Rainy day in Charm City

     What to do on a rainy Monday in Bawlmer? Not a problem if you like museums.  Bawlmer has enough interesting museums to divert ennui from now 'til Armageddon (which actually may not be too long the way things are going).   Every guide book touts the B & O Railroad Museum as perhaps the world's finest so it has been high on Uncle Jack's list of  places to visit on rainy days ever since they moved here almost two years ago. Yesterday he and Mrs. U.J. drove over there and they are here to tell you that it is one fine museum.
      When the B & O started up in Baltimore in 1827  it was America' s first railroad.  It grew to be a colossus before the decline of  U.S. railroads began after WW II when the interstate highway system boosted the fortunes of  freight-hauling truckers and the airlines wrecked the passenger business. Today the B & O Railroad is but a memory but those memories are in good hands at the museum.

This beautifully preserved roundhouse is only one of several buildings and outdoor displays that make up the whole 100 acre facility.

Imagine the consternation when, in 2004,  a 28-inch snowfall accompanied by high winds caused the roof to collapse and damage many of the meticulously restored engines and other displays in the roundhouse. The roof has been completely rebuilt using modern engineering techniques and all but a couple of the displays have been restored.  Train buffs from all over the country contributed to the expensive repairs. The new roof easily withstood last winter's massive snowfalls.

A comely tourist provides scale for this picture of the largest steam locomotive in the collection.  These behemoths were able to haul enormous loads of freight, including coal, over the steep grades of the Appalachians and to and from the midwest.  The magnificence of this machinery can only be experienced up close which is something the museum makes possible through a network of ramps and walkways.

A view of the engineer's compartment of a steam locomotive.  Almost as bewildering as the cockpit of a modern airliner.

A few of the ancient steam locomotives used in the early days of the B & O.  They supplanted the horses that pulled the trains in the earliest days.

                                                           Some were rolling works of art.

Peter Cooper's "Tom Thumb" was built in Canton, the neighborhood last explored by U.J. and Mrs. U.J., three years after the founding of the B & O.  Cooper got very rich on the success of the railroads and so did a lot of early Baltimore investors.  Railroad stock was the place to be in the early 19th century.

                                       This '37 Buick was converted for use by track inspectors.

The larger and most elegant part of this passenger car was for white travelers only.  All others were confined to the small compartment in the foreground in front of the baggage section.  Jim Crow rode many a train in the south right into the 60's.

The museum sports two wonderful model train layouts.  This picture shows the former site of  Camden Station and its switching yards, now the site of Orioles Park at Camden Yards, the neatest baseball park in all the world. The big red brick warehouse still stands and provides offices and other amenities for the team.

The first B &O office building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1904 along with dozens of other buildings. The replacement still stands in all its opulence even though it houses other companies now.  U.J. and Mrs. U.J. had lunch in the B & O Cafe in this building.  It was not nearly as impressive as the chandelier.