When CSX Corp. established the B&O Railroad Museum as a separate entity from the corporation, some of the former B&O shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, were donated to the Museum while the rest of the property was sold.
Two men — Philip E. Thomas and George Brown — were the pioneers of the railroad. They spent the year 1826 investigating railway enterprises in England, which were at that time being tested in a comprehensive fashion as commercial ventures. Their investigation completed, they held an organizational meeting on February 12, 1827, including about twenty-five citizens, most of whom were Baltimore merchants or bankers. Chapter 123 of the 1826 Session Laws of Maryland, passed February 28, 1827, and the Commonwealth of Virginia on March 8, 1827, chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, with the task of building a railroad from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to a suitable point on the Ohio River. The railroad, formally incorporated April 24, was intended to provide not only an alternative to, but also a faster route for Midwestern goods to reach the East Coast than the seven-year-old, hugely successful, but slow Erie Canal across upstate New York. Thomas was elected as the first president and Brown the treasurer. The capital of the proposed company was fixed at five million dollars.
Construction began on July 4, 1828, and the first section, from Baltimore west to Ellicott's Mills (now known as Ellicott City), opened two years later. It was decided to follow the Patapsco River to a point near Parr's Ridge where the railroad would cross the fall line and descend into the valley of the Monocacy and Potomac Rivers. Further extensions opened to Frederick (including the short Frederick Branch) December 1, 1831, Point of Rocks April 2, 1832, Sandy Hook December 1, 1834 (the connection to the Winchester and Potomac Railroad at Harpers Ferry opening in 1837), Martinsburg May 1842, Hancock June 1842, Cumberland November 5, 1842, Piedmont July 21, 1851, Fairmont June 22, 1852, and its terminus at Wheeling, West Virginia (then part of Virginia).
The state of Maryland granted the B&O a charter to build a line from Baltimore to Washington, DC, in 1831, and the Washington Branch was opened in 1835. This line joined to the original mainline at Relay, Maryland, crossing the Patapsco on the Thomas Viaduct, which remains one of the B&O's signature structures. This line was partially funded by the state, and was operated separately for about 40 years, with the state taking a 25% cut of gross passenger receipts. This line was built in stone, much like the original mainline; by this time, however, strap rail was no longer used for new construction. Most of the stone bridges on the Old Main Line did not last long, being washed out by the periodic flooding of the Patapsco River and replaced at first by Bollman Truss Bridges. The Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad to Annapolis eventually connected to this line at Annapolis Junction, Maryland. As an unwritten condition for the charter, it was understood that the state would not charter any competing line between Baltimore and Washington.
Westward by Merger
A steel and stone bridge was built across the Ohio River between Bellaire and Wheeling in 1871, connecting the B&O to the Central Ohio Railroad which it had leased starting in 1866. This provided a direct rail connection to Columbus, Ohio, and the lease marked the beginning of a series of expansions to the west and north.
Other railroads included in the B&O were:
On July 20, 1877 there were bloody riots in Baltimore, Maryland, from Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers. Nine rail workers were killed at the hands of the Maryland militia. The next day workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, staged a sympathy strike that was also met with an assault by the state militia; Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread rioting.
New Lines in Maryland
In 1866 the B&O began constructing the Metropolitan Branch west out of Washington, and was completed in 1873 after years of erratic effort. Before this line was laid, rail traffic west of Washington had to travel first to Relay or Baltimore before joining the main line. The line cut a more or less straight line from Washington to Point of Rocks, Maryland, with many grades and large bridges. Upon the opening of this line, through passenger traffic was rerouted through Washington, and the old main line from Point of Rocks to Relay was reduced to secondary status as far as passenger service was concerned. Rebuilding after the turn of the century and double tracking in 1928 increased capacity; the "branches" became the de facto mainline, though the Old Main Line was retained as relief route.
Meanwhile the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) outmaneuvered the B&O to acquire the B&O's northern connection, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, cutting off the B&O's access to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York. The state of Maryland had stayed true to its implicit promise not to grant competing charters for the Baltimore/Washington line, but when a charter was granted to build a line from Baltimore to Pope's Creek in southern Maryland, lawyers for the Pennsylvania RR picked up on a clause in the unfulfilled charter allowing branches up to twenty miles long, from any point and in any direction. The projected route, passing through what is now Bowie, Maryland, could have a "branch" constructed that would allow service into Washington. The Pennsylvania picked up the charter through the agency of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and in 1872 service between Baltimore and Washington began. At the same time the PRR outmaneuvered the B&O and took control of the Long Bridge, B&O's connections to southern lines.
In response, the B&O chartered the Philadelphia Branch in Maryland and the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad in Delaware and Pennsylvania and built a parallel route, finished in 1886. The Baltimore Belt Line, opened in 1895, connected the main line to the Philadelphia Branch without the need for a car ferry across the Patapsco River, but the cost of constructing the Howard Street Tunnel drove the B&O to bankruptcy in 1896. Two other lines were built in attempts to reconnect to the south. The Alexandria Branch was built in 1874, starting from Hyattsville, Maryland, and ending at a ferry operation at Shepherd's Landing. The Ferry operation continued until 1901 when the trackage rights agreement concluded as part of the construction of Washington Union Station saw the south end of the branch realigned to link to the PRR trackage in Anacostia, across the Anacostia River, into the Capitol Hill Tunnel, through Southwest Washington, D.C. to Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia. The Alexandria Branch trackage to Shepherd's Landing was heavily used during World War II when traffic congestion on the Long Bridge caused the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a bridge along the original plan of the B&O: Alexandria to Shepherd's Landing, Washington. Trains of empty freight cars were routed north and south over the structure, which was demolished after the end of World War II.
Before either connection was made, however, another branch was built around the west side of Washington. Also, the B&O had organized a group of bankrupt railroads in Virginia into the Virginia Midland Railroad. The VM track rack from Alexandria, Virginia, to Danville, Virginia. The line projected west across the Potomac River was intended to cross the Potomac just north of the D.C. line, to continue southwest to a connection with the B&O-controlled Virginia Midland (VM) in Fairfax, Virginia (now Fairfax Station, Virginia, to distinguish it from what was Fairfax Court House, Virginia, and is now the City of Fairfax, Virginia), and if possible to a connection with the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad in Quantico, Virginia. The branch was started in 1892 and reached Chevy Chase, Maryland, the same year. Financial problems in both the VM and B&O forced a halt to construction and led to the B&O's loss of control of the VM. Following bankruptcy, and control by the Pennsylvania Railroad, by the time the line was completed there was no longer any point to the river crossing. Thus the renamed Georgetown Branch came to serve a wide range of customers in Maryland and in Georgetown, such as the Potomac Electric & Power Co., the Washington Milling Company, and the U.S. Government. The line cut directly across the various creeks, and as a result required a short tunnel and what was said to be the longest wood trestle on the railroad over Rock Creek. The line was almost completely abandoned in 1986 by CSX and is presently used in part as the right-of-way for the Capital Crescent Trail.
The 20th Century
Following its emergence from bankruptcy, control of the B&O was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1901. A rising young PRR Vice President, Leonor F. Loree, was appointed President. Loree shared the Pennsy management's belief in infrastructure and the B&O at that time needed some of that. New classes of engines were built to haul longer, heavier trains faster. The Old Main Line was reworked, sections of the original right-of-way cut off by the straightening of curves and replacement of old, weight-restricted bridges with newer, heavier bridges. Most of Loree's work on the B&O physical plant remains evident today. Many iron and steel bridges on the railroad were replaced with stone (Pennsy preferred stone to the preference of the Reading and Lackawanna Railroad for concrete).
All of our pieces are original - we do not sell reproductions. If you ever find out that one of our pieces is not authentic, you may return it for a full refund of the purchase price and any associated shipping charges.