From the B&O Web site

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Friday, February 21, 2003

Dear Friends of the B&O Railroad Museum:

As the Museum team continues to meet with construction and engineering professionals to "shore up" the structure, we are encouraged by the initial inspection of damages and wish to share them with you.

At present, contractors are working to brace the remaining portion of the roof to prevent further damage to the collection. The engineers have advised us that the walls of the Roundhouse are strong but the remaining structure is under a great deal of stress. Therefore, the weather continues to be of concern with regard to the stability of the Roundhouse. We are covering individual pieces of the collection as they can not be moved at this time because of the rubble. It is not possible at this time to cover the Roundhouse.

Please continue to visit our web site for the most up-to-date information.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding as the B&O Railroad Museum remains closed.

For further questions please contact:
Stefanie Fay
Director of Development & Sponsorship Programs
B&O Railroad Museum
901 West Pratt St.
main: 410-752-2462 ext.204
e-mail: sfay@borail.org


B&O museum Web updates
eledbetter@rypn.org

A dreary and steady-but-light rain began falling this afternoon.

The roll-up door to the track to the west of the roundhouse (parallel to Pratt Street) has been pulled down to allow access by heavy equipment, and a large crane is on site. Wooden B&O caboose C-2222, an eight-wheeled caboose, has been rolled out through the door and tarped. It shows obvious damage to not only the cupola top but to two corner posts as well.

Access via the Museum's normal access track may be a while in coming. The Museum is so crowded with rolling stock that it's like a crowded subway car. when they finally get an active diesel running, they will have to clear out a half-dozen or more pieces just to get at the roundhouse door, and there is literally no siding space left to stash equipment. Indeed, one piece, a vintage flatcar, is sitting outside the fence along a side street. (Fortunately the car is in need of repair, and there is almost nothing local urchins can do to the car.)

In other news, lots of plastic sheeting now covers other exhibits and displays in the roundhouse. (Where they got the plastic sheeting after that stampede on plastic sheeting and duct tape in the Baltington-Washingmore region last week is beyond me....)

lner4472@bcpl.net

The B&O Museum has graciously posted a series of photos taken INSIDE the roundhouse at their website. Go to the link below and click on the link "Click here for most recent B&O photo's" to get a slide show.

From this, we shall be able to deduce exactly what equipment was affected. Here's a list:

Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk Shay #1
B&O Caboose C-2222
St. Elizabeth's 0-4-0T #4
B&O 4-6-0 117 Thatcher Perkins
B&O D-2 wooden crane car
B&O Camel 4-6-0 217 Ross Winans
B&O 2-6-0 600 J.C. Davis (serious cab damage, unique bell yoke damaged)
"B&O" (CNJ) wooden coach 20 and baggage car 10 (Don't look; it isn't pretty)
B&O 2-8-0 545 "A.J. Cromwell"

Undamaged, at least from direct roof-fall: B&O 4-wheel caboose C-1775 and adjacent freight car (believed to be the "Merci Train" French 40 et 8); Ma & Pa baggage-mail 35; B&O Royal Blue coach 445; CNJ Camelback 4-4-2 592; Clinchfield 4-6-0 #1; CNJ boxcab diesel 1000; B&O electric switcher 10; Nova Scotia car; B&O "Pioneer" horse-drawn passenger car replica; "Tom Thumb" replica; "Grasshopper" #2; "Lafayette" replica.

Two notes of good fortune: The photos seem to confirm that the roof failure occurred from the outer walls, with the roof falling inwards towards the center from the outside walls (which, if you *have* to have a failure, id the kindest way it can happen); and most of the snow has managed to melt off of the roundhouse in the past couple of days, lessening the risk to the rest of the structure.

Photo below (from the slide show) shows "Thatcher Perkins".



Click on the link

lner4472@bcpl.net

Photos and my analysis (which, though derived independently, matches Sandy's) are also now avaialble in the RyPN Briefs.

eledbetter@rypn.org