With some chagrin, I have to admit that I was the driving force behind bringing 4876 to Baltimore in the early '90's. I say with chagrin because of the state that it is in after sitting outside at Mt.Clare "A-yard" for so long. There was a small group of us in the Washington Chapter NRHS who believed that it belonged in this area. I want to give much credit to URHSNJ's Walt Grosselfinger (I hope I remembered how to spell his name correctly) for agreeing with us, and advocating sending it this way.

The major problem was finding a place to display it. Obviously, the best place - the Smithsonian's Museum of American History - has no more room for large locomotive displays. Bill Withun was helpful, and directed me to John Hankey, then Curator at the B&O Museum. In between I did talk to Cliff Black at Amtrak, who somewhat wryly did suggest that displaying a locomotive from a famous wreck was not the best publicity that Amtrak could get.

I worked closely with John Hankey for several months to sort out the details on getting 4876 as close to DC as possible - which turned out to be the B&O Museum. By this time I was pretty much alone in the effort in the Washington area, and in order to make the move happen I wrote the check to pay for it myself. That pretty much shot my preservation wad for a long time to come. It arrived in Baltimore in time for the Founder's Day gathering in July of '93, and has been at A-yard most of the years since, with entropy taking it's toll.

I had visions of it being restored in time for the 100th anniversary of Union Station in '07, but with the current situation at the Museum, I just don't see that happening.

I have been assured by Museum staff that they plan to keep it, and regard it as an interesting and historically significant piece.

> As I understand it, this was indeed the plan
> for 4876 when the loco was rescued from the
> NJ Transit hoard in the early 1990s.
> Unfortunately, as many here can imagine,
> putting the actual locomotive that crashed
> through that very station in a train
> accident (amazingly non-fatal) right where
> passengers are still boarding trains, buying
> tickets for said trains, etc. is NOT exactly
> a sound marketing idea. I understand the
> loco's saviors proposed the idea to Amtrak,
> and were flatly turned down.


pww57@hotmail.com

I should note the significance of road electric locomotives and Baltimore City. Most people on this site know B&O had the first road electric locomotives to pull steam trains uphill through the Howard Street tunnel. Unfortunately the last one was scrapped after the 1927 Fair.

Penn Station Baltimore is in the Jones Falls Valley with stiff upgrades through tunnels in both NEC directions. The electrification thru the Union and B&P tunnels must have been a godsend to the PRR passengers. 4876 could interpret the value of electric locomotives to both of the big roads serving Baltimore.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association