On a whim I took my 3 1/2 year old son Owen up to the B&O Museum Reopening Celebration yesterday. I normally try to avoid big events because I'm really not all that much on crowds, but in the event it was a good choice--the museum was busy but not so much so that one felt hemmed in or had to wait very long for any given attraction.The tone of the event was "family-friendly festival." The post-working-Mt. Clare-shops orphan tracks that CSX put in behind the roundhouse just before spinning off the museum as a 501(c)3 have mostly been cleared away to make a festival area in the back yard. There were magic shows, balloon animal makers, stilt walkers, kid-friendly railroad folk music, etc. The museum is putting its best foot forward to families with children, and I think families are seeing the value and signing up for membership. Big changes have been made to make the experience more kid-friendly especially for the very small ones. The garden train layout has more than doubled in size since my last visit, and a wooden climbing train with wooden cars has been added. Owen had a great time watching the Aristocraft trains and then climbing on the train jungle gym with a big ol' passel of kids, everyone taking turns ringing the bell in the engine cab. He also loved the electric train carnival ride the museum had rented for the weekend.The godawful mistake of a pseudo-trainshed that the railroad built over the back end of the former orphan tracks has been converted into a picnic pavilion, and it makes a much nicer pavilion than it ever made a rolling stock shelter--indeed, it almost justifies its existence now.So watching the changes unfold I give the museum very high marks for its continued efforts to appeal to families, especially those with younger children. I think this is a great demographic for them, and will help with visitorship and revenue.Diesel-powered shuttle trains were running out to the new 3-track modern restoration shop out beyond the Tender Kitchen near Mt. Clare Mansion. In deference to the museum's request that very small ones not go on the shop tour Owen and I opted out of the walking tour, but it looked like a facility that will flat-out revolutionize the museum's ability to care for its rolling stock.The opening of the passenger car shop to visitors has had to be put off until fire suppression is installed--new eta is fall 2005. The North Carshop will initially house the museum's major 20c steam collections--at long last 4500, 5700, and other key artifacts will be out of the weather. And the carshop itself will be a fabulous thing for visitors to experience--a genuine 1870 shop building, wood truss roof and all--an interesting and really more typical shop structure than the one-of-a-kind roundhouse.If there is any downside to this, it is a purely private one that is mostly emotional, relevant mostly to me and a handful of similar railroad historian types--and that is the way the changes move Mt. Clare a little further away from its working railroad shops feel. Don't get me wrong, I think all the changes to the back yard are great--an area that was once basically a junkyard of deteriorating rolling stock on isoalted, non-accessible tracks is now bustling with life and laughter, making the whole museum a better experience for families. That said, the rows of old rolling stock in various states of disrepair felt more "industrial" and less "museum"--now, you know you are in a museum environment back there, and feel less close to the pulse of old Mt. Clare.Again, please understand I am just processing my emotions out loud, for the record, I think the changes are necessary to the museums' mission and audience, better for the visitors, better for the rolling stock, and an improvement in every way. It just feels...well, a little more polished and less funky. But if funk had the appeal to all America that it does to me, EBT would be outselling Disneyland and I'd be complaining that the crowds were too much!

Erik, your feelings about B&O reflect mine toward Cass. When I think of Cass I think of the original depot, shop, and the remains of the sawmill still standing like the day it closed. The coal dock no longer has track on it. The big rail and rebuilt railroad has taken away some of the feel of riding on a real logging railroad. Cass is still one of the best railroads out there but if you are old enough to remember the way it was in the beginning things just are not quite the same. Of course the passage of time dictates that things will never be the same as they were. Fortunately in both cases the changes will help insure that B&O and Cass will be around for future generations and that is what really counts. I hope I get to see both sometime in the not to distant future. That is a positive about change. It helps keep you wanting to go back.John Bohon

Without getting emotions in the way either, I'll simply report on the aspect that Erik missed: The Restoration Facility.The shop, according to the employees that were "escorting" the few sightseers on Friday, is perhaps 4-6 weeks from formal "acceptance" from the construction personnel; among other issues, the trackwork outside the building remains uncompleted. Many of the Museum's hulking vintage machine tools, including a Baltimore-made (1883?) planer and a wheel press, have been parked inside the building awaiting final installation, wiring, etc. A carpentry shop had the various new power tools still in their packaging, awaiting final setup. A full-sized paint booth, big enough to handle an SD50 or the like, occupies one track.In regular operation, the visitors will be guided into a ground-level spectators' gallery, perhaps 50 feet long, where they can see the interior and projects through a Plexiglass booth. An elevated view would have been better, but there's probably some ADA reasoning involved.The new facility is just to the west of a hulking, Roman-ruin-like remnant of a former Mt. Clare B&O shop building, which still has an overhead crane and two flatcar remnants within. Although much weed-chopping has occurred to "clean up" what had been a former drug-and-booze gathering site (and rock-thrower hideout), the area could probably still use some basic interpretation as the "old" shops area, visible from both the train and the new shops. Even parking a derelict car or two here might be acceptable; the ruin is too far gone for adaptive reuse, and it retains an air similar to a Western "ghost town".

I'm glad to read about the B&O's rebirth. I have noticed that more young families with very small children are the main visitors to RR museums lately, which means we have to change our approach, more and more away from nostalgia, and into true history, with a lot of technology thrown in for good measure. This won't have much instant appeal to the kids, but if the parents trust us to teach their children about safety and how things work, they will come back again and again to learn even more.By the way, will St. Elizabeth's No. 2 return to steam this year?

By the way, will St. Elizabeth's No. 2 return to steam this year?The St. Elizabeth's #4 will be the first engine inside the new restoration facility for evaluation. It took a direct hit from a beam, and was in the stall where the William Mason had been just weeks before. If the damage is confined to a big dent in the tank she may run yet this year. If the damage is more extensive it will take longer.