14-06-28 PHOTOS: B&O Bash

It's always nice when you can hijack an otherwise non-railfan group to do railfan things. I had one such opportunity in June when a bunch of friends were attending a conference in the Baltimore area and I convinced them to take a trip to the B&O Museum. I had last been to the B&O Museum way back in 2006 and it was high time for a refresher. As I expected not much had changed, but on the other hand my camera was two generations newer so I could photograph things again for the first time.

You can find the B&O Museum pics here along with a bunch from the Baltimore Zoo.

Out in the parking lot GP40 #3684 had been restored to its original B&O livery.

Although I wasn't too pleased that this B&O RDC was ripping off the trademark name of South Jersey's own transit system.

The "Tomb Thumb" engine might be a replica built in 1927, but this "Grasshopper" type is an authentic 1832 steam locomotive. I think that predates interchangeable parts!

I'm not here to give a history lesson on what each of the stuff display pieces in the B&O round house are, but I do know that around 2003 the museum suffered a roof collapse due to wet snow which severely damaged a number of the historic steam engines inside. Anyway the repair work was so good that I can't tell exactly which ones were affected, although I think it was some of these.

This restored Chessie painted GP38 was providing power to the excursion train in place of the MARC F-unit that was performing the duty back in 2006.

Still, MARC #7100 looked ready to take over if necessary.

The B&O Museum features one of the most powerful steam locomotives still in existence, C&O Allegheny #1604, whose class could generated nearly 7000hp.

C&O Pacific #440 is always a crowd pleaser.

Out in the field PRR GG-1 #4876 is still hanging in there as efforts to scrap the locomotive have changed to preservation. This was the locomotive that crashed into DC's Union Station in 1953.

I'll wrap things up with the Museum's signal collection out in the parking lot.

Tune in next time for the inaugural run of the DC Metro's Silver Line.