For me, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, at 901 W. Pratt St, Baltimore, MD, has one of the finest collections of motive power in the US, and one of the most attractive display spaces.
The museum is open all year (weather permitting!) Monday-Saturday 10.00am-4.00pm and Sunday
11.00am-4.00pm, except Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day
There is so much in the collection that I have two pages devoted to the museum on this website. This page covers the roundhouse. The next page covers the B&O Museum Yard and Car Shop.
The small, two storey brick building centre-right in the photo above is the Mount Clare depot. The taller, 2/3 storey building on the far right is the more recently constructed museum entrance.
The depot was named in honour of James Maccubbin Carroll, through whose Mount Clare estate the newly formed railroad was built west. Carroll, who had inherited the land from his barrister father Charles Caroll, either donated or sold the right of way to the company along with other local landowners.
The current depot building is the oldest surviving part of the complex. Built in 1851, it replaced an earlier depot constructed in 1829. From about 1830, the B&O also began building locomotives at Mt. Clare, freight and passenger cars, and other railroad equipment. In 1850, an iron works was added, and the first iron railroad bridges, designed by Wendel Bollman, were built there in the 1850s.
The Baltimore & Ohio was one of the oldest railroads in the US. It was chartered in 1827, and construction began on 4th July 1828, when Charles Carroll of Carollton (a distant relation of James Maccubbin Carroll) did the official groundbreaking and the "First Stone" was laid.
The stone, pictured above, was a gift of the Stone Cutters of Baltimore, and is now on display just inside the museum entrance.
Above, two photographs show a replica of the freight agent's room set up inside the old depot building.
When the B&O terminal moved to a large, purpose-built Italianate station at the junction of Howard and Camden Streets in 1857, the building became a freight-only depot. At about this time, a roundhouse, as well as engine and car shops were also built at Mount Clare.
The Stourbridge Lion was built in England for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company by Foster, Rastrick & Co., of Stourbridge. It was the first steam locomotive to be exported from the UK, and was also the first steam locomotive to operate in the US.
It was assembled at the West Point Foundry, NY, in 1829 and tested under steam in August that year.
The Stourbridge Lion had a brief operational life. With US locomotive design improving, it was soon rendered obsolete.
In 1834, the railroad tried to sell it, along with three other UK built locomotives, to the Pennsylvania Canal Commission but without success. From then, components were progressively melted down to manufacture other parts and, by 1845, all that remained was the boiler.
The boiler was displayed at the 1883 Railway Exposition in Chicago, IL, where souvenir hunters made off with whatever removable parts remained. Restored again, the boiler was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1890 and is currently on loan to the B&O Museum, displayed in a room next to the Roundhouse.
Above, a model of the locomotive in front of the exhibit shows how the Stourbridge Lion looked when in service.
The roundhouse, designed by the Baltimore architect Ephraim Francis Baldwin, was built in 1884 to service passenger cars. It was the largest circular industrial building in the world when completed: 125' high, 235' in diameter, covering more than an acre.
In 1872, Baldwin was appointed head architect for the B&O. Although the roundhouse is probably best known, over twenty-five years he designed many stations and other structures for the railroad. Built in the Queen Anne Style, they are often festooned with decorative gables, spires and brickwork.
For much of its life, the B&O collected locomotives and other artefacts for public relations purposes. The collection was stored in various sites until centralised in the Mount Clare Shops in 1953. It was maintained by the C&O when it acquired ownership of the B&O in 1963, and by successor companies, the Chessie System and CSX. In 1990, CSX deeded the property and collection to the newly formed museum organisation, which has continued to expand its role and the collection ever since.
Inside, the twenty-two bay roundhouse is a truly impressive piece of engineering and it has been beautifully maintained by the museum.
On 16th February 2003, however, a record-breaking snowfall caused one half of the roof to collapse, spilling tons of snow and debris onto the collection and damaging several historic locomotives. The museum had to close for nearly two years but finally, after twenty-two months of restoration work, it reopened on 13th November 2004.
See a full, 360° flash panorama of the roundhouse interior by clicking on this link:
The first trains on US railroads were pulled by horses and, for its first few years of operation, the Mount Clare depot included functioning stables.
Above, photos of a replica of "Pioneer", one of the first horse drawn passenger trains to operate in the country. The original carried the company directors on their trip from Mount Clare to Ellicott's Mills on 22nd May 1830. The line was officially opened two days later, inaugurating the first regular railroad passenger service in the US.
Work had begun on constructing the line in October 1828, and the run from Mount Clare was thirteen miles and took the horse drawn train about 1½ hours to complete. Initially, three round trips were run daily. A fourth was added on 5th July 1830.
The replica "Pioneer" was built by the Mount Clare workshops in 1892. The interior of the carriage shows the somewhat rudimentary level of comfort afforded travellers of the day.
This replica of the 2-2-0 "Tom Thumb" was built by the Mount Clare workshops in 1927 for the Fair of the Iron Horse.
The original was built in 1830 by Peter Cooper as a demonstrator locomotive. Its success at handling curves on the B&O line led the company directors to hold a competition for US made locomotives.
The competition winner was Phineas Davis's "York", the first grasshopper type locomotive to operate on the line. The "grasshopper" name derived from the long vertical driving rods, which were thought to give them some resemblance to the insect.
The Director's Car attached to "Tom Thumb" is a 1926 replica of the one that travelled on the 28th August 1830 demonstration run of the original "Tom Thumb". It was also built at the Mount Clare shops.
The "Atlantic" #2 was an 0-4-0 built in 1832 by Phineas Davis and Israel Gartner of York, PA, after winning the competition to design a suitable locomotive for the line. Although named the "Atlantic", the locomotive on display at the museum is actually the "Andrew Jackson" #7, built in 1836, which was adapted in 1892 to resemble "Atlantic" #2. Along with the "John Hancock", it is one of the oldest surviving American steam locomotives.
With its vertical driving rods, the "Atlantic" is another example of the "grasshopper" type locomotive.
By 1838, the B&O owned fourteen grasshoppers, as well as two Ross Winans designed derivatives called "crabs", all of which had been built at the company's Mount Clare shops. Although it retained an upright boiler, the distinctive features of the "crab" were its horizontal drivers, slide rods and cylinders.
The main limitation on further development of this type of locomotive was the vertical boiler, which constrained their overall size and power. They were soon replaced by rod locomotives and most were dropped from the B&O roster by the 1840s. However, a few continued as switchers as late as the 1890s.
The views above clearly show the walking beams, the so called grasshopper "legs", and gears of this type of locomotive.
The "Andrew Jackson" was still operating in 1892, when it was finally retired and adapted for display as the "Atlantic" #2 at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The "John Hancock", built by George Gillingham and Ross Winans in 1836, is another grasshopper type locomotive. This 0-4-0 was the first B&O locomotive built with a cab.
The "John Hancock" was displayed at the 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair and featured in the highlight of the fair, the Wheels A-Rolling pageant, a dramatic musical presentation showcasing the development of transportation and railroads in the US beginning with trails and waterways.
The pageant included a recreation of the driving of the Golden Spike in completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory, UT, on 9th May 1869. Recreations of this historic event were a regular feature of such fairs (there is page on the Golden Spike NHS on this website).
The "John Hancock" weighs 17,000 lbs. A coal burner, it has 12½" x 24" cylinders and 35" drivers. Operating at a boiler pressure of just 75 psi, it delivered 6,750 lbs tractive effort.
In 1851, the locomotive was given the number #8 and then, in 1884, #3. In 1893, it was renamed "Thomas Jefferson" but returned to being the "John Hancock" in 1953.
This replica of the 4-2-0 "Lafayette" was also built by the Mount Clare workshops in 1927 for the Fair of the Iron Horse.
The Fair was held in Halethorpe, MD, four miles south west of Mount Clare, to mark the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the B&O. It featured twenty-six locomotives, twelve from the B&O, the remainder from US, Canadian and UK railroads.
It is an example of what was named a "one armed billy" probably after the builder, William Norris, but also possibly because it had a single connecting rod to the drivers.
The original was one of the first externally built locomotives ordered by the B&O.
Built in 1837, the original "Lafayette" was also the first horizontal boilered locomotive built for the line.
Still operational, the replica weighs 29,200 lbs, has 42" drivers (the original "Lafayette" had 48") and 9" x 18" cylinders. At 90 psi boiler pressure, it delivers 2,323 lbs tractive effort.
The beautifully detailed replica passenger cars attached to the "Lafayette" are typical of early examples of the originals. They were simply stage coach bodies applied to wheeled frames, but their separate springing made for a smoother ride on the often rough rail track of the time.
As was the case with contemporary stage coach travel, the lower compartments would have been for passengers paying a higher fare than those who occupied the more open upper decks.
Above, a view of "Lafayette's" upright fire box and steam dome. It was never equipped with a cab.
The original "Lafayette" went into service in April 1837. It was followed by seven more one-armed billies, the last delivered by Norris in November 1839.
They hauled both passenger and freight trains but were soon superseded by larger 4-4-0 American types, although some remained in service on light local passenger services as late as 1857.
When I visited in 2010, the "A J Cromwell" #545 was one of two locomotives still on display at the museum but which had not been restored following damage sustained when the roundhouse roof collapsed in 2003.
Both locomotives are exhibited in a glassed off area between the "Lafayette" and "Memnon". The "A J Cromwell" is on the left in the view above.
The locomotive is a Consolidation (2-8-0) type. It was built at B&O's Mount Clare works in 1888 as #545 under the supervision of Master of Machinery Andrew J. Cromwell, after whom it was renamed in 1920.
Above, a closer view of the front end of the locomotive.
The "A J Cromwell" has a wagon top boiler with a 55" diameter boiler barrel. It weighs 125,000 lbs and has 50" drivers and 20" x 26" cylinders. With a 29 sq ft grate area and total heating surface of 1,740 sq ft, it operated at a boiler pressure of 165 psi delivering 32,165 lbs tractive effort.
The locomotive spent its entire life hauling freight trains and it is the sole remaining B&O locomotive of this type. In 1956, it appeared along with a historic Royal Blue coach in the The Swan, an MGM film starring Grace Kelly.
#600 was one of the more seriously damaged locomotives in the 2003 roof collapse.
The cab was flattened. Only the front wall was left, but most of the cab appliances and controls may be salvageable.
Damage to the boiler top fittings included denting of the bell. The bell stand and yoke were also broken into pieces, and the whistle body and stem were bent. A number of gouges, dents and scrapes were sustained by the boiler jacket.
Fortunately, the tender sustained very little damage, other than minor buckling and scratching.
A Mogul type (2-6-0), the locomotive was also built at B&O's Mount Clare works under the supervision of then Master of Machinery, John C. Davis. It was built in 1875 as #600, to haul mail and express trains over B&O's Keyser to Grafton division. It was the first Mogul type passenger locomotive on the B&O system, although it soon transferred to freight.
#600 won first place at the US Centennial Exhibition in 1876, where it was displayed as the then heaviest locomotive in the world. In 1884, it was renumbered #918 but, in 1893, returned to its original number and was named "J. C. Davis". Retired in 1926, it was one of the twelve B&O locomotives to appear at the Fair of the Iron Horse the following year, and also appeared at the New York World's Fair in 1939.
The "J. C. Davis" weighs 904,000 lbs. Its tender is 63,000 lbs light, with a 3,000 gallon water and 4 ton coal capacity. It has 19" x 26" cylinders and 60" drivers. With a 23.7 sq ft grate, a 122 sq ft firebox and total heating surface of 1,272 sq ft, it operated at a boiler pressure of 130 psi delivering 17,286 lbs tractive effort.
"Memnon" #57 was one of six externally built 0-8-0 locomotives designed to haul coal from the Cumberland, MD, mines, something the lighter weight grasshoppers and one armed billies could not easily do. It was built by the Newcastle Manufacturing Company, Newcastle, DE, in 1848, one of two 0-8-0s built under sub-contract to Baldwin.
"Memnon" served in the Civil War hauling troops and supplies for the Union. It was finally retired in 1893 and last ran in the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse. It is one of the oldest surviving freight locomotives in the US.
"Memnon" burned coal (most locomotives at that period burned wood). The drivers are 43" in diameter, and it has "blind" (flangeless) centre drivers, which were usually installed to ease curve-handling. The inclined cylinders are
17" x 22". Boiler pressure was 65 psi and tractive effort was 8,580 lbs.
"Memnon" was badly damaged in the roundhouse roof collapse in 2003 and had to undergo extensive restoration. It was returned to display in February 2008.
Above, the early 19th Century fireman's and engineer's controls appear so much simpler.
For example, compare the backhead view above with that of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad's H-8 Allegheny #1604 on the B&O Museum Yard and Car Shop page of this website.
This wood burning locomotive was built by Mason Machine Works of Taunton, MA, in 1856 as #25. One of two ordered by the B&O from the works, it is an example of the most popular locomotive design on US railroads, the American type 4-4-0.
William Mason wanted to improve the symmetry of the American locomotive, and his designs produced from 1853 to his death in 1883 had far less of the ornamentation more typical of the day. The Mason Machine Works turned out over seven hundred and fifty steam locomotives until it ceased production in 1889.
Renumbered #55 in 1882, the locomotive returned to #25 in 1892 when it was named "William Mason". It has 60" drivers and 16" x 22" cylinders. With a 15 sq ft grate, 86½ sq ft firebox, total heating surface of 784 sq ft, operating at 100 psi boiler pressure, it delivers 7,979 lbs tractive effort.
The "William Mason" is the oldest operating steam locomotive in the US and has had a long career. It participated in the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse, the Railroads on Parade exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair and, like the "John Hancock", the 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair.
The locomotive has appeared in many movies, featuring as the "General" in Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase (1956). It was rebuilt as the "Wanderer" at the Strasburg Railroad in Strasburg, PA, for a 1999 Warner Brothers remake of the movie The Wild, Wild West.
More recently, it has featured in Tuck Everlasting (2002) and Gods and Generals (2003).
Above, the "William Mason's" controls are a little more complicated than "Memnon's", and the cab interior appears to be a bit more comfortable.
Still, the open cab would probably not have been quite so comfortable as "Memnon's" semi-vestibuled one with a tail wind in a Northeastern winter!
Above, the Maryland "40 et 8" is in the museum.
In 1947, the US began a relief effort to aid war-torn France and Italy. States donated box cars of goods, food and clothes to an "American Friendship Train". The French responded with a forty-nine box car "Merci Train" (Thank You Train) two years later, one for each state at the time, and one to be shared between the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. The cars, called "40 et 8" (40 and 8) cars because the French military rated them to carry forty soldiers or eight horses, contained artwork, antiques and books. The Nevada car is on the Nevada State Railroad Museum page of this website.
This railroad derrick crane was built in the B&O Mount Clare workshops in 1878. Although hand operated, it could lift 10 tons and worked on track maintenance and train wreck removal for the railroad. If necessary, it could be anchored to the rails for greater stability.
#D-2 was on hand to help clear the track at a 17th August 1887 train wreck in Washington, DC. That day, the Baltimore & Ohio's Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Express had entered the city heading south but running late. The engineer had been trying to make up time when he discovered his brakes had failed, and the locomotive derailed on a curve at Terracotta travelling at sixty miles an hour. In the resulting mayhem, several buildings were destroyed, as well as the train set. The engineer was killed and many passengers were injured.
It was the fifth major railroad accident in the US in 1887, an unusually high number. Only a week before on the night of 10th August, more than eighty people had died when a Toledo, Peoria & Western train bound for Niagara Falls from Peoria crossed a trestle just east of Chatsworth, IL. Weakened earlier in the day by fire, the trestle had collapsed. The accident became known as the "Great Chatsworth Train Wreck".
This 120,000 lb, 300 hp, 6 cylinder locomotive was the first commercially successful diesel-electric to operate in the US. Built in 1925, it was a joint effort of Alco, who built the chassis and running gear, General Electric, who supplied the electrical components, and Ingersoll Rand, who built the diesel engine.
#1000 worked as a switcher at Central of New Jersey's New York Yard. In 1928, it replaced CNJ's 0-4-0 tank engine at the railroad's Bronx Terminal yard. The change was necessary because of the city's new smoke ordinances, although the 0-4-0T was used off and on as a standby engine. #1000 was retired in 1957.
Including #1000, twenty-six of these units were produced from 1925 to 1930 in both 60 ton and 100 ton versions. The 32' 6" 60 ton units like CNJ #1000 had a tractive effort of 37,200 lbs and a top speed of 30 mph.
As well as CNJ #1000, six examples survive. You can see Ingersoll Rand #90 on the Henry Ford Museum page of this website. BO #1/195/8000 is in the St Louis Museum of Transportation. The North Alabama Railroad Museum in Huntsville, AL, has Union Carbide #3/11. The Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA, has Foley Bros., #110-1 and DLW #3001/IR #91 is in the Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL.
This electric switcher was built by General Electric for the B&O in 1909 to work at the railroad's Fells Point terminal in Baltimore. This warehouse district east of Baltimore's inner harbour was served by street trackage with overhead electrified wires.
#CE-10 weighs 100,000 lb and developed 48,000 lbs tractive effort. It replaced a smaller 5 ton electric switcher #4, also purchased by the B&O from GE in 1895, and one of the earliest electric locomotives ever constructed. #CE-10 had a long life, working at Fells Point for forty-five years until it was retired when the electric street car service was abandoned there in 1954.
Better remembered today for its geared steam locomotives, Heisler built twenty-eight fireless rod locomotives and one geared from 1934 until its plant closed in 1941.
#43 is 21' 4" long and weighs 70,000 lbs when filled with 380 cu ft of water (66,800 lbs empty). It has 31" drivers and 19" x 17" cylinders. To operate, it was charged with 400°F superheated water from PEPCO's plant boilers.
When fully charged, 80-85% of the boiler was filled with hot water and the remainder with steam. As steam was drawn off and used in the cylinders, pressure in the boiler would drop and some of the hot water would flash into steam, vaporising from the hot water that remained liquid.
When fully charged, #43 operated at 250 psi. However, the continuing vaporisation caused the water temperature to reduce until it dropped below a level at which it would vaporise at sufficient pressure to be used in the cylinders.
#43 alone could run for thirty miles fully charged, but just 3.1 miles when hauling four fully loaded 40 ton coal hoppers.
Fireless locomotives had a number of advantages. They required little preparation to use, with no firing up period. They were easy to operate, with no complex controls or boiler to fire. Because they had no firebox, flues or smokebox, high maintenance items on traditional steam locomotives, they were easy to maintain. And there was no smoke or cinders, an important factor if operating inside a building or near flammable materials.
The Potomac Electric Power Company donated this 0-4-0F (the "F" stands for fireless) to the Smithsonian in 1979. In 2009, the Smithsonian donated it to the B&O Museum.
Built by Heisler Locomotive Works of Eire, PA, in 1938, it worked its entire life for PEPCO, first at the Buzzard Point Power Station in Washington DC, and then at the Potomac River Power Station in Alexandria, VA. It was retired in 1978 because it lacked the power to handle the 70-100 ton coal hoppers coming into use at that time.
You can see other fireless locomotives on the North Carolina Transportation Museum, Virginia Museum of Transportation and Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Train Shed pages of this website.
This 3-truck Shay was originally built for the G. W. Huntley Lumber Company, WV, in 1905 by Lima.
It was sold that year to the Flint, Erving & Stoner Lumber Co. of Thornwood, WV, and owned successively by the North Fork Lumber Co. of Nottingham, WV, the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk River Railroad at Cass, WV, West Virginia Pulp & Paper, the Mower Lumber Co., and Midwest Raleigh Railroad before being sold to the State of West Virginia in 1962 to operate on the Cass Scenic Railroad. It was acquired by the museum in 1980.
Seen from the front, Shay locomotives have a characteristically "lop sided" look, as the boiler has to be offset to accommodate the side-mounted cylinders.
This type of locomotive was designed and first produced by Ephraim Shay, a Michigan logger, probably in 1875. His design attracted a great deal of interest, and Lima began building them in 1880. The company built two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight between 1880 and 1945, mainly for logging companies. They were exported around the world. Over one hundred and sixteen survive in places as far away as New Zealand, Taiwan and Chile.
The two views above show the vertically mounted cylinders. They are 12" x 15". #1 delivered tractive effort of 29,800 lbs.
An operating model of Ely-Thomas Lumber Company #6 two truck Shay is displayed in front of Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk #1.
Power was transmitted from the cylinder rods by a drive shaft running the length of the three trucks. The shaft has a universal joint and sliding slip joints to accommodate the trucks' swivelling motion. Drive was transferred to the 36" diameter wheels by bevel gears. Shays developed great power, could handle tight curves and grades, but their small drivers meant they could not operate at very high speeds.
There was a further problem, however. Because the drive shaft was on the outside of the trucks, truck rotation on curved track placed significant stress on the shaft itself. This made curve handling difficult, particularly with heavy loads, and led to Shays being disapprovingly termed "rail spreaders" and "flange hounds".
You can see more Shays on the Cass Scenic Rail Road page of this website, on the North Carolina Museum of Transportation and Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Train Shed pages.
#592 was one of 6 P-6s class Atlantic (4-4-2) type locomotives (#590-#595) built for the Central of New Jersey by Alco between 1901 and 1902.
The CNJ held onto the six locomotives until almost the end of steam: they were still operating in 1946.
Although often referred to as a camelback, #592 is actually a "Mother Hubbard".
There is a difference: true camelbacks have their cab perched atop the boiler rather than straddling it, as in the case of #592.
Above, the distinguishing features of a "Mother Hubbard" are clearly evident: a driving cab straddling the boiler with a firebox supported either by driving wheels or, as here, by a trailing truck.
When built, #592 weighed 191,000 lbs. In 1917, the P-6s locomotives were rebuilt with 460 sq ft superheating and larger cylinders. The rebuild increased the engine weight to 215,700 lbs.
Designed for fast passenger service, #592 was built with 85" drivers, but these were reduced to 79" in 1917. At the same time, its 20½" x 26" cylinders were increased to 22" x 26".
#592 operated at a boiler pressure of 210 psi, delivering tractive effort of 22,945 lbs. This increased to 28,433 lbs in 1917 with the rebuild to superheat the locomotive.
Above, two views looking along the fireman's side of the cab.
A narrow running board runs along the side of the boiler to connect with the deck from which the fireman stokes the fire.
Above, two views inside the engineer's side of the cab. Like the fireman's side, it is extremely cramped and both sides must have been uncomfortably hot in summer.
Destined for the scrap heap in 1949, #592 was spared. It was then the only surviving Atlantic type camelback in the country, and CNJ donated it to the museum in 1954.
Above, the deck plate. Because of the wide firebox and an extremely large grate area of 82 sq ft, two firedoors were fitted. Firing through these in such an exposed, narrow space straddling the footplate while just a few feet above the rails, must have been challenging when #592 was running at its top speed of 90 mph!
The firebox is a "Wootten" type, patented in 1877 by then General Manager of the Reading Railroad, John Wootten, to burn anthracite coal. Anthracite was found only in Pennsylvania but was burned extensively, mainly for heating homes. It was screened to remove fine material and to size it before shipping, but the unused coal formed almost 20% of production, and initially had no commercial use. The Wootten firebox, however, was ideal for burning this waste, variously known as buckwheat, rice or culm. The large grate allowed it to be spread thinly and to burn with a moderate draft. In turn, anthracite was ideal for passenger trains as it burned with a high heat and very little smoke.
The trailing truck, which allowed the firebox to be mounted behind the driving wheels had not been developed at the time, so Wootten placed the huge firebox above the drivers. The cab then had to be placed astride the boiler as the very wide firebox would have severely limited visibility if a rear end cab had been utilised. Still, this placed the engineer directly over the whirling side rods while the locomotive was in motion, again, not an ideal position to be in at 90 mph should any of the running gear come loose or break. In fact, because of such safety concerns, the Interstate Commerce Commission banned further camelback production in 1927, although some remained in operation well into the 1950s.
Clinchfield #1, also known as "Old Number One", was built as #423 in 1882 by the Columbus, Chicago & Indiana Central in Logansport, IN.
In 1899, it was renumbered #543 and, the following year, was sold to the Ohio River & Charleston Railway where it was renumbered #5. The OR&CR was bought by South & Western in 1905 and then changed its name to the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway in 1906. Seven years later, #5 was sold to Black Mountain Railway at Burnsville, NC, where it was renumbered #1. It operated there until 1955, when it was sold back to the Clinchfield.
Later that year, the town of Erwin, TN, purchased #1 intending to develop a display with the locomotive. However, this never materialised, and #1 sat behind the Clinchfield shops at Erwin rusting.
The name "Clinchfield" came from the Virginia coal region serviced by the railroad's line from Dante, VA, to Elkhorn City, KY, where it connected with the Chesapeake & Ohio. Like many Blue Ridge Mountain railroads, it invested in large, articulated steam during the 1940s. However, these were all scrapped in the 1950s, and #1 is one of only two Clinchfield locomotives to survive.
Above, a view of the backhead.
In 1968, #1 was completely overhauled at Clinchfield's shops. Sporting brass trimmed domes and air pump, and a graphite smokebox and smoke stack, it made its first trip on 23rd November that year from Erwin to Kingsport, TN, and back. It was the first steam locomotive to operate over the line in fourteen years. #1 was retired in 1979, having completed nearly one hundred years of service. It was then donated to the museum.
A Ten Wheeler type (4-6-0) locomotive built for freight service, it has that characteristically southern long leg between the rear and second drivers (see the photo on the left). It weighs 83,100 lbs, has 50" drivers and 18" x 22" cylinders. A coal burner, #1 operated at a boiler pressure of 125 psi, delivering tractive effort of 15,100 lbs.
I don't photograph much rolling stock, but this car built by the B&O to gauge internal tunnel clearances took my fancy. In operation, it was attached to a caboose.
Early clearance cars were simply upright wooden or light steel profiles of the system's loading gauge mounted on railroad cars and towed along a route.
Later clearance cars, like CE-15 above, were fitted with physical feelers. The metal fingers were then extended and the car was pushed through a tunnel. The resulting displacement showed the minimum clearance of the tunnel. The feelers were sometimes connected to measuring instruments inside the car.
Clearance cars were generally only owned by larger railroads like the B&O. More recently, lasers have been used to check clearances. They have usually been mounted on Hi-Rail trucks, road vehicles with supplemental rail wheels that are used on most modern railroads for track and right-of-way inspections.
Related Links:
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum Location
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum Website
Baltimore and Ohio Historical Society
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Below left, Herbert Harwood Jr., provides a detailed history of the B&O in Impossible Challenge II, published by Barnard Roberts & Co., in 1994 (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com). Impossible Challenge II is an updated, edition of Impossible Challenge I, published in 1979.
Above right, John Stover's History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was published by Purdue University Press in 1987 (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).
You can download a (word searchable) PDF version of J. Snowden Bell's Early Motive Power of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, published in 1912, from the books and manuals page of this website.