Railway Preservation News
https://www.rypn.org/forums/

Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11970		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Michael E. Allen [ Fri Jan 14, 2005 10:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
The link below is to the Baltimore Channel 11 article on the fire in one of Life Like Products warehouses. The building was the Druid Hill Avenue cable powerhouse for Baltimore Traction.

MEA

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4083538/detail.html
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
Image

The building was both a power house and a car barn for Baltimore Traction, and was built in 1890-91, just at the end of the cable-car era on Baltimore Traction. It was later used by Baltimore Transit for trolleys and, supposedly, buses as well; overhead electrical conduits for the streetcars collapsed along with the roof in today's blaze.. There happen to be two other surviving car barns still extant within two blocks of the fire site, the old Baltimore City Passenger Railways barn and a newer Baltimore Transit barn further up Druid Hill Avenue, still used by city vehicles and parking enforcement cars (boo).

Channel 11 had accurate information to work with, as I was on the scene taking photos for the Balto. Streetcar Museum and referred them to Museum officials for more info if needed. (The reporters remembered me from the Howard Street Tunnel fire in Baltimore, and ironically the one reporter had put down the NTSB final report on that accident, released minutes earlier, to go to the fire!)

Image
Author:  Ray Reter [ Sat Jan 15, 2005 12:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
Demolition crews were on the site early this morning to tear-down the remaining walls, which were deemed to be too unstable to remain standing. -- Ray
Author:  csxvet [ Sat Jan 15, 2005 3:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
Sad to hear that they're already demolishing the building, but that's how our city operates. There was hope that the Streetcar Museum could salvage the large "Baltimore Traction" carved in stone over the carhouse portion of the building, but maybe it's now been turned to gravel.

For those who didn't see today's Baltimore Sun article, this was the best of four surviving cable railway powerhouses in Baltimore -- doubtless the largest number in any city. (And are there others elsewhere, besidesSan Francisco?) It combined a stationary steam engine and the associated machinery with an attached carhouse. Its use as a cable powerhouse ended in 1896, and as a carbarn about 1920. Subsequently the transit company used it as a maintenance garage and warehouse until it sold it in 1947.

There's one more surviving powerhouse-carbarn here, now the Charles Theater complex, just north of Penn Station at Charles and Lanvale Sts. Two other pure powerhouses also remain, one on E. Baltimore St. near Aisquith and one on E. Pratt St. at Central Ave.

Herb Harwood
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Salvage efforts
The rumors at this point are that the newer car-barn addition, the one along Druid Hill Avenue that has the granite or concrete "BALTIMORE TRACTION CO." plaque above the doorways, may be allowed to survive--it was not directly damaged by the fire. Demolition was focused solely on the old powerhouse and the other carbarn structure along Retreat Street. There also exists the possibility that the city might allow the stone wall and archways along Druid Hill Avenue to remain pending possible adaptive reuse.

Members of the BSM were at the scene today supervising the demolition and working with the contractors to salvage what architectural details they could--so far, there's a cast iron wall block dated 1890 and a badly-mangled copper turret top, the latter which, if repaired, could be refitted atop the BSM's own "turret" someday.

I was told by BSM members that some years ago they had salvaged several vanloads of Baltimore Traction/Transit records and documents that had been stored in one of the turrets, but that at last report the floor of that room had still been covered in a foot of ransacked, helter-skelter paper.
Author:  scratchyX1 [ Wed Oct 11, 2023 9:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/10240552666
I drove by this morning, it's still there.
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
scratchyX1 wrote:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76677346@N04/10240552666
I drove by this morning, it's still there.


That's the newer car barn addition. The older carbarn and power house perished.
Author:  scratchyX1 [ Thu Oct 12, 2023 12:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Baltimore Traction Powerhouse Burns
I meant the "newer" carbarn is still standing. Apparently it is still used to store items legally recovered from abandoned building, for repurposing for interior design.

MD Architectural Rescue
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/