Mt. Clare Roundhouse - Baltimore, MD
N 39° 17.140 W 076° 37.917
18S E 359252 N 4349747
The Mt. Clare Roundhouse is located at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The Roundhouse has 22 bays and was originally used to repair passenger cars.
Waymark Code: WM4C6J
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 08/04/2008
Views: 105
From
Wikipedia:
The B&O Railroad Museum is the current name of a museum that opened in Baltimore, Maryland on 4 July 1953, as the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum. It is located in the historic Mt. Clare Station and is the site of the B&O Railroad's historic Mt. Clare Shops.
Mount Clare is considered to be a birthplace of American railroading. The museum and station were designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1961.
The museum houses collections of 19th- and 20th-century artifacts related to America's railroads. The collection includes 250 pieces of railroad rolling stock, 15,000 artifacts, 5000 cubic feet (140 m³) of archival material, four significant nineteenth-century buildings, including the historic roundhouse, and a mile of track, considered the most historic mile of railroad track in the United States. Train rides are offered on the mile of track on Wednesday through Sunday from April through December at no additional cost.
Restoration
On the morning of February 16, 2003, heavy snow from the Presidents' Day Storm collapsed the roof of the museum's Baldwin roundhouse (built in 1884). The museum suffered heavy damage not only to the roundhouse itself but also to the collection within the roundhouse. Some of the items were damaged beyond repair. The roundhouse, with a newly repaired roof, reopened to the public on November 13, 2004. Repairs are ongoing to the damaged exhibits. To make up for losses, admission has been increased to 14 dollars for adults.
Within the roundhouse three locomotives (including the Thatcher Perkins) that were damaged by the roof collapse remain on display, albeit behind protective glass. The roof collapse, subsequent fund raising and the restoration allowed the museum to upgrade many of its facilities. In 2005 the museum opened a new service facility west of the roundhouse for restoration of historical equipment and maintenance of active equipment. As of March 10, 2006, members of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore are entitled to go to the Ellicott City Station free of charge.
From the Museum's website:
The Museum’s Roundhouse, originally constructed as a passenger car shop, was designed by noted architect, E. Francis Baldwin. Fully enclosed, it was the largest circular industrial building in the world when completed covering more than an acre of ground and rising 125 feet into the air. With the oldest and most significant railroad collection in America in hand, the railroad opened the B&O Transportation Museum at Mt. Clare on July 4, 1953. The Museum and its collections were designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.