(The following article by Larry Williams was posted on the Baltimore Sun website on May 28.)
BALTIMORE, Md. — There’s no piece of machinery more powerfully attractive than a railroad locomotive and no better place to savor the romance of these technological marvels from an earlier era than at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum.
The museum, on a 40-acre yard in Southwest Baltimore where American railroading was established in 1827, has long been a must-see destination for rail fans.
In 2003, the extraordinary B&O collection of locomotives and cars, the heart of which was assembled for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, was endangered when heavy snow collapsed the roof of the cathedrallike Baldwin Roundhouse. The 1884 roundhouse has since been rebuilt and reopened.
A $6 million high-tech train shed built for the repair of locomotives and cars damaged by the collapse, opened yesterday, complete with an elevated platform to allow visitors to observe the work.
Next month, the first damaged equipment will be moved in. Among the most seriously damaged is the J.C. Davis, built in 1875 for hauling mail and passengers over steep grades. Workers have already begun the painstaking work of rebuilding that locomotive, including recasting key iron parts.
Total restoration of nine storm-damaged locomotives and cars is expected to take another five or six years to complete.