I had the chance to visit the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore a few weeks ago (the last time I was there was 1993). The rebuilt roundhouse is great, although it doesn’t have the “historic” feeling that it used to. It also seems very open and much larger than it used to, perhaps because many of the floor displays were destroyed in the collapse. I particularly miss the Pangborn wooden models. Now I know that some of them were less than accurate - much like Pangborn’s misguided efforts to “restore” some of B&O’s earliest motive power - but they were still interesting in their own special way. Unfortunately, not many of the volunteers at B&O knew if any still exist today, and some hadn’t heard of them at all. Were all of Pangborn’s wood models destroyed in the collapse? Were any of them saved? Can any of them be salvaged?

Also, is there a good sources of information on these models? I’d like to write a column about them for a future issue of Railfan & Railroad. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be found on the ‘net, and most of the B&O Museum booklets I have don’t cover them in detail.

I’ve worked up this incomplete list of the Pangborn models that were at the B&O museum. Any additions/corrections are welcome. All were constructed in 1892 for display at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1892-93.

Newton’s Idea - 1860 (non-rail) (English)
Cugnot’s Carrage - 1769 (non-rail steam automobile) (French)
Trevithick’s Pen-Y-Darren 0-4-0 - 1804 (English)
John Blenkinsop’s rack railway locomotive - 1812 (0-6-0? 2-2-2?) (English)
William Brunton’s Mechanical Traveller - 1813 (locomotive that mimics a horse) (English)
Liverpool & Manchester’s Rocket 0-2-2 - 1829 (English)
Delaware & Hudson’s Stourbridge Lion 0-4-0 - 1829 (English - imported to US)
Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb 0-2-2(?) - 1829
Liverpool & Manchester’s Planet engine Mercury 2-2-0 - 1830 (English)
Johnson‘s two-furnace locomotive - 1831
Phineas Davis’s York 0-4-0 - 1831
Phineas Davis’s remodeled York 0-4-0 - 1831
Costell’s geared engine - 1831
Child’s turbine Rotary - 1831
William T. James’s 2-2-0(?) - 1831
William T. James’s second version - 1832
Horatio Allen’s double-ended 2-2-2-2 South Carolina - 1832
Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad’s (Henry R. Campbell’s) 4-4-0 - 1836
Beaver Meadow Railroad Hercules 4-4-0 - 1836
Baltimore & Ohio’s (William Norris’s) Lafayette 4-2-0 - 1837
Mad River & Lake Erie’s (Thomas Rogers) Sandusky 4-2-0 - 1837
Baltimore & Ohio’s Buffalo 0-8-0 Camel - 1844
Baltimore & Ohio’s Mount Clare - 1845

Of these, we know for sure that four are safe and still intact. The Hercules is at the National Canal Museum in Easton, PA; Sandusky is at the Mad River & NKP RR Museum at Bellevue, Ohio; the York is at the Agricultural and Industrial Museum of York County in York, PA; and the Lafayette is at the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site in Cresson, PA.

Also, is there a good source of information on the historic B&O engines that Pangborn modified? I’m talking about the 1836 Grasshopper Andrew Jackson that was modified by Pangborn to resemble the earlier Atlantic, etc…. I’d like to find out what exactly was done to these machines modification-wise.

Thanks!

Jeff Terry

1. See chapter eighteen, “Transportation” (especially beginning on p. 550) in: Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Book of the Fair: An Historical and Descriptive Presentation of the World’s Science, Art, and Industry, as Viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. Cygne Noir ed. Chicago: Bancroft Co., 1893. http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch18.html

2. B&O Railroad Museum preliminary list of artifacts affected by the roof collapse, dated 31 March 2003:
http://www.borail.org/restoration/pdf/r ... t_rev2.pdf

3. Book:
Pangborn, J[oseph] G[lading]. The World’s Rail Way: Historical, Descriptive, Illustrative. New York: Winchell Printing Co., 1894; reprint, New York: Bramhall House, 1974.

More recently republished as:
Pangborn, J[oseph] G[lading]. The Golden Age of the Steam Locomotive: With over 250 Classic Illustrations. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2003. (ISBN:0486428249.)

Publisher Comments:
“Originally created to catalog items for the railway exhibit at Chicago's Columbian Exhibition in 1893, this book has long been a collector's item. Compiled by Major J. G. Pangborn, a passionate railroad enthusiast and a skilled railroad executive, the book incorporates illustrations of scale models, drawings, and relics Pangborn had gathered for the Exhibition. A lively narrative recounts the tensions, frustrations, disasters, as well as the faith and confidence bound up in the lives of railroad pioneers. Focusing largely on American locomotives, the text describes developments from the early days of the steam engine to about 1860. Handsome, accurately rendered illustrations of more than 150 locomotives are included, along with 50 excellent vignettes of track development. A comprehensive, profusely illustrated record, this book will be a valuable addition to any railroad buff's library. Unabridged republication of The World's Rail Way, Historical, Descriptive, Illustrative, originally published by Winchell Printing Company, New York, 1894.”

Thanks!

The on-line Columbian Exposition book is fantastic, and I just ordered my copy of Pangborn's book.

- Jeff Terry

Jeff,

Thank you for another well done article on the 3 Spot in the current issue.

I hope the museum management follows the work up with the big locomotive that is also on their property.

Ted Miles