Just took my high school history class to the B&O museum last week and I must say I was impressed. It was my first time seeing the roundhouse since June, '03, and except for the damaged engines in the roundhouse, you would never have known anything happened.A couple of questions: Does anyone know the story behind how the CNJ camelback was rescued from the torch? This is my favorite locomotive in the collection.Also, a question for Erik Ledbetter, who if I remember correctly, is an expert on this subject: When Abraham Lincoln passed through Baltimore on his way to his first inauguration, did he change cars at Camden or Mt. Clare?

Yikes, I wouldn't call myself an expert on that 1861 Lincoln inauguration trip incident, but the references I've been able to scare up all seem to agree on Camden, not Mt. Clare. I can't nail down whether he travelled down Pratt Street in a rail car pulled by horses, or simply changed to a carriage for the transfer from President Street Station to Camden, however.About the Camelback--it came to the Museum direct from CNJ with the so-called "Royal Blue" coach (actual ancestry unknown) in a special train on May 1, 1954. We chewed the fat about this here on the Interchange a few months back, and Herb Harwood chipped in what he knew--as I recall, Herb noted that B&O at that time had stock control of, and rotated a great deal of management talent into and out of, CNJ. The best hypothesis was that B&O's PR department (almost certainly Larry Slagle) just called up his best friends in CNJ management and asked them to send down their curios for his new transportation museum. He got the coach and the Atlantic. I beleive Herb said the big WM shay came the same way--Larry called WM and asked if they'd like to contribute something to his project. I hope Herb will forgive me if I have misremembered what he said, I'm going from recall here.Also, bear in mind CNJ was still running 4-6-0 camelbacks in commuter service as late as 1953, so CNJ had at least a handful of steam locomotives just lying around in deadlines.But as to exactly why that locomotive was still around in May 1954 to be sent to the B&O Museum, or what service it had been in in the 5 or 7 years prior to that, or how it was selected rather than another, I simply do not know.

You might want to contact the Baltimore Civil War Museum at President Street Station for better answers. Long story short, whatever Lincoln did, it was under cover of disguise, darkness, or deceit. (I don't think this was the trip where he reportedly disguised himself as a kilt-wearing Scot or was sent in a box, according to two popular legends of the time, but.....)SAGLE, Erik. Lawrence SAGLE, author of "B&O Power" on the shelf behind me. (Also a former Baltimore Chapter NRHS member.)

I forget what I said about the CNJ camelback last time, so maybe I'll just make up something.But I think it went something like this: B&O's president at the time was Howard Simpson, who had originally come from the CNJ. (B&O, of course, indirectly controlled the CNJ via theReading.) Larry Sagle probably got to his boss, Robert Van Sant, who got to Simpson, who got to his friends on the CNJ. It should be remembered that the B&O Museum had just recently been established in its present quarters, so there was both a place for it and the opportunity for some good corporate PR. CNJ 592 was restored in April 1954 and ceremoniously brought down on May 1. The diesel 1000 came down a short while later.I can only guess about the Lincoln escapade, but logic would say that Lincoln's car was moved from President St. station to Camden, which was the normal routing for any such moves. Mt. Clare would make no sense, and under the circumkstances it also would have been foolish to have Lincoln change cars.Herb Harwood

How amazing is that in terms of preservation? Had those men not conversed, no doubt the cash-strapped CNJ would have torched the Atlantic, just as it did the last 4-6-0 which Don Wood pleaded with management to save. What would we give for that Camelback today?

Some accounts I've read (probably all based on Alan Pinkerton's biography, he was the bodyguard and guide for the trip) spend many words telling of the carriage ride all over Philadelphia to kill time between arrival at PRR's West Phila. depot at 32nd & Market Sts. and departure from Phila., Wilmington & Baltimore's Broad & Prime (now Washington Ave.) Sts. depot. They just mention that Alan kept Abe out of sight through the car windows while being pulled by horses through Baltimore. This implies that the transfer in Baltimore was part of the train trip, while the one in Philadelphia was up to the passenger to arrange. Whether Baltimore had a thru coach pulled by horses (my guess), a same station transfer, or a trackless shuttle is not clear, but Alan says nothing about having to hide a tall man on a station platform in Baltimore. He does imply that the time-killing carriage trip in Phila. was to reduce the time that Abe could be seen waiting in the station. He also seemed to think that there were more potential assasains in Baltimore than in Phila.By the way, the part of the PW&B that Abe rode between Gray's Ferry and about Chester was later owned by the Reading Railroad after the present NorthEast Corridor was built farther inland.

One of the volunteers at the Babe Ruth Ruth birthplace that I talked to while I was there said that he actually sat in the station building at Camden Yards while he waited for his train. That is puzzling to me because I, too, have heard that his car was drawn by horses between trains. I am also familiar with a Thomas Nast drawing (not a political cartoon) of Lincoln walking through Baltimore with a single bodyguard at a train station. Maryland was very much a concern for Lincoln because of the pro-Confederate sentiment there which actually did turn bloody in Baltimore at one point in the spring of 1861.And yes, it is amazing that CNJ 592 was saved when all other CNJ power went to the scrapyard (except 113).

Hungerford's 1928 history of the B&O says that, although he travelled from Harrisburg to Philadelphia on a special train, Lincoln and his guards rode the regular overnight sleeping-car train from Philadelphia to Washington and he may not even awakened when the cars passed through Baltimore (transferred along Pratt Street) at 3:00am. Apparently is was very hush-hush with code words and instructions to the conductors to not leave without a "very important package". So it it not likely that a special car was used, or that the normal transfer of sleeping cars down Pratt Street was altered. When the train left Philadelphia the railroad(s) cut the telegraph wire to prevent the word from getting out, restoring it after Lincoln arrived safely in Washington the next morning.Hungerford also says the "regular" Lincoln train, carrying his wife, arrived on the Nothern Central the next day and the cars also moved down the street trackage to Camden Station, this time on Howard Street of course, without incident.Pete Schmidt[/i]

When I began working with B&O folks in the mid-70's a number of them had spent time on the CNJ, having been "loaned" to that railroad by the B&O. My impression at the time was that B&O had some kind of a financial interest in the CNJ, which may well have been being the northern connection to New York. At any rate, the B&O had an interest in seeing the CNJ succeed. The gentleman who I worked most closely with had been "assigned" to the stores department at the CNJ. Also, I am pretty sure that B&O may have been, in effect, a co-signer on some locomotive purchases back in the 60's. It would be an interesting thread to really chase down properly.