Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

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Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway/CSX Transportation
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Columbian crossing the Potomac River from Maryland to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
in 1949

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (reporting mark BO) was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States. It operated as B&O from 1830 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie System; its lines are today controlled by CSX Transportation.

The railroad was founded to serve merchants from

Parkersburg, Virginia
, below rapids that made navigation difficult during parts of the year.

The railroad, whose owners were Union sympathizers, proved crucial to the North's success during the American Civil War, which caused considerable damage to the system. After the Civil War, the B&O consolidated several feeder lines in Virginia and West Virginia, and expanded westward into Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

At the end of 1970, the B&O operated 5,552 miles of road and 10,449 miles of track, not including the

Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) or the Reading Railroad and its subsidiaries. After a series of mergers, the B&O became part of the CSX Transportation
(CSX) network in 1980.

The B&O is noted for its pioneering innovations in railroading. It was the first U.S. railroad to operate a steam locomotive, it built historic infrastructure, and it operated prestigious passenger trains. It gained additional fame by lending its name as one of the four railroads in the original version of the popular board game Monopoly.

History

Ohio

The railroad did not reach the Ohio River until 1852, 24 years after the project started. Yet the Ohio River was from the beginning the destination the railroad was seeking to link with Baltimore, at the time a transportation center. By crossing the Appalachian Mountains, a technical challenge, it would link the new and booming territories of what at the time was the West, particularly Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, with the east coast rail and boat network, from Maryland northward. There was no rail link between Maryland and Virginia until the B&O opened the Harpers Ferry bridge in 1839.

Starting in 1825, the

Cumberland Road, later the beginning of the federally-financed National Road, provided a road link for animal-powered transport between Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River and Wheeling, Virginia, in present-day West Virginia, on the Ohio River, when completed in 1837. It was the second paved road in the country. However, the 1831 DeWitt Clinton locomotive, running between Albany and Schenectady, New York
, demonstrated speeds of 25 miles (40 km) per hour, dramatically decreasing the cost of transportation and announcing the coming end of the canal and turnpike (road) systems, many of which were never completed since they were or would soon be obsolete.

In New York, political support for the Erie Canal detracted from the prospect of building a railroad to replace it, whose full length did not open until 1844. Mountains in Pennsylvania made construction in the western part of the state expensive and technically challenging, and the Pennsylvania Railroad, linking Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, did not open its full length until 1852, and there was no rail link west from Pittsburgh to Ohio for several more years.

The fast-growing port city of Baltimore, Maryland, faced economic stagnation unless it opened a route to the Western states. On February 27, 1827, twenty-five merchants and bankers studied the best means of restoring "that portion of the Western trade which has recently been diverted from it by the introduction of steam navigation."[1][2] Their answer was to build a railroad: one of the first commercial lines in the world.[3]

Their plans worked well, despite many political problems from canal backers and other railroads. For example, only the Pennsylvania Railroad was allowed to build in its namesake state, requiring the B&O to skirt around a corner of the state, even though the Pennsylvania Railroad didn't even operate in that area of Pennsylvania.

The railroad grew from a capital base of $3 million in 1827 (equivalent to $81 million in 2023) to a large enterprise generating $2.7 million of annual profit on its 380 miles (610 km) of track in 1854, with 19 million passenger miles. The railroad fed tens of millions of dollars of shipments to and from Baltimore and its growing hinterland to the west, thus making the city the commercial and financial capital of the region south of Philadelphia.[4]

Charters

Although the

George Brown were the pioneers of the railroad.[1][5] In 1826, they investigated railway enterprises in England, which were at that time being tested in a comprehensive fashion as commercial ventures.[5] Their investigation completed, they held an organizational meeting on February 12, 1827, including about twenty-five citizens, most of whom were Baltimore merchants or bankers.[5] Chapter 123 of the 1826 Session Laws of Maryland, passed February 28, 1827, and the Commonwealth of Virginia on March 8, 1827, chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, with the task of building a railroad from the port of Baltimore west to a suitable point on the Ohio River. The railroad, formally incorporated April 24, was intended to provide a faster route for Midwestern goods to reach the East Coast than to the hugely successful but slow Erie Canal across upstate New York. Thomas was elected as the first president and Brown the treasurer. The capital of the proposed company was fixed at five million dollars,[6]
but the B&O was initially capitalized in 1827 with a three million dollar issue of stock. Half of this stock was reserved for the Maryland state government and the municipal government of Baltimore, which invested $1,000,000 and $500,000, respectively, in the new company. Around twenty-two thousand people—a quarter of the city's population—bought the remaining private equity.[7]

Early construction and legal battles

Cornerstone of the B&O, laid July 4, 1828, by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, now displayed at the B&O Railroad Museum

Construction began on July 4, 1828, when Charles Carroll of Carrollton (the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence) performed the groundbreaking by laying the cornerstone. The initial tracks were built with granite stringers topped by strap iron rails. The first section, from Baltimore west to Ellicott's Mills (now known as Ellicott City), opened on May 24, 1830. A horse pulled the first cars 26 miles and back, since the B&O did not decide to use steam power for several years. Railroad men in South Carolina had earlier commissioned a steam locomotive from a New York foundry (which would reach 25 miles per hour and became the first passenger service by locomotive), while the B&O was still experimenting with horse power and sails. The B&O's first locomotive, Tom Thumb, was made in America as a demonstrator and could pull passenger and freight cars at 18 miles per hour.[8]

Developers decided to follow the Patapsco River to a point near Parr's Ridge (now known as Mount Airy), where the railroad would cross a height of land and descend into the valley of the Monocacy and Potomac rivers. Further extensions opened to Frederick (including the short Frederick Branch) on December 1, 1831; Point of Rocks on April 2, 1832; and Sandy Hook on December 1, 1834. Sandy Hook, Maryland, on the north shore of the Potomac, was the end of the line until the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing opened in 1836, linking Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (until 1863, Virginia). The connection at Harpers Ferry with the Winchester and Potomac Railroad, running southwest to Winchester, Virginia, opened in 1837, then the line northwest to Martinsburg in May 1842; Hancock in June 1842; and Cumberland, Maryland, on November 5, 1842, for some years the end of the line. The final section linked Piedmont on July 21, 1851, and Fairmont on June 22, 1852. It first reached the Ohio River at Moundsville later in 1852, and port facilities were built there. The B&O reached Wheeling, West Virginia (then part of Virginia) on January 1, 1853. That would remain the terminus through the American Civil War (apart from conflict-related outages principally between Cumberland and Martinsburg during the war) until a railroad bridge could be constructed across the Ohio River.

The narrow strip of available land along the Potomac River from Point of Rocks to Harpers Ferry caused years of legal battles between the B&O and the

right of way. The B&O also prevailed in a lawsuit against it by the Washington and Baltimore Turnpike Road.[11][full citation needed
]

Note inscribed No. 121 Baltimore February 10, 1841 Baltimore and Ohio RAILROAD COMPANY. Transfer to the holder of this order TWELVE AND A HALF CENTS in the Stock of the City of Baltimore bearing Six per cent interest payable quarterly when said holder presents orders amounting to One Hundred Dollars or upwards. [Commissioners holding the Stock to redeem these orders]." The note is illustrated with an illustration of two standing women on the left, and one sitting woman on the right.
Twelve and a half cent note issued by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in 1841.

The B&O wanted links to Virginia's

Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, which brought them to St. Louis, Missouri, three days after they had started their journey.[12] The B&O would only reach Charleston (at the confluence of the Kanawha and Elk Rivers) and ultimately Huntington (which was named after a major B&O investor) on the Ohio River more than a decade after the American Civil War and the creation of the state of West Virginia
.

Meanwhile, the State of Maryland granted the B&O a charter to build a line from Baltimore to

Washington Branch was opened in 1835.[13]: 157  This line joined to the original mainline at Relay, Maryland, crossing the Patapsco River on the Thomas Viaduct (which remains one of the B&O's signature structures). This line was partially funded by the state of Maryland, and was operated separately until the 1870s, with Maryland receiving a 25 percent cut of gross passenger receipts. The B&O's charter also forbade further taxation of the railroad, and that no-tax provision was upheld in the 1840s after Baltimore City tried to tax it.[14] This Washington Branch line was built in stone, much like the original mainline. By this time, however, strap rail was no longer used for new construction. Most of the stone bridges on the Old Main Line did not last long, being washed out by the periodic flooding of the Patapsco River and replaced at first by Bollman Truss bridges. The Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad to Annapolis connected to this line at Annapolis Junction in 1840. As an unwritten condition for the charter, it was understood that the state of Maryland would not charter any competing line between Baltimore and Washington, and no such charters were approved until well after the American Civil War, when the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired a railroad on the Delmarva Peninsula, which had the power to build short branch lines, so it was able to connect to Washington through Bowie, Maryland
.

The B&O also wanted access to Pittsburgh and coal fields in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Although the directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad wanted a monopoly in their state, delays in laying track to Pittsburgh led the Pennsylvania legislature in 1846 to require construction to be completed within 10 years, else competition would be allowed. The Pennsylvania Railroad finished its trans-Allegheny track with two years to spare, thus the B&O would only be able to extend its tracks up the Youghiogheny River valley to the soft coal fields in 1871.[15]

See also: Baltimore Terminal Subdivision

Early engineering

See also: Old Main Line Subdivision
Scenes of the B&O Railroad. Decorative title page for Ele Bowen, Rambles in the Path of the Steam-Horse, 1855

When construction began on the B&O in the 1820s, railroad engineering was in its infancy. Unsure exactly which materials would suffice, the B&O erred on the side of sturdiness and built many of its early structures of granite. Even the track bed to which iron strap rail was affixed consisted of the stone.

Though the granite soon proved too unforgiving and expensive for track, most of the B&O's monumental bridges have survived to this day, and many are still in active railroad use by CSX. Baltimore's

Bassaleg Viaduct, Newport, UK, of 1826).[16][17] The Thomas Viaduct at Relay, Maryland, was the longest bridge in the United States upon its completion in 1835. It also remains in use. The B&O made extensive use of the Bollman iron truss bridge
design in the mid-19th century. Its durability and ease of assembly aided faster railroad construction.

Carrollton Viaduct

As the B&O built the main line west to

bottleneck
. Before the decade of the 1830s ended, the B&O built a 5.5-mile-long (8.9 km) alternate route that became known as the Mount Airy Loop. The planes were quickly abandoned and forgotten, though some artifacts survive to the present.

First telegraph line

In 1843, Congress appropriated $30,000 for construction of an experimental 38-mile (61 km)

Samuel F. B. Morse sent his famous words, "What hath God wrought", from the B&O's Mount Clare station to the Capitol by telegraph.[19]

Samuel F. B. Morse is seated at center left (with telegraph tape) and John W. Garrett is seated at right. The original painting is now at the headquarters of CSX Transportation in Jacksonville, Florida. A replica is at the B&O Railroad Museum
.

Innovations

Contrary to legend, the B&O was not the first chartered railroad in the United States;

freight station (Mount Clare in 1829) and was the first railroad to earn passenger revenues in December 1829, and publish a timetable on May 23, 1830. On Christmas Eve 1852, the B&O line was completed between Baltimore and the Ohio River near Moundsville, West Virginia.[21]

Conflicts in the early years

Share of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-Road Company, issued 26. July 1856; signed by Johns Hopkins as president pro. tem.

Partial government ownership caused some operational problems. Of the thirty members on its board of directors, twelve were elected by shareholders, while eighteen were appointed either by Maryland or the Baltimore City Council.[22] Many had conflicting interests: the directors appointed by the state and city desired low fares and all construction to be funded from corporate revenues, while the directors elected by shareholders desired greater profits and dividends. These conflicts became more intense in the 1850s after the completion of the C&O Canal, which brought additional competition to the B&O. In 1853, after being nominated by large shareholder and director Johns Hopkins, John W. Garrett became president of the B&O, a position he would hold until his death in 1884.[23] In the first year of his presidency, corporate operating costs were reduced from 65 percent of revenues to 46 percent,[22] and the railroad began distributing profits to its shareholders.

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

Main article: John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

The B&O played a major role, and got national attention, in the response to

J.E.B. Stuart, who had received orders from the Secretary of War to retake Harpers Ferry and capture the insurgent abolitionists, which they quickly did.[24][27][28]
Garrett reported with evident relief the next day that aside from the cut telegraph line, which was quickly repaired, there had been no damage to any B&O track, equipment, or facilities.

The government of Maryland published in a book the many telegrams sent by B&O employees and management during the raid.[29]

American Civil War

At the outset of the Civil War, the B&O possessed 236 locomotives, 128 passenger coaches, 3,451 rail cars and 513 miles (826 km) of rail road, all in states south of the Mason–Dixon line, as Garrett had noted before the war began. Although many Marylanders had Southern sympathies, Garrett and Hopkins supported the Union. The B&O became crucial to the Federal government during the Civil War, being the main rail connection between Washington, D.C., and the northern states, especially west of the Appalachian mountains.

However, its initial problem became Lincoln's first Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, a major stockholder in the rival North Central Railroad, which received long haul freight destined for Baltimore from the rival Pennsylvania Railroad.[30] Furthermore, the Pennsylvania Railroad and other investors sought permission to construct rail lines which threatened the B&O's monopolies on the Washington Branch (between Relay and Washington DC) and westward through Cumberland, Maryland. Raids and battles during the war also cost the B&O substantial losses, many never indemnified. Master of Transportation Prescott Smith kept a diary during the war years, describing incidents such as the June 1861 derailment of a 50 car coal train, which plunged into a ravine after a bridge was destroyed (the wreckage burned for months and melted the metal coal hoppers), as well as later ironclad trains (one only disabled by an artillery shell piercing the boiler).[31]

1861–1862

On April 18, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded from the Union, Virginia militia seized the federal arsenal at

John Work Garrett received letters from Virginia's Governor John Letcher telling the B&O to pass no federal troops destined for any place in Virginia over the railroad, and threatening to confiscate the lines. Charles Town's mayor also wrote, threatening to cut the B&O's main line by destroying the long bridge over the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry, and Garrett also received anonymous threats. Thus he and others asked Secretary of War Cameron to protect the B&O as the national capitol's main westward link. Cameron instead warned Garrett that passage of any rebel troops over his line would be treason. The Secretary of War agreed to station troops to protect the North Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and even the PW&B, but flatly refused to help the B&O, his main competition.[33]

The B&O had to repair damaged line at its own expense, and often received late or no payment for services rendered to the federal government.[34] In May, CSA Colonel Jackson's operations against the B&O Railroad (1861) began. Stonewall Jackson initially permitted B&O trains to operate during limited hours over the approximately 100 miles from Point of Rocks to Cumberland.[35] On June 20, 1861, Jackson's Confederates seized Martinsburg, a major B&O work center, having blown up the Harpers Ferry railroad bridge on June 14. Confederates confiscated dozens of locomotives and train cars and ripped up double track in order to ship rails for Confederate use in Virginia (14 locomotives and 83 rail cars were dismantled and sent south, and another 42 locomotives and 386 rail cars damaged or destroyed at Martinsburg, with the B&O water station and machine shops also destroyed and 102 miles (164 km) miles of telegraph wire removed by the time federal control was restored in March 1862).[36] By the end of 1861, 23 B&O railroad bridges had been burned and 36.5 miles (58.7 km) of track were torn up or destroyed.

Since Jackson cut the B&O main line into Washington for more than six months, the North Central and Pennsylvania Railroads profited from overflow traffic, even as many B&O trains stood idle in Baltimore. Garrett tried to use his government contacts to secure the needed protection, from Maryland Delegate

Battle of Philippi (West Virginia) and Rich Mountain, and vigorous army and company work crews which reduced the main-line gap to 25 miles between Harpers Ferry and Back Creek.[37]

Finally at year end,

Edwin M. Stanton, who had been serving as Cameron's legal advisor.[38] Furthermore, on January 31, 1862, Congress passed the Railways and Telegraph Act of January 31, 1862, creating the United States Military Railroad and allowing it to seize and operate any railroad or telegraph company's equipment, although Stanton and USMRR Superintendent Daniel McCallum would take a "team of rivals" approach to railroad management and allow civilian operations to continue.[39] In February 1862, Union forces recaptured Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry, and work crews continued replacing wrecked bridges and equipment, although bushwhacker raids continued.[40]
Even then train movements were sporadic and subject to frequent stoppages, derailments, capture and attack. Prominent raids on the B&O railroad during this period were:

B&O Locomotives Captured During the
Great Train Raid of 1861
Engine Name Eng. No. Type
? No. 17 Norris 4-2-0
? No. 34 Mason 4-4-0
? No. 187 Camel 0-8-0
Lady Davis (CSA name) No. 188 Tyson 4-4-0 "Dutch Wagon"
? No. 193 Camel 0-8-0
? No. 198 Hayes Camel 0-8-0
? No. 199 Camel 0-8-0
? No. 201 ?

1863–1865

Advertisement for the Baltimore and Ohio in an 1864 Baltimore city directory, promoting its repairs and reopening at one point during the war.

The second half of the Civil War was characterized by near-continuous raiding, which severely hampered the Union defense of Washington, D.C. Union forces and leaders often failed to properly secure the region, despite the B&O's vital importance to the Union cause.

There is no interest suffering here except the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and I will not divide my forces to protect it.

— General Philip Sheridan[41]

This military strategy, or lack thereof, allowed Confederate commanders to contribute significantly to the length of the war, by conducting free-ranging military operations against the region and railroad.

Before the Battle of Monocacy, B&O agents began reporting Confederate troop movements eleven days prior to the battle, and Garrett had their intelligence passed to authorities in the War Department and to Major General Lew Wallace, who commanded the department responsible for defense of the area. As preparations for the battle progressed, the B&O provided transport for federal troops and munitions, and on two occasions Garrett was contacted directly by President Abraham Lincoln for further information. Though Union forces lost this battle, the delay allowed Ulysses S. Grant to successfully repel the Confederate attack on Washington at the Battle of Fort Stevens two days later. After the battle, Lincoln paid tribute to Garrett as:

The right arm of the Federal Government in the aid he rendered the authorities in preventing the Confederates from seizing Washington and securing its retention as the Capital of the Loyal States.

— Abraham Lincoln[42]

The Confederate leaders who led these operations and specifically targeted the railroad included:

  • Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and many units under his command
  • Lieutenant General
    Jubal Anderson Early
    and many units under his command
  • Brigadier General Turner Ashby and his "Black Horse" cavalry
  • Brigadier General
    62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry
    (1st Partisan Rangers)
  • Brigadier General
    8th Virginia Cavalry
  • Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones and the "Laurel Brigade"
  • Colonel
    Mosby's Rangers
    "
  • Major Harry Gilmor's "Gilmor's Raiders"
  • Captain John H. McNeill's "McNeill's Rangers"

Bases of operation involved in raiding the B&O Railroad:

Westward by merger

Table of Cumberland Coal shipped over B&O Railroad and C&O Canal, 1842–1865[43]

A steel and stone bridge was built across the Ohio River between Bellaire, Ohio, and Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1871, connecting the B&O to the Central Ohio Railroad, which the B&O had leased starting in 1866. This provided a direct rail connection to Columbus, Ohio, and the lease marked the beginning of a series of expansions to the west and north.

Other railroads included in the B&O were:

  • Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
    , and constituted the only significant B&O trackage in present-day Virginia.
  • Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad leased through the Central Ohio in 1869
  • Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad from 1871. This was the B&O entry into Pittsburgh, thwarting the denial of a Pennsylvania charter to the B&O.
  • Somerset and Cambria Railroad from 1879
  • Buffalo Railroad from 1880
  • narrow gauge railroad
    , it was converted to standard gauge and renamed the Baltimore & Ohio Short Line.
  • West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad from 1890
  • Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railroad leased through the Central Ohio in 1890
  • Monongahela River Railroad from 1900
  • St. Louis, Missouri
    , and finally the B&OSW disappeared into the rest of the system in 1900.
Blockade of engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia, during strike in 1877
1876 B&O map

(This list omits certain short lines.)

The

Chicago and Alton Railroad was purchased by the B&O in 1931 and renamed the Alton Railroad. It was always operated separately and was eventually bought by the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad
after receivership in 1942.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

See also: Great Railroad Strike of 1877

As a result of poor national economic conditions in the mid-1870s following the

sympathy strike
that was also met with an assault by the state militia; Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread rioting. The strike ended after federal troops and state militias restored order.

New lines in Maryland

B&O route map of 1891

In 1866 the B&O began constructing the Metropolitan Branch west out of Washington, which was completed in 1873 after years of erratic effort. Before this line was laid, rail traffic west of Washington had to travel first to Relay or Baltimore before joining the main line. The line cut a more or less straight line from Washington to Point of Rocks, Maryland, with many grades and large bridges. Upon the opening of this line, through passenger traffic was rerouted through Washington, and the Old Main Line from Point of Rocks to Relay was reduced to secondary status as far as passenger service was concerned. The Washington to Gaithersburg section of the Met Branch was double-tracked during 1886–1893.[47] Rebuilding in the early 20th century and complete double-tracking of the branch by 1928 increased capacity; the "branches" became the de facto mainline, though the Old Main Line was retained as a relief route.

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) outmaneuvered the B&O to acquire the B&O's northern connection, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, in the early 1880s, cutting off the B&O's access to Philadelphia and New York. The state of Maryland had stayed true to its implicit promise not to grant competing charters for the Baltimore/Washington line, but when a charter was granted in 1860 to build a line from Baltimore to Pope's Creek in southern Maryland, lawyers for the Pennsylvania RR picked up on a clause in the unfulfilled charter allowing branches up to 20 miles (32 km) long, from any point and in any direction. The projected route, passing through what is now Bowie, Maryland, could have a "branch" constructed that would allow service into Washington. The Pennsylvania picked up the charter through the agency of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and in 1872 service between Baltimore and Washington began. (See Pope's Creek Subdivision.) At the same time, the PRR outmaneuvered the B&O and took control of the Long Bridge across the Potomac River into Virginia, the B&O's connection to southern lines.

North Charles Street
in Baltimore

In response, the B&O chartered the

Howard Street Tunnel
drove the B&O to bankruptcy in 1896.

Two other lines were built in attempts to reconnect to the south. The Alexandria Branch (now called the

freight cars were routed north and south over the structure, which was demolished after the end of World War II.[49]

Before either connection was made, however, another branch was built around the west side of Washington. During the 1880s the B&O had organised a group of bankrupt railroads in Virginia into the

Rock Creek; and a short tunnel, Dalecarlia Tunnel, under the Washington Aqueduct. The line was almost completely abandoned in 1986 by CSX and is presently used in part as the right-of-way for the Capital Crescent Trail
.

After a flood damaged the C&O Canal in 1877, the B&O acquired a majority interest in the canal mainly to keep its property and right of way from potential use by the

Western Maryland Railroad.[9] The canal was operated by the B&O until 1924 when it was damaged in another flood. The canal's property was later transferred to the U.S. government in 1938 in consideration for obtaining a loan from the federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation.[9]

In 1895 the B&O introduced electric locomotives over 3.75 mi (6.04 km) of line near Camden, initially using an overhead electric slot system.[50]

The 20th century

B&O stock certificate, 1903
Replacement of retaining wall of B&O in Hazelwood, Pittsburgh, 1906

Following its emergence from bankruptcy, control of the B&O was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1901, though the two kept separate corporate identities. A rising young PRR Vice President,

Lackawanna Railroad for concrete). With the adoption of anti-trust legislation in 1906, the relation between the two companies was severed.[51]

The railroad's passenger numbers were at a disadvantage with the railroad's major competitor in the northeast, the

Reading Railroad tracks to Bound Brook and there joining Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks to Jersey City. Passengers rode CNJ ferries or B&O busses to Manhattan. Suffering from its weaker market position from Baltimore to New York, the B&O discontinued all passenger service north of Baltimore on April 26, 1958. One day later, the railroad had declared itself fully dieselized.[citation needed
]

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad system map, circa 1961

The

Georgia Railroad, agreed to form CSX Corporation. SCL Industries was renamed the Seaboard System Railroad (SBD) in 1983, the same year that the Western Maryland Railway was completely absorbed into the B&O. SBD was renamed CSX Transportation (CSX) in 1986. On April 30, 1987, the B&O's corporate existence ended when it was absorbed into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which merged into CSX Transportation on August 31 of that year.[54]

In railroading's golden age, the B&O was one of several trunk lines uniting the northeast quadrant of the United States into a wide industrial zone. It was the southern border as the New York Central was the northern border. The Pennsylvania Railroad controlled the center, and smaller roads like the Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, and the Erie in the center surviving largely through the Interstate Commerce Commission. The corners of this map are Baltimore in the southeast, Boston in the northeast, Chicago in the northwest, and St. Louis in the southwest.

Revenue Freight Ton-Miles (Millions)
B&O SIRT BR&P CI&W D&U ICV
1925 19459 6 1585 376 3 15
1933 12111 6 (incl in B&O) (incl in B&O) (incl in B&O) (incl in B&O)
1944 34802 9
1960 24840 15
1970 28594 ?
Revenue Passenger-Miles (Millions)
B&O SIRT BR&P CI&W D&U ICV
1925 878 67 47 14 0.004 0.1
1933 435 52 (incl in B&O) (incl in B&O) (incl in B&O) (incl in B&O)
1944 2758 81
1960 533 37
1970 64 ?
The Columbian on Thomas Viaduct, Relay, Maryland, in 1949. The original 1835 Viaduct, which carried Washington D.C.'s first rail connection to Baltimore, is still in use in 2023.

Legacy

When CSX established the B&O Railroad Museum as a separate entity from the corporation, it donated some of the former B&O Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, to the museum, while selling the rest of the property. The Baltimore & Ohio Warehouse at Camden Yards rail junction in Baltimore now dominates the view over the right-field wall at the Baltimore Orioles' current home, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Locomotive roster

Main article: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad locomotives

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had numerous locomotives and cab units,[55] mostly the latter. The railroad had locomotives from the following companies:

Heritage units

In 1952 the U.S. Post Office issued a postage stamp commemorating the 125th anniversary of the B & O Railroad.

In 2021, CSX repainted three EMD F40PHs into an honorary B&O scheme: CSX F40PH-2 1, F40PH-2 2 and F40PH-2 3.

In May 2023,

Waycross, GA
under the honorary B&O scheme similar to that of the F40PH-2 1, F40PH-2 2 and F40PH-2 3.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Jacobs (1989), p. 13.
  2. ^ Rasmussen, Frederick N. (February 28, 2002). "Riding the B&O; for 175 years". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on February 27, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  3. JSTOR 25102651
    .
  4. ^ Stover (1987), pp. 17 & 75.
  5. ^ a b c Jacobs (1989), p. 12.
  6. ^ Moody, John (1919). "Crossing the Appalachian Range". The Railroad Builders, A Chronicle of the Welding of the States. Chronicles of America Series, Vol. 38. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2006.
  7. ISBN 978-0226720258
    .
  8. ISBN 978-1566632188
  9. ^ a b c Lynch, John A. "Justice Douglas, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, and Maryland Legal History". University of Baltimore Law Forum. 35 (Spring 2005): 104, 112–125.
  10. ^ Baltimore and Ohio v. Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 4 Gill and Johnson MD 1 (1832)
  11. ^ Baltimore and Ohio v. Washington and Baltimore Turnpike Road, 100 Gill and Johnson MD 392 (1839)
  12. ^ Gordon pp. 106–107
  13. ISBN 978-0-8047-2629-0. Archived
    from the original on April 30, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  14. ^ Baltimore and Ohio V. Mayor and City of Baltimore, 6 Gill Md 288 (1847)
  15. ^ Albro Martin, Railroads Triumphant: the Growth, Rejection & Rebirth of a Vital American Force (Oxford University Press 1992), pp. 17, 138
  16. ^ "Four North East Heritage Sites Telling the Story of England". historicengland.org.uk. Historic England. June 6, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  17. ^ "Bassaleg Viaduct, Rumney Railway, Bassaleg". Coflein. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
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  19. ^ Stover (1987), pp. 59–60.
  20. ^ Stover (1987), p. 2.
  21. ^ Powell, Bob (December 24, 2014). "December 24, 1852: B&O Railroad completed near Moundsville". West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on July 31, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
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  23. ^ Hall, C. C. (1912). Baltimore: Its History and Its People. Vol. 2. Lewis Historical Publishing Co. pp. 458–461.
  24. ^ a b Jacobs (1989), p. 42.
  25. ^ George B. Abdill, Civil War Railroads: A Pictorial Story of the War Between the States, 1861–1865, (Indiana University Press 1961) p. 8
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  28. ^ Toomey pp. 8–9
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  34. ^ Toomey pp. 82–83
  35. ^ Abdill p. 26
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  39. ^ Toomey pp. 63, 181
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  42. ^ "John W. Garrett, President, B & O Railroad." Archived February 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine U.S. National Park Service, Monocacy National Battlefield, Frederick, MD. Accessed 2005-11-14.
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  44. ^ Mundy, Floyd W., ed. (1922). "17th issue". Mundy's Earning Power of Railroads. 17. James H. Oliphant & Company: 224.
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  46. ^ Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Maryland From the Earliest Period to the Present Day Archived July 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, vol. 3 pp. 733–742, Heritage Press: Hatboro, Pa., 1967 (reissue of 1879 edition)
  47. ^ Soderberg, Susan C. (1998). The Met: A History of the Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad, Its Stations and Towns. Germantown, MD: Germantown Historical Society. p. 10.
  48. ISBN 978-1557530660. Archived
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  49. ^ National Railway Historical Society, Washington, D.C. Chapter. "Timeline of Washington, D.C. Railroad History." Archived June 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Accessed February 27, 2011.
  50. ISBN 978-0-85045-060-6
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  55. ^ Baltimore & Ohio Locomotive Roster

Cited and general references

Further reading

External links

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