The B&O Railroad Museum

Baltimore is where the first mile of commercial railroad in America was constructed and where the first passenger train ticket was sold, so it’s fitting that the city is now the home to the world-renowned B&O Railroad Museum. It offers an unparalleled look at a mode of transportation that went on to affect every aspect of American society.

The history of the museum dates back to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, when a B&O (for Baltimore and Ohio) railroad exhibit was presented to great acclaim. While the exhibit equipment was returned to Baltimore, much of it was destroyed in a hurricane in 1935. Surviving portions were preserved until 1953, when they were moved into the roundhouse that now serves as the museum’s current site.

The museum’s collection houses the most comprehensive collection of railroad artifacts in the Western world. You can see the “Nova Scotia,” a small passenger coach resembling Cinderella’s carriage, likely the oldest surviving private rail car in existence. Also on display is the tunnel clearance car, which features foldable spikes that allowed railroad workers to measure how much further a tunnel needed to be widened. The museum also houses over 6,000 artifacts like pocket watches, Pullman porter objects, uniforms, and dining car china.

The B&O Railroad Museum is historic not just for the trains and ephemera it safeguards, but for the 40-acre site itself, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. The tracks and shop buildings provide a glimpse at what railroads were like when they were new and Mt. Clare hosted the nation’s first passenger and freight station. The National Park Service has also designated the museum as an Underground Railroad site, as at least 27 Freedom Seekers passed through it on their way north.

It wouldn’t be a train museum if you couldn’t go for a ride. Train tours allow you to hop on a historic railcar and ride on the first mile of commercial track ever laid in the country. All aboard!