I took my 3 y.o. son up to the B&O Museum for his first-ever visit, and my first look since the reopening in November. The place looks good and there is a whole lot to like, but the sheer magnitude of the changes came as something of a shock to this one-upon-a-time, long-ago volunteer. Almost nothing, I mean nothing, of the physical plant is as it was before.

The roundhouse looks spectacular with its new unpainted wood roof and whitewashed walls with black band at the foot. The new--or old, since it replicates the building's first interior paint scheme as uncovered during reconstruction--look is notably brighter than the pre-collapse butter-yellow walls and roof, but also more severe and somewhat stark.

The feeling of starkness was compounded by the absence of all the old clutter. The fascinating accumulation of knick-knacks--Pangborn models, old signals, seat coach displays, what have you--that had cluttered the roundhouse since 1953 is all gone. To those of us who knew the place well, the dusty old stuff had a kind of ideosyncratic charm to it, but I will be the first to confess that it crowded the floor, meant less than nothing to most visitors, and conformed to no recognized school of museum design and interpretation. Probably good for it to be cleared out, but still--a bit of a start! The clean-floor look does set off the core rolling stock collection very nicely, though--the focus is squarely on the trains.

It was a big to-do at the Museum today--much switching going on as equipment was brought in to fill the last three vacant tracks in the roundhouse. Returning were the two 19C pot hoppers and the 19C iron boxcar, which was placed behind No. 25 (which, I am happy to relate, is no longer The Wanderer--she has her B&O identity back). The 4-4-0 looked really sharp when placed on a west-side track with the iron box car on her drawbar.

The big news was the return of Hocking Valley-Chesapeake & Ohio Railway No. 409 "Jim Crow" combine from rehabilitation in Strasburg. This car had formerly been displayed on the non-connected "orphan tracks" under the very strange pseudo-trainshed built during the "dark years" when the Mt. Clare Mall replaced the Mt. Clare shops. She had been in increasingly poor condition due to long-term outdoor storage. Linn's people have done their usual exceptionally fine job rehabilitating her, and she really gleamed. As of today, this very handsome car is now in place between the "Royal Blue" coach and the Ma and Pa RPO, and she will be used as the centerpiece of a forthcoming exhibit interpreting passenger travel and the history of segregation on the rails.

Other notable changes--new HO layout inside the C&O 725 "Imperial Salon" chair car (now returned to a late C&O-era scheme more appropriate to its current condition than the faded Pullman green she had worn). 725 is another car rescued from slow decay on the former orphan tracks.

The new layout is very handsome, artfully compressing the B&O from Baltimore past Ellicott City, Point of Rocks, and the upper Potomac Valley. High marks for placing the benchwork low enough for kids--my 3-year-old could get a perfect eye-level view. One strange note--the operating trains all featured first-generation B&O diesels pulling 1990s-era rolling stock. Perhaps backdating the rolling stock or post-dating the motive power might be in order--maybe settle on the late 1960s or 1970s as the mid-point!

There is also a very handsome Aristocraft G-gauge permanent outdoor layout in the yard out back; my son was entranced by the big toy P-6, its Vanderbilt tender and its 4-car passenger train. His Dad also found it pretty cool.

The former welcome and introduction exhibit is gone completely--another shock to me, it was only ten years old and I still thought of it as "new" and "up-to-date." It's been replaced by an exhibit hall in the same space that will apparently feature rotating exhibits. The first of these is a display of the Smithsonian railroad rolling stock model collection, formerly on display at the old Railroad Hall in the Museum of American History. For me this was a happy reunion with old friends--I grew up in Washignton DC and spent hours staring at these beautiful models as a child.

The exhibit is a hit--average visitors seemed to really enjoy the models, admiring them for their own sake as gems of craftsmanship in the abstract rather than as didactic examples of engineering developments (the original conception of the collection).

Still--I kind of miss the quick but compehensive introduction to the railroad, what it does, and the meaning of the Mt Clare site that the 1991-2001 entry exhibit offered. Now, there is no real introduction to the site and collection--the visitor is plunged more-or-less straight into the roundhouse and the stuff.

I guess I'm like goldilocks--either too warm or too cold. At SI's new America on the Move exhibit I sometimes think there's too much context and not enough direct encounter with "big cool stuff." At the new B&O I'm leaning towards saying that there's not enough context, and too direct an encounter with the big cool stuff. Is there a happy medium? Maybe CSRM comes closest, but they are in a modern purpose-designed facility, not a cramped 19c print shop adaptively reused....

But, please, take these musings for what they are, just musings. The new B&O is beautiful, clean, approachable, completely handicapped accessible everywhere (an important change), and still posesses the finest collection of 19C equipment anywhere, one of the most comprehensive and representative diesel collections anywhere, and more neat rolling stock and 20C steam than you can shake a stick at.

Go, experience, enjoy (I know you will) and be glad this priceless institution survived a near-death experience and came out of it stronger in many important ways. A tip of the hat to Courtney Wilson, Ed Williams, and their whole paid staff for a heroic recovery job well done, and welcome back to the B&O volunteers (including frequent RyPN poster Kevin Gillespie) who make the visitor feel so welcome.

Thanks for the report Erik- I hope to visit soon.

I would be interested to see what the #25 looks like.

I see the museum website is carrying advertisements for movies now-

http://www.borail.org/

In all fairness, and as you know, Erik:

It ain't done yet.

One who knows the exhibits and the collection does indeed get the sense that the place has been somewhat rushed into reopening. And given the financial situation involved, we can't blame them. They still have the whole other shop building to make use of as best they can--and if you've ever been in there, you know there's no shortage of space for them to fill up, if/when they can get the current shop clutter out of there and into the new restoration facility. (True, even with rotations through the new shop, they'll always be short track space......)

I tend to agree with you on the lack of context--the place desperately needs a "why are we here?" entrance hallway or more, not just a movie in a car almost at the other end of the exhibits. Hopefully there will be additional rearranging and exhibit relocation as time goes on and steamers are repainted. (One big plus for the B&O RR Museum is that there always seems to be equipment being relocated for one reason or another, unlike some far-more-static museums). I may understand the reasons that certain decisions have been made, but believe me, the compromises being made to stay in the historic buildings are coming at an increasing logistical price. (Can't ANYONE figure out how to add an elevator to that print shop?)

Pretty much like she did as "The Wanderer." She's still in the same green, just toned down a bit and with "B & O R R" restored on the tender.

Erik,

It was great meeting you today, and especially young Owen. When you folks on this board worry about the future of our hobby, you have to spend time watching Owen leading his father around the museum . You can then rest assured that there will be railway enthusiasts when everyone currently posting on this board will have gone to that great locomotive depot in the sky. He is a fine credit to his father (and mother I am sure). The acorn does not fall far from the tree.

The museum is completely different from the way it was before the collapse, but there is no way it could have been completely rebuilt to its condition on February 16, 2003. The reconstruction had to meet contemporary building codes, and yet it is historically accurate in a way it never was before. The damaged equipment is there for all to see, but the new restoration facility (approximately 40% complete at the time of this writing) gives us hope that George Harwood and the restoration crew will have the tools they need to bring about even more spectacular restorations in the coming years.

The museum plans to remake itself from an institution focused on the C&O, B&O, and WM into a museum celebrating all American railroading which began on July 4, 1828, when Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid the cornerstone that sits just past the museum's new entrance.

The museum is a work in progress, and gets more interesting each time I go down there. My work schedule only permits me to volunteer there one day each month, but I look forward to the improvements I know I will see each time I visit.

As for Sandy's comment about the elevator in the print shop, there is no need for an elevator now, as only the offices are located up there. There is no way an elevator could be installed without compromising the historic fabric of the building.

1) If "only offices" are located up there, then does that mean the B&O Museum's Library is either "out of business" or "off limits"?

2) If they're going to step away from B&O-centrism and (shock! horror!) actually acknowledge the existence of other railroads besides the B&O/C&O/WM/PM/etc. family, does that mean there's actual hope of something non-B&O besides AFT 1 making it on display? For example, I know where there's a pretty interesting, albeit very neglected by now, PRR electric locomotive that *might* be available...... and maybe a different Ma & Pa piece......

(Yes, I know, I exaggerate. They DO have a Patapsco & Back Rivers Baldwin switcher and a Balto. & Annapolis GE 70-tonner....... but would they if they had enough switching room to haul them out from their well-buried tracks?)

Really--that's interesting. I trust Courtney and I will wait to judge, but in my opinion the museum has been well served to focus its collections policy on its site and region. The current mission statement reads:

"the mission of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, Inc. to:

Preserve the physical legacy and experience of American railroading, and to interpret and present its history to the widest possible audience. The Museum emphasizes the history of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, CSX Transportation, other Maryland railroads and those entities with which they were connected or closely interacted, and

Develop programs which broaden and deepen public appreciation of the past, present and future significance of the railroad industry in the development of American life, especially in the City of Baltimore, State of Maryland, and the region."

I think that's spot on--use a regional collection to illustrate general trends. We have enough comprehensive railroad museums--I think the B&O is playing to its site and its strengths by keeping a tight regional focus. As to the big argument that a significant Maryland railroad, PRR, is not represented, I would counter simpy by noting that the world's finest PRR collection is about 75 minutes away, sharing the same regional market.

Maybe a change in interpretive focus is all Courtney means--make the exhibits less about B&O corporate history, and more about using the B&O, WM, and Maryland/Baltimore experience to illuminate general trends and national social history. If so, great. But if this really presages a wider-casting net for collecting, maybe not so great.

I'd have to disagree with Erik about the museum's scope. This, of course, has been argued for many years, so far without firm resolution. At one point several years ago, one museum officer tried intensely to keep the focus narrowed to B&O, and encouraged the deassession of the restored GG-1, among other things. I and many others felt that this approach was simply wasting the unique resources that the museum has.

From a technological viewpoint, the B&O Museum can truly claim to be a "national" railroad museum. While its collection obviously is concentrated on equipment from the former Chessie System railroads, that collection ended up illustrating the entitre development of railroad locomotives and rolling stock, from the earliest steam locomotives to the superpower steam, from the pioneering CNJ diesel boxcab to a broad spectrum of first and second-generation diesels, from the Imlay replicas to typical lightweight streamlined cars, and the gamut of freight equipment. I can't think of any other museum wordwide, with the possible exception of Great Britain's National Ry. Museum, that can requal it in illustrating the entire range of rail technology, from the beginnings to the near-present.

For what it's worth, the museum's father, Larry Sagle, seems to have intended the same thing when he began bringing in "foreign" equipment (such as the CNJ 1000 and 4-4-2 #492) and re-christing the place as the "B&O Transportation Museum."

So I'm all for a broader scope. Having argued this point to deaf ears for over 17 years, I'm delighted to at last see some recognition of the collection's real value. While it may in part be a good marketing ploy, it is soundly based.

Herb Harwood

This remark was made by Ed Williams, at the volunteer orientation meeting a week before it opened. I think your interpretation is more on target than mine. He used the ex-IC refrgerator car as an example of non-Chessie items that told the broader story of railroading.

I'm not sure we're really so far apart, Herb. I am all for interpreting national trends using the existing collection--it should be a museum to explain railroads to the public, not the B&O to the public.

I'd be OK if they changed the name to the Birthplace Of Railroading Museum and dropped B&O, Maryland and Baltimore altogether if it came to that.

I am also happy to define regional broadly enough to include B&O-controlled roads like Reading and CNJ, B&O-controlling roads like C&O, and other roads the C&O controlled like PM and WM. And a sprinkling of freight cars from nearly anywhere--they all ran in interchange and that's an important story. B&O only would be far too narrow.

All I'm arguing for is keeping a somewhat focused collections management plan. Given that the family of roads mentioned above spans the Official Territory and covers every conceivable type of operation found in the Midwest and Northeast, you can use the equipment to illustrate nearly any trend in railroading and its social history. Thus, I see no need to start going down the road that leads toward "a Big Boy in every museum" or "a DD-40 in every museum" (yes, that's a reductio ad absurdum, but you get my point).

INTERPRET nationally, COLLECT regionally would be my recommendation.

Before I go, let me make something clear--I LOVE the B&O museum and I think the reconstruction and rebuilding has been very well thought out and very well done. I probably did not pound away enough in my original post at the excellent developments like total accessabilty (really important), improved interpretive signage, upgraded dining and education facilities, and the coming Living History Center in the 1850s Mt Clare Station. All of this is great, progressive change.

My musings just reflect my personal process of letting go of the old to make way for the new. If I didn't cling to the past somewhat, why would I waste my time with this stuff? :-) The last thing I want is to give the impression that a good deed like this heroic reopening goes unwelcomed or worse, punished.

I too think the changes made in the re-opened museum are a giant step in the right direction. As someone very familiar with the B&O Museum when it was owned and operated by the railroad with railroad employees, I detect a rekindled interest in the "rolling" aspect of the rolling stock collection. I think the decision to regularly operate a train for the public is very positive, although there is still a lot to do there. Apparently the train ride will be used to shuttle visitors to the new restoration building down the oldest railroad alignment in the country, which will help demonstrate the transportation aspect that was and is the only reason for railroads.

But the thing that I found most gratifying was the sight of grease (and I think journal oil) on the floor of the roundhouse! When the Museum was operated by railroad employees, they understood that preserving the collection meant keeping the journal bearings lubricated so the equipment could, in theory, be moved. In those days there was a rectangular galvanized sheet metal pan on the floor under each journal to catch the oil dripping out of the boxes. I'm sure the traditionally- trained museum managers who followed saw the oil drippings as messy and unattractive. They quickly discontinued lubrication and junked the pans to clean the place up. For me , the immaculately clean floor without the drip pans was a symbol of what was wrong with the "new" B&O Museum.

Althought the drip pans aren't back, I think I saw a few drops of oil on the floor under several journals. Hurray!

Pete Schmidt

I recently read that you have been working on a book on the never-completed South Pennsylvania RR, the route that formed the basis for part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. If I might ask, how is it progressing and when might be expect to see it in print? As with your other books, I'm sure it will be a fascinating read!

K.R. Bell
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

AFT 1 as RDG 2101 has standing as proper part of a B&O collection as the RDG handled B&O trains from Hagerstown to Allentown, and from East Side Phila to Jersey City. T-1's such as 2101 worked these trains after 1945.

2101 also has the B&O-specific brakeman's window on the left side of the cab, behind the fireman.

2101 can also interpret the era when RR's rebuilt older steam drag freight power for higher speeds. The B&O T-3's were classics of this genre. I believe they were the prototypes for RDG's T-1 program.