sponsored by the Master Car-Builder's Association, he edited the first edition of The Car Builder's Dictionary in 1879 and sold it for two dollars. Covering aspects of passenger and freight car construction, this book defines over 2,400 railroad car terms, and provides more than 800 engraving and multiple advertisements that describe all aspects of railroad car construction. The volume was produced during a time when the railroad industry began to realize the importance of standardization across companies. Forney's work intended to create standard terms for car parts and components "establishing a common language where there is well nigh a label of confusion."
5. BORRNC_140309_029.JPG: B&O No. 5300 "President Washington"
6. BORRNC_140309_046.JPG: Modernization: The Passenger Car Department in the 20th Century: By the 20th century, the B&O received most of its passenger car fleet from outside contractors. However, the Mt. Clare shops continued to repair, upgrade, and rebuild many of the cars on the system. In the 1930s, streamlining and air-conditioning installation became a major component of the work in the shops. By 1949, Mt. Clare's passenger car department generally consisted of shops for car repair, paint, electricity, upholstery, cabinetry, and air-conditioning. The Passenger Car Department at that time employed 263 workers out of a total of 1,546 at Mt. Clare. With this crew, the B&O rebuilt or repaired approximately 14 cars every month.
7. BORRNC_140309_059.JPG: It it "doesn't" belong on the floor, "Pick it up"
8. BORRNC_140309_100.JPG: B&O No. 3316 "Washington" Observation Car
9. BORRNC_140309_103.JPG: Preserving Railroad Heritage: The Passenger Car Works, also known as the north and south car shops, were in continuous use by the B&O, the B&O/C&O, the Chessie System, and later CSX Transportation for over 120 years. In the last years of their corporate use, the shops were primarily used for scrapping equipment, storing machinery and materials, and small projects. As the gradual transition occurred between railroad shop complex and museum campus, equipment restoration for the museum began to occur in the shops. In 1990, the railroad severed all ties with the museum and established it as an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution. In 1993, the two structures making up the passenger car works were deeded to the museum as well. Since then, the car shops have housed the restoration department of the museum. Everything from locomotives, to hand cars, to exhibit cases were built or restored in the shops. Although successful, it was apparent after the 2003 roundhouse roof collapse that the restoration department needed a modern, efficient, and safe facility in order to expand the program and repair damaged equipment. In 2005, a new Restoration Facility opened just west of the museum's main campus, allowing the museum to relocate significant locomotives and rolling stock inside the north car shop for public exhibition.
10. BORRNC_140309_116.JPG: Ma & Pa Inspection Car No. 101 Shortly after their debut in the early 20th century, automobiles were adapted for use on railroads. Rebuilt with flanged wheels, rail-mobiles carried management officials on maintenance of way inspection trips. The Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad (Ma & Pa) No. 101 was originally owned by the Harkins Funeral Home in Delta, Pennsylvania. The Ma & Pa rebuilt the car in 1942 with a track sander for slippery rails, a pin-swivel truck, and a handbrake which was controlled by the steering wheel. A two-way radio was installed on the No. 101 to test the practicality of radio communication between locomotives and stations.
11. BORRNC_140309_128.JPG: The Age of Steam Power: Steam locomotive power reached its pinnacle during the first half of the 20th century. To meet the demand for faster passenger locomotives and more powerful freight locomotives, railroads added improvements such as piston valves, wider fireboxes, larger driving wheels, articulated wheel configurations, and leading and trailing trucks. Other improvements like the automatic coupler, airbrake, and mechanical stoker increased the level of safety for the train crew. Even with these developments, steam locomotives were expensive to fuel and labor intensive to maintain. In the 1930s some railroads began adding fuel-efficient diesel-electric locomotives for switching and passenger operations, but continued running reliable steamers for freight operations. Only 13 steam locomotives were ordered domestically in 1949, and by the late 1950s most American railroads had converted wholly to diesel-electric power allowing the iconic steamers to fade from mainline service.
12. BORRNC_140309_134.JPG: B&O No. 4500 "Mikado"
Wikipedia Description: B&O Railroad Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland, originally named the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum when it opened on July 4, 1953. 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, part of the B&O's sprawling Mount Clare Shops site begun in 1829, 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[disambiguation needed]?" was sent on May 24, 1844, from Washington, D.C., using Samuel F. B. Morse's invention.

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 m3) of archival material, four significant 19th-century buildings, including the historic roundhouse, and 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 weekends in January. In 2002, the museum had 160,000 visitors annually.

The museum also features an outdoor G-scale layout, an indoor HO scale model, and a wooden model train that children will enjoy climbing on. From Thanksgiving through 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 is the museum's "celebrity spokesman".

History:

The inaugural horse-drawn B&O train travelled 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 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 was kept intact by both the Chessie System and CSX Transportation. In 1990, CSX deeded the property and collection to the newly formed, not-for-profit museum organization. In 1999, the museum became affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.

In the early morning of February 17, 2003, heavy snow from 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 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. Repairs are ongoing to the damaged exhibits.

Within the roundhouse three locomotives (including the Thatcher Perkins) that were damaged by the roof collapse remain on display, albeit behind protective glass. The roof collapse, subsequent fund raising and the 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.
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