I am concerned about the riots in Baltimore and whether they are close to the B&O Museum? I am hoping that the idiots do not cause problems or destroy anythiing there.

Anyone know?

I don't think people are going to try to attack the collection, and if they did, they would be in more trouble than breaking and entering

Please note that this report comes from a person who has lived here for 20+ years, and now lives almost directly between the first two incidents reported over the media. My news feeds have been continuous for about 12 hours straight, including four local TV stations, Twitter, Facebook, police scanner, and more

As of this time (10:59 PM EDT), NO "civil unrest"/criminal activity has been reported in the vicinity of the B&O Museum or its immediate neighborhood (incliding the Baltimore Irish Railroad Workers Museum), nor at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. The closest I have heard reports tonight have been Lexington Market (northwest downtown).

This is not to say some random localized looting hasn't occurred in the neighborhood, but nothing of the scope anyone might have seen on the TV news in that vicinity.

Bad joke of the night: "Some shopkeepers are scaring off looters with shotguns. Others are waving job applications at them. The latter seems more effective."

As I type another major arson fire in a three-story building is being extinguished 1/2 mile west of the B&O Museum along Pratt Street.

B&O Museum is closed for the day--as is seemingly half of Baltimore.

Property Damage can be dealt with, the loss of a life can't.

Be safe Mr. Mitchell.... I pray peace will be restored soon.

Tim W.

This Just In:

618,000 Baltimore Residents and Citizens are NOT rioting or participating in criminal assault, property damage, etc.

Repeat:
618,000 Baltimore Residents and Citizens are NOT rioting or participating in criminal assault, property damage, etc.

In other news, the Baltimore Streetcar Museum is buttoned up tight and slumbering peacefully, as per my personal inspection minutes ago.

.

Thanks! The jokes were good, too. I'm hoping the rioters will stay away from the collections. Might be more danger from Foamers thinking they could use the hubbub as a cover to steal some headlights, whistles, builder's plates, and so on. (Said with tongue in cheek!)

The B&O museum is in a pretyt decent neighborhood, at least more so than lots of other places in the greater Baltimore area. When people like this riot, they usually do it in their own neighborhoods for some odd reason.
Tongue in check, heck! Can anyone really say there wouldn't be a train fan willing to do just this under cover of the looting? If the cops can't/won't go after each person they can see on TV looting businesses, does anyone really think they'd waste time going after someone who yanked a bell, headlight or builder's plate of a loco in the museum?

Too much effort to go to somebody else's neighborhood !!

Lee, you're thinking too small! Light a fire, protesters love that stuff, but do it in the firebox of the William Mason, (better add some water too) line some switches and head on out!

Seriously folks, the Orioles cancelled Monday's game with the White Sox and have now cancelled the game scheduled for tonight (Tuesday night). The night game on the docket for tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/29) will be played in the afternoon, but NO fans will be allowed into the park.

The Orioles were also supposed to play home games with the Rays this coming weekend; that series has been transferred down to Tampa Bay.

Baltimore's Camden Yards has a major tie in with railroading; the building located just beyond right field is an ex-Baltimore & Ohio freight house.

Les

Yes, it is a serious situation. The ball games were an obvious target, so that was a wise choice. They've also instituted curfews, and many public events are being cancelled.

Nobody wants another Ferguson (St. Louis) situation, so they're cracking down, and cracking down hard. Hopefully things calm down quickly rather than getting really ugly. If you looked closely, it seemed that, as usual, it was just a few that caused much of the damage. As an example, many people were walking past parked cars, while one kid was jumping on them, smashing windshields and doing as much damage as he could. One person. If they can get the general public sentiment to be "knock that crap off!" then it should get better.

As for Candem Yards, I remember when they were just that. We brought the 2101 into town with the Chessie Steam Special and parked it at Candem Station. We then watched as a fire truck tried to work its way through a massive crowd at some kind of city wide Celebration nearby. After a few minutes of "Wonder where he's trying to go?" it became obvious what the destination was. "Uh-oh..." The conversation was probably something like this: "No, really, everything's under control... Uh, yeah, it did make a lot of smoke, sorry about that..."

So, of course, after the media circus subsided today, scores of volunteers were out cleaning up the messes of yesterday.

I'm sure those people had on work boots.

And then, after that was done, there was a dance party.

Baltimore is a strange place folks. But don't base your sole opinion on it on what you see on the sensationalized news.