Camden Station
Camden Station | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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420
[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parking | 1,004 spaces[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bicycle facilities | Covered racks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1867 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Passengers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | 429 daily[3] 27.6% (MARC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2017 | 616[4] (Light RailLink) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Camden Station, now also referred to as Camden Street Station, Camden Yards, and formally as the Transportation Center at Camden Yards, is a train station at the intersection of South Howard and West Camden Streets in
Camden Street Station was originally built beginning in 1856, continuing until 1865, by the
History
Development
In 1852, the board of directors of the
Civil War years
In February, 1861,
During the four-year conflict, the B&O's line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. was the sole rail link between the Federal capitol and the North, resulting in a vital role for Camden Station as B&O's Baltimore terminal.[14] Trainloads of wounded soldiers and Confederate POWs came through the station following the Battle of Antietam, 75 miles (121 km) west of Baltimore on September 17, 1862.[13] President Lincoln changed trains at Camden Station on November 18, 1863 en route to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to deliver the Gettysburg Address.[13] Lincoln also used Camden Station on April 18, 1864 when he made an overnight visit to Baltimore for a speaking engagement. A year later, at 10 a.m. on April 21, 1865, the assassinated president's nine-car funeral train arrived at Camden Station, the first stop on its slow journey from Washington to Springfield, Illinois, via the B&O and the Northern Central Railway's Baltimore-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, line.[15]
In July 1877, the station was the site of riots and clashes between the
Beginning in 1897, Camden Station also had lower-level platforms for B&O's New York–Washington passenger trains, which used the
20th century
In 1912, the B&O remodeled the central waiting room, enlarging it and adding oak panelling with marble wainscoting for the Democratic National Convention, held in Baltimore that year.[19] The Annapolis & Baltimore Short Line Railroad also used Camden Station for its trains to Annapolis, Maryland, beginning in 1887. Except for an interval between 1921 and 1935, when the successor Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) used a separate station at Howard and Lombard Streets, frequent electric interurban trains to Maryland's capitol served Camden station until February 5, 1950, when WB&A successor Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad replaced rail passenger service with buses.[20]
The first streamlined, non-articulated
Declining rail passenger traffic in the 1950s and 1960s led to substantial reductions in passenger train arrivals and departures at the venerable station. On April 26, 1958, the B&O discontinued all passenger service to Philadelphia and New York, and Camden Station's lower-level platforms were used thereafter only for a few trains that continued to Mount Royal Station. When Mount Royal closed in 1961, the lower-level platforms were removed. Today, the lower level tracks and the Howard Street tunnel continue to be extensively used by freight trains of B&O's successor CSX Transportation, as part of its mainline system.[8] The inception of Amtrak on May 1, 1971 marked the demise of all B&O long-haul passenger service.[14] Thereafter, only B&O's local commuter trains, mostly Budd Rail Diesel Cars, continued to use Camden Station. The Baltimore Sun commentator Jacques Kelly described Camden Station in its twilight years of B&O operation in the 1980s: "Spotlessly maintained, it radiated the goodwill and a non-arrogant style typical of B&O employees ... its golden oak benches and large overhead lamps were maintained in the same pristine condition as when they welcomed delegates to the 1912 Democratic Presidential Convention."[21]
Current operations
Camden Station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Station layout
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The rail station is now served by both the
The MTA's Light Rail began service around the time that
The station also sees frequent use for Baltimore Ravens games at M&T Bank Stadium, though that stadium's official stop is Stadium/Federal Hill station.
Although MARC schedules still refer to the Camden Line's terminus as "Camden Station", only the station's platforms are now used. The station is served by three island platforms, and six tracks. MARC trains use three tracks and the west and center platforms, and light rail uses three tracks (the third track helps to turn trains which run the Penn Station-Camden Route) and the center and east platforms. The center platform is unique as it accommodates both the high level MARC equipment, and the low level light rail equipment. This is accomplished with different track heights. The MARC track is 48 inches (1,219 mm) below the platform, which allows for level boarding. The light rail track is at the same height as the platform.
The current station building, a space frame over two trailers, was built in 1992 and intended to be used for only a few years before replacement with a permanent structure. In November 2016, the state secured a $7.5 million federal grant which will pay for part of a permanent station structure.[22]
The original B&O station building is no longer used for train passengers. In May, 2005, a new sports museum, the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards, opened in the original Camden Station structure. The following year, Geppi's Entertainment Museum opened above the Sports Legends museum. Sports Legends closed in 2015; Geppi's closed in 2018.
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EMD GP40WH-2#52 at Camden Station, July 2, 2004
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Light Railtrain heading north
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A MARC train departing the station
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Looking down the light rail platforms
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Older baggage car occupying one of the tracks
See also
- Baltimore Belt Line
- Baltimore Civil War Museum
- Baltimore Terminal Subdivision (CSX)
- Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
- President Street Station
- Longworth Hall, a similar building in Cincinnati
References
- ^ MTA Maryland. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
- ^ "Bus and Rail Connections" (PDF) (Map). Maryland Transit Administration. August 15, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
- ^ "December 2018 MARC performance (for Nov 18) – Ridership" (PDF). Maryland Transportation Authority. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ "Light rail link cornerstone plan" (PDF). mta-website. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
- ^ ISBN 1-879314-08-8.
- ^ ISBN 0-8047-2235-8.
- ^ "Maryland Historical Trust". Ruscombe, Baltimore City. Maryland Historical Trust. 2008-11-21.
- ^ ISBN 0-89778-155-4)
- ^ ISBN 0-471-14389-8.
- ^ The Thwarted Plot to Kill Lincoln on the Streets of Baltimore, Boundary Stones: WETA's Washington DC History Blog
- ^ Road to Lincoln's end ran through Baltimore, Jonathan M. Pitts, The Baltimore Sun
- ^ The Baltimore Plot, The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln, Michael J. Kline, Chapter 16, An Unexpected Arrival, pg. 258-259
- ^ LCCN 97060687.
- ^ ISBN 0-911198-81-4), pp. 172–176.
- ISBN 0-9612670-0-3.
- ^ Dacus, Joseph (1877). Annals of the Great Strikes in the United States: A Reliable History and Graphic Description of the Causes and Thrilling Events of the Labor Strikes and Riots of 1877. L.T. Palmer.
- ISBN 0-517-67603-6), p. 68.
- ^ F.G. Bennick, "B&O was first U.S. railroad to use electric locomotives", B&O Magazine, April, 1940, pp. 19–23.
- ^ Potter, p. 132.
- ^ Herbert H. Harwood Jr. (2004–2005). "Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad". Maryland Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- ^ a b Kelly, Jacques (March 22, 2009). "Trains, Buses And Boats – How Baltimore Used To Travel". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ Gunts, Ed (November 9, 2016). "Maryland Receives $7.5 Million Federal Grant to Build a New MARC Station at Camden Yards". Baltimore Fishbowl. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
External links
- Station from Google Maps Street View
- Camden Station and Camden Yards at Explore Baltimore Heritage
- Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. MD-326, "Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Camden Station, Camden Street, Baltimore, Independent City, MD", 9 measured drawings
- HABS No. MD-326-A, "Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Camden Station, Warehouse Office Building", 6 measured drawings
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MD-7, "Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Camden Station, South side of Camden Street between Eutaw & Howard Streets, Baltimore, Independent City, MD", 21 photos, 4 data pages, 3 photo caption pages