Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (reporting mark BO) was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of the National Road early in the century, wanted to do business with settlers crossing the Appalachian Mountains. The railroad faced competition from several existing and proposed enterprises, including the Albany-Schenectady Turnpike, built in 1797, the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. At first, the B&O was located entirely in the state of Maryland; its original line extending from the port of Baltimore west to Sandy Hook, Maryland, opened in 1834. There it connected with Harper's Ferry, first by boat, then by the Wager Bridge, across the Potomac River into Virginia, and also with the navigable Shenandoah River.

Because of competition with the CnO Canal for trade with coal fields in western Maryland, the railroad could not use the CnO right-of-way west of Harpers Ferry. To continue westward through the Appalachian Mountains, the BO built the B O Railroad Potomac River Crossing (1837) at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). The line continued through Virginia to a point just west of the junction of Patterson Creek and the North Branch Potomac River, where it crossed back into Maryland to reach Cumberland (1842), connecting with the National Road, the main route westward. It reached the Ohio River at Moundsville, Virginia (1852), Wheeling (1853), where it built a terminus, and in 1857 to Parkersburg, Virginia, below rapids which made navigation difficult during parts of the year. It proved crucial to Union success during the American Civil War, which caused considerable damage to the system. After the war, the B&O consolidated several feeder lines in Virginia and West Virginia, and expanded westward into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. B&O advertising later carried the motto: "Linking 13 Great States with the Nation."

The B&O also included the Leiper Railroad, the first permanent horse-drawn railroad in the U.S. At the end of 1970, the B&O operated 5,552 miles of road and 10,449 miles of track, not including the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) or the Reading and its subsidiaries. It included the oldest operational railroad bridge in the United States, the Carrollton Viaduct. After a series of mergers in the 20th century, the B&O became part of the CSX Transportation (CSX) network in 1987.

When CSX established the B&O Railroad Museum as a separate entity from the corporation, it donated some of the former B&O Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, to the museum, while selling the rest of the property. The B&O Warehouse at the Camden Yards rail junction in Baltimore now dominates the view over the right-field wall at the Baltimore Orioles' current home, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The B&O owes its fame, in part, to its inclusion as one of the four featured railroads in the original version of the popular board game Monopoly; it is the only railroad on the board that did not directly serve Atlantic City, New Jersey, the city whose street names were used in the game's original edition.

History

Electrification

By this time the Pennsylvania Railroad line through Baltimore and points south had been in operation for twenty years. Due to the built-up nature of the area traversed and the hilly terrain, much of its line through town was in tunnels, which posed severe ventilation problems. Large chimneys were constructed above the Pennsylvania line, in a not entirely successful attempt to disperse the fumes from the coal-fired locomotives. However, by 1890 electric locomotion was beginning to appear possible, and in 1892 the B&O thus contracted with General Electric (GE) for electric locomotives, powerhouse equipment, and an electrical distribution system. This equipment was delivered beginning in 1895, and the first train pulled by an electric locomotive operated through the Howard Street Tunnel on June 27, 1895.

On June 2, 1923, the Kaufman Act was signed by Governor Al Smith, mandating that all railroads in New York City–including the SIRT—be electrified by January 1, 1926. As a result, the B&O drew up electrification plans, which were submitted to the PSC. The plans were approved by the PSC on May 1, 1924, and construction began on August 1, 1924. The SIRT was to be electrified using 600 volt D.C. third-rail power distribution so it would be compatible with the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit (BMT) once a planned tunnel was completed under the Narrows to Brooklyn, connecting the line to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway system. The B&O planned to use this tunnel to connect its freight from New Jersey to freight terminals in Brooklyn and Queens, including to a planned port at Jamaica Bay. The city started construction on the Narrows tunnel in 1924. Due to political pressure and the project's increasing cost, the freight tunnel portion of the plan was eliminated in 1925, and the entire project was halted in 1926. Only the shafts at either end were constructed.  The SIRT ordered ninety electric motors and ten trailers (later converted to motors) from the Standard Steel Car Company to replace the old steam equipment.  These cars, the ME-1s, were designed to be similar to the Standards in use by the BMT. The first electric train was operated on the South Beach Branch between South Beach and Fort Wadsworth on May 20, 1925, and regular electric operation began on the branch on June 5, 1925. As part of the electrification project, the South Beach Branch was extended one stop to Wentworth Avenue from the previous terminus at South Beach. Wentworth Avenue had a short, wooden, half-car platform, and a shelter was built there. That location had previously been used as a servicing and turning point for the line's steam-powered locomotives. Electric service began in the Perth Amboy subdivision on July 1, 1925, to much fanfare. The North Shore Branch's electrification was completed on December 25, 1925, and resulted in a time savings of ten minutes from Arlington to St. George. Following the electrification of all three branches, service was increased by nineteen trains on the Perth Amboy sub-division, by fifteen trains on the South Beach Branch, and by five trains on the North Shore Branch.