Extra! Extra!

Presented here are some noteworthy news articles from the Baltimore Sun in April of 1862

Baltimore Sun on April 21, 1862

CAVALRY PRADES-several companies of the first Maryland Cavalry Regiment, stationed near Mount Clare Depot, made a dress parade on Saturday morning through the street of the city (Baltimore) and attracted much attention. The commander of the regiment is Col. A.G. Miller, of the regular United States army. The command mustered about 500 men.

Baltimore Sun April 24, 1862

DISASTER TO HARPERS FERRY BRIDGE-Three Spans Wash Away-The Repairs Progressing-we regret to announce a disaster to the temporary bridge erected across the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, under the direction of the government. It was rumored in the city on Tuesday evening that the Potomac was very high, and rising. On Tuesday night three of the central spans broke loose and were carried way. At 2 o’clock yesterday morning the water began to subside, and no further damage was apprehended. Preparations were immediately made for ferrying freight and passengers across, and Mr. John L. Wilson, the master of the road, and Mr. Quincy, his assistant, soon had a large force of men employed in the work of replacing the lost spans. This, it was expected, would be accomplished in forty-eight hours from the time of its commencement. The accident will not interrupt materially the large government operations on the road longer than to-day at farthest, should the water continue to fall and the weather prove favorable. In the meantime no interruption of travel between points westward need be apprehended. In a few weeks at most the company will commence the erection over the Ferry of the new iron bridge, which for six months past they have been preparing at their machine works, at Mount Clare, from the plans of Mr. Wendel Bollman. That will then supersede the temporary structure.

A Treasure Re-Claimed: George III Silver Punch Bowl

Robert Lewis, nephew of George Washington, visited Mount Clare on his way

to his Uncle's first inauguration in New York. He was accompanying Mrs.

Washington on the journey from Virginia. In his diary for May 19, 1789 he

recalled the visit:

"Mrs. Carroll expecting Mrs. W had made considerable preparation,

we found a large bowl of salubrious ice punch with fruits, etc. which had

been plucked from the trees in a green house lying on the tables in great

abundance;--these after riding 25 or 30 miles without eating or drinking

was no unwelcome luxury, however, Mrs. C could not complain that we had not

done her punch honor, for in the course of 1 Quarter of an Hour, this bowl

which held upwards of two Gallons was entirely consumed to the no little

satisfaction of us all."

The Maryland Society of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America announce the successful purchase of a George III silver punch

bowl, circa 1771, which belonged to Charles Carroll the Barrister (1723-1783) and his wife Margaret Tilghman Carroll (1742-1817).  The bowl which is marked

by an English maker is a foot in diameter and must have made quite an impression on guests to Mount Clare, the couple's summer residence. Having been introduced to the English gentry by Robert Adam in the 1760s, the

neoclassical surface decoration was the height of sophistication.  It isthought that the couple might have ordered the punch bowl and ladle during a trip to London in the spring of 1771; Mrs. Carroll returned inspired by the up-to-date Adamesque tastes of Londoners. The Barrister returned to serve on various committees in Annapolis as the colonies moved closer to war.  By June 1776 he would help write Maryland's first Constitution, the Declaration and Charter of Rights for Maryland.

Nineteen years his junior, Mrs. Carroll survived her husband by 35 years;

she made Mount Clare her permanent residence and was known for her gardens

and hospitality.  She also began to update some of the furnishings in the

house to the stylish neoclassical forms of the Federal style, which

reached American shores after the end of the Revolution.  The plinth base

with ball feet is not original to the piece but was a popular form in the

Baltimore area by the 1770s.  Examples of its use can be seen on silver by

Charles Louis Boehme and Standish Barry among other local silversmiths.

Mrs. Carroll died in 1817 and in her will she bequeathed her large

silver punch bowl,to James Maccubbin Carroll, her husbands nephew, who had

inherited the house and moved into Mount Clare for a brief time.  The bowl

descended through this line of the family to the current seller.

Day out with Thomas: Mystery on the Rails 2012

Thomas leading the way! 

It's almost that time again! Thomas visits the B&O every year and we are thrilled to welcome him for this years: Day out with Thomas: Mystery on the Rails! Get ready for a jam packed event filled with fun!

For those who haven't attended a Thomas event in past years here is a brief list of the activities and adventures that await: 

• The much anticipated train ride behind a full size Thomas as he takes you on a 20 minute round trip down the first mile of commercial railroad track ever laid!
• Petting zoo & pony rides
• Choo Choo  Blueville - mini train ride for toddlers
• Carousel
• Craft tent: macaroni necklaces, temporary tattoos, spin art
• Sidewalk chalk and giant bubble stations
• Bouncy houses
• LIVE Entertainment on the main stage on the hour
• AND MORE!! 

The link above will take you to ticketweb where you can purchase your Day out with Thomas tickets. Included in the ticket price is admission to the B&O. We do sell out every year so make sure you get your tickets soon to ensure that you reserve the train ride time that works best for you and your group!

Have your picture taken with Sir Topham Hatt!

The dates for Thomas this year are: April 27th, 28th, 29th and May 4th, 5th, 6th. Questions? Comments? Please contact Dana Kirn at Dana.Kirn@borail.org. To purchase tickets visit www.ticketweb.com/dowt or call 1-866-468-7630


We'll see you soon!

World War II Instructional Document Acquired

An interesting document has made its way in to the museum library titled “Orientation Talk for Incoming Replacements” and gives a glimpse of the life of American Soldiers on their way to fight in Europe during World War II. Although there is no date on the document it appears to have been used in the winter 1945. The statement was read to soldiers on board transport ships before docking at Le Havre, France which was one of the larger ports used by the Allies. In the document, it gives the incoming soldiers an idea of what the conditions of the railroads are and how to stay out of trouble.

 First, an understanding of the replacement system the Army used in World War II is helpful to understand the men that are in these ships. At the beginning of the war, the Generals thought it would be better to replace casualties with individual soldiers and they could learn from the veterans in the units they were sent. Replacement Depots were set up in Europe and when a unit needed replacements, a group was sent to that unit. The problem was the replacements were not liked by the older men and were shunned and some never really belonged to the unit. The replacements also had no sense of camaraderie or history of that unit. It was not a good system. Many thought it would be better to replace whole units at a time since they would have trained together and become a cohesive unit. Unfortunately, the Generals stuck with the replacement system and most units suffered from low morale and bad performance because of it.

40 and 8

 

The announcement starts with a welcome to the European Theater and letting them know where they were headed. They then described the trains and railroads they’d be traveling on. Soldiers would be housed in wooden boxcars called “40 and 8’s” which were French rail cars that could hold 40 men or 8 horses. These had been around since before World War I. You can see an example of a 40 and 8 in the Museum’s Roundhouse. They were told there would only be 18 to 25 men in a car and would be provided a stove for heat and cooking and also extra blankets. There would be rations in the cars and they would get fresh hot meals at wayside stops.

 Next was a paragraph on the dangers of the black marketers in Europe. All American money was being collected from them and would be given back later. All kinds of goods from food to cigarettes were being stolen and resold at higher prices. They were warned that “Every MP in Europe is watching for black marketers. Don’t take a chance.”

          And the last was a health warning. The men were encouraged to take care of their feet in the cold European winter. They were asked to take off their boots at night and to massage there feet to keep blood flowing to the feet. Many men got frostbite by not paying attention to their feet.

         
It is amazing that this document has survived 60+ years in such a great condition. I’d love to know its story too. Did the radio operator on board save it? Did someone grab it before the shop was decommissioned? That is what makes history so enjoyable. You never know what is around the corner or in your library.

Travis Harry

Director of Operations and Volunteers

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: Old Main Line

Westbound CSX train rolling by Ellicott City

The second most frequently asked question at Ellicott City Station is, “Do trains still come by here?” Yes, freight trains still do roll by just like they have for over 180 years.

Construction of the railroad began with a grand groundbreaking celebration in Baltimore on July 4, 1828. Since no one had built a railroad through such difficult territory before, construction proved very costly. Civil engineers had to invent new techniques as they built west, such as using wooden crossties instead of stone sills to lay the rails. The line reached Ellicott's Mills in  

                                                                                                        May 1830.

In 1835, the B&O opened the Washington Branch to provide service to the nation’s capital. The line being built to Wheeling then became known as the Main Stem. After 24½ years of difficult labor and litigation, the Main Stem finally opened for service to Wheeling on January 1, 1853.

In 1873, the B&O completed the Metropolitan Branch northwest from Washington to join the Main Stem at Point of Rocks, MD. The section of the Main Stem between Relay and Point of Rocks then became known as the Old Main Line. It is still in use today as the Old Main Line Subdivision by CSX Transportation freight trains.

The original route the line followed caused many operational issues later on. At the time the route was surveyed, steam power was still in its infancy. The directors of the B&O chose to go with horse drawn cars, which were small and lightweight. As the horses gave way to steam locomotives in the mid 1830’s, it became apparent that the tight curves of the line would be problematic. As traffic increased, locomotives and the cars they pulled became larger and unable to safely run on the line. Over the years, the track was relocated in many areas to allow higher speeds and safer operation.

In the early 1900’s, the B&O began a major reconstruction project. Several tunnels were bored through the granite hills of the Patapsco Valley to provide a modern track alignment. The section in Ellicott City is still in the original surveyed location.

CSX continues the traditions of the B&O railroad. Coal is still transported from mines in West Virginia to Baltimore to be loaded on ships for export. If you travel through Baltimore on I95 and I895, just outside of the north tunnel portals is one of the coal piers. Trains consisting of special cars called auto racks carry new automobiles and trucks from factories in the Midwest to distribution yards in Baltimore and Pennsylvania. Near the north side of the I895 steel bridge is one of the Baltimore auto unloading yards. And mixed freight trains carrying all kinds of products continue to pass through Ellicott City in both directions. Today, most freight trains do not operate on a fixed schedule. A train could appear at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Pioneer outside the station

On display at Ellicott City Station is a replica of the Pioneer, a small wooden car that would be pulled by one horse at a time when the line first opened in back in 1830. If you’re lucky, you might get to see a 20,000 ton coal train pulled by several locomotives, producing over 12,000 horsepower rumbling by! Or one of the many other trains that pass thorough. We just don’t know when the next one might be.

(To answer the #1 FAQ, restrooms are in the Gift Shop!)

Chessie: Graphic Renditions

Rush Loving, Jr., recent author of the work; The Men Who Loved Trains recently donated to the B&O Railroad Museum three graphic renditions of Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and, later, Chessie System Railroad’s  iconic “Chessie.” Seems there was an attempt to resurrect the beloved railroad mascot in the 1980’s. Here is Mr. Loving’s letter to me and the images that he contributed to the museum’s collection.

Courtney B. Wilson

Executive Director

January 4, 2012

Dear Courtney,

Three mounted logos of Chessie that I gave the museum have an interesting background.

Back in the early 1980’s when the Chessie and SCL merged Chessie the cat was dropped as a corporate logo. It had been the C&O’s emblem since the 1930’s, and as you know it was one of the most venerable and best-loved corporate symbols in America.

Around 1990, Thomas E.  Hoppin, who was CSX’s vice president for corporate communications, kept musing about the loss of Chessie. The company had an extremely strong logo it was not using. I was Hoppin’s consultant, so he had me get together with Irv Gravatt of Beatley and Gravatt, CSX’s ad agency, and work with him on some ideas for an updated  logo.  Irv and I met periodically over two or three months. We’d discuss concepts and he would go back and have one of his designers develop them. 

Finally we had about a dozen different versions of the logo and of Chessie. Tom had instructed us to consider making Chessie tougher. Some of the railroaders down in Jacksonville had criticized the cat as too warm and fuzzy.  Something not so close to the family hearth might be what we needed, Tom suggested. 

Our versions ranged from the traditional Chessie to one that was tough like a tom cat and one at the far end of the spectrum that looked like an alley cat. Irv and I figured the railroaders were bound to accept one of them.

But we were wrong.

Tom narrowed the group to the three finalists that I gave the museum. As you can see, they cover every personality Chessie might have.  But Jacksonville turned them all down.  We never knew precisely why, but the railroad was being forced to cut costs down there while trying to get enough money to maintain and modernize some of the railroad.  Printing new stationery and painting new logos on locomotives to them might be an unnecessary expense.

When the three designs were sent back to Tom I asked him if I could have them, and he graciously agreed. 

Model Trains at Mt.Clare: A Tradition

The closing of the Museum’s 2011 annual Holiday Festival of Trains, the biggest and most well attended EVER, continues a long-standing tradition at Mt. Clare initiated by the Public Relations Department of the B&O Railroad in 1936. In the first issue of Model Craftsmen Magazine for 1936 the B&O Railroad announced an “O” gauge “Royal Blue Model Contest” in order to help promote their signature train which operated between Washington D.C. and New York. For the princely sum of $1.00, the magazine offered a set of ¼ scale drawings of the Royal Blue locomotive “Lord Baltimore” and several types of passenger cars. This information was supplemented by a series of articles describing seats, lighting fixtures and other interior and exterior components for the modeler.  Out of some 200 contestants only five submitted completed models for judging-a testament to the complexity of the project.  The winner, chosen in March 1937, was Fletcher G. Speed, an automobile mechanic from New Rochelle, N.Y. who said he spent 30 days planning the project and over 1,500 hours completing it. The prize was $500.00 and the donation of the winning model to the Smithsonian Institution (who still holds the winning model in their collections today

This little marketing scheme drew enough attention to provide the Public Relations Department with an incentive to continue a model railroad program as a marketing tool. A large portable “O” gauge layout was constructed by the employees of the Mt. Clare Shops for use in the contest at the Smithsonian. The layout was rebuilt in 1941, including a full set of shipping crates, after which it traveled throughout many communities along the B&O’s right of way. During WWII the layout was displayed in veteran’s hospitals and used for training in the Army’s Transportation School. During the holiday season of 1944 this “O” gauge layout resided in the lobby of the Baltimore National Bank in support of War Bond sales.  At War’s end it decorated the Howard Street Hutzler’s Department Store in downtown Baltimore for the holiday shopping season.  Ultimately this large-scale layout made its way to the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. where it was placed on permanent loan. Refurbished, updated and expanded over the years-this layout still makes an annual appearance every holiday season in the downtown Cincinnati lobby of Cinergy (formerly Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company).

Engineers, draftsmen, pattern makers, painters and electricians who worked for the B&O at Mt. Clare all participated in a growing B&O Railroad model program which produced portable model railroad layouts in “O” gauge, “S” Gauge and “HO” gauge.  These layouts, as a part of a well planned public relations program, were displayed all over Baltimore and throughout the B&O’s operating territory to the delight of thousands each year. In 1946, the B&O Railroad Public Relations Department issued sets of scale drawings of some of its most famous locomotives and cars just for modelers. Ultimately 46 sheets of scale drawings of both historic and modern (at the time) locomotives, tenders, passenger cars, freight cars and a caboose were printed and offered for sale to the public. A stationary “HO” layout was produced shortly after the opening of the B&O Transportation Museum at Mt. Clare in 1953.  On exhibit year round the Museum now boasts a stationary state-of-the-art “HO” gauge model layout and an expansive permanent “G” gauge outdoor garden railroad.

Models, toy trains, contests, and the holidays-a tradition begun by the B&O Railroad’s marketing executives in 1936 is still alive and well at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum today.  Our annual Holiday Festival of Trains offers children of all ages a glimpse into the world of miniature railroading.  With various gauges and creative layouts; model and toy train displays scheduled throughout the season represent the largest assemblage of train gardens in the region.

Courtney B. Wilson

Executive Director

For more information: Dornette, William H.L., Scale Modeling and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: A Unique Venture in Promoting Rail Transportation via the Medium of Model Railroading.  (Baltimore, 2000). This publication includes the 46 scale drawings created by the B&O Railroad Public Relations Department along with a history of the modeling program. Available on-line or in the Museum Store.

Also check out our Television Channel for the corresponding episode. December 2011