The Mount Clare Shops is the oldest

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

manufacturing complex in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, located in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

.United States National Park Service. Washington, DC. Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). "Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: Mount Clare Shops." HAER No. MD-6A. 1984. It was founded by the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

(B&O) in 1829. Mt. Clare was the site of many inventions and innovations in railroad technology. It is now the site of the B&O Railroad Museum. The museum and Mt. Clare station were designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1961.

History

The Mount Clare site was a portion of an estate owned by Charles Carroll (barrister), a distant cousin of

Charles Carroll of Carrollton Charles Carroll (September 19, 1737 – November 14, 1832), known as Charles Carroll of Carrollton or Charles Carroll III, was an American politician, planter, and signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He was the only Catholic signatory ...

. (See

Mount Clare (Maryland) Mount Clare, also known as Mount Clare Mansion and generally known today as the Mount Clare Museum House, is the oldest Colonial-era structure in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. The Georgian style of architecture plantation house exhibits a somew ...

.) The initial operations of the B&O used

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...

s, and the earliest facilities on the Mt. Clare site included a depot and stables for horses. This was one of the earliest passenger stations in the United States. Following the 1830 manufacture of the first U.S.

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

Peter Cooper Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and politician. He designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the ''Tom Thumb (locomotive), Tom Thumb'', founded the Cooper Union ...

at the nearby Canton Iron Works, the B&O began building locomotives at Mt. Clare, as well as

freight car Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon types ...

s, passenger cars,

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s and other railroad equipment. Ross Winans and

Phineas Davis Phineas Davis (January 27, 1792 – September 27, 1835) was a well-known clockmaker and inventor who designed and built the first practical American coal-burning railroad locomotive. Early life and career Davis was born in Warner, New Hampshi ...

, pioneers in locomotive design, built their inventions at Mt. Clare. The shops employed 100 workers in 1839. The B&O built an ironworks at Mt. Clare in 1850. The first

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

railroad bridges, designed by Wendel Bollman, were built in the Mt. Clare shops in the 1850s. A roundhouse, engine service and car shops, and a new depot were also built at Mt. Clare during this period. After the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the railroad built a

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop, additional car shops and an office building at Mt. Clare. In 1882, the railroad added a bridge fabrication shop. A circular (actually 22-sided) passenger car shop, sometimes mislabeled as a roundhouse, was designed by architect E. Francis Baldwin and completed in 1884. At the time of completion it was the largest circular industrial building in the world, in diameter and high.''Note:'' Other publications list various heights for the shop, ranging from to 135 ft. Mt. Clare shops employed 1,000 workers by 1852 and over 3,000 in the 1920s. Between 1900 and 1920, the B&O erected a large locomotive shop,

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tool (machining), cutting tools to make parts, usua ...

, a

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

and a tender shop. Air-conditioned passenger cars were developed by the B&O and the

Carrier Corporation Carrier Global Corporation is an American multinational heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, and fire and security equipment corporation based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Carrier was founded in 1915 as an indep ...

at Mt. Clare in the late 1920s. The railroad built its last steam locomotive at Mt. Clare in 1948. During the 1950s, as the railroad increased its use of

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

s, there was less demand for steam locomotive and machine shop work at Mt. Clare. The railroad abandoned use of the circular car shop in 1953 and made it available for use by the museum. In 1962, a fire destroyed the Mt. Clare locomotive erecting shop. The

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

(C&O) purchased the B&O, also in 1962, and subsequently locomotive repairs were handled at the B&O shops in

Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,075. Located on the Potomac River, Cumberland is a regional business and comm ...

. Only car repairs were continued at Mt. Clare, until 1974, when all shop work on the site was discontinued. By this time many of the buildings were in disrepair, and most were demolished by 1976, except for those used by the museum.

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

, the successor railroad company, sold portions of the property, and of the Mt. Clare site have been retained by the museum.

References

External links

B&O Railroad Museum
{{NA Loco builders 1829 establishments in Maryland Industrial buildings completed in 1829 1820s in Baltimore Blacksmith shops Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Industrial buildings and structures in Maryland Defunct locomotive manufacturers of the United States Rail transportation in Maryland Railway workshops in the United States Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore National Historic Landmarks in Maryland Southwest Baltimore Railway workshops on the National Register of Historic Places Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Transportation buildings and structures in Baltimore

History

See also

References

External links