B&O Railroad Museum Debuts Late Author’s Memorial Book Launch

Baltimore, MD - Tuesday, October 9 at 5:30pm the B&O Railroad Museum will host James D. Dilts Memorial Book Launch debuting the author’s monumental work, The World the Trains Made, A Century of Great Railroad Architecture in the United States and Canada. This recently published book is the first comprehensive study of the broad range of structures built in North America for the railroads during their heyday, from high-rise office buildings to resort hotels to roundhouses and shops. Dilts delves into the personalities of the people who conceived these structures and examines the creative new uses that have been found for many of them today. Included in this lavishly illustrated, full-color volume is more than a hundred of the finest examples of fourteen different building types.

Jeremy Kargon of Morgan State University remarked, “Over the course of a century, industrialists, engineers, architects, and laborers created a robust material culture to support rail transportation and its passengers. Dilts’ book comprehensively documents that lost world and the history from which today’s North America emerged.”

Other books written by Dilts include The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation’s First Railroad, 1828–1853; A Guide to Baltimore Architecture (with John R. Dorsey); and Baltimore’s Cast-Iron Buildings and Architectural Ironwork (with Catharine F. Black). Courtney B. Wilson, Executive Director of the B&O Railroad Museum, commented about his longtime friend, “Jim was an iconic figure to anyone even remotely interested in the B&O and its embryonic fits and starts. His masterwork, ‘The Great Road,’ is a must read. His early history of the railroad is unparalleled.”

On the evening of Tuesday, October 9, Mr. Wilson will welcome the Baltimore community to join him as they honor Dilts’ and his lifetime work devoted to historic preservation.  Recently donated items from James Dilts’ extensive personal library will be on display during the book launch. The collection includes notes and photographs from his first book The Great Road as well as never-before-seen research material for his new work, The World the Trains Made: A Century of Great Railroad Architecture in the United States and Canada. After brief remarks at 6pm, light refreshments will be served.

RSVP required by October 5 to Kathy Hargest, khargest@borail.org / 410-752-2490 x 207.

B&O Railroad Museum

901 W. Pratt St.

Baltimore, MD 21223

410-752-2490

Free Parking