Yesterday was the date of inception for the late, lamented Baltimore and Ohio, the birth place of American railroads… See link below.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20070228-baltimore-ohio-river-bo-railroad-steam-engine-charles-carroll-telegraph.shtml
“Over 180 years, the railroads have made a tremendous contribution to the national prosperity, and they remain today one of the most critical parts of our infrastructure. Though the B&O has disappeared (except on the Monopoly board) its historical importance cannot be diminished. It began it all…”
Where are the centeniary Railroad Fairs of yesterday? An engine chosen and emblazoned proudly with “American Railroads” at the entrance. A Parade of Progress with the earliest to newest motive power. Rides, tours, merchants, model railroaders, suppliers, on the great midway. Recreation of the golden spike on the stroke of noon. New Light Rail Technology on display. Speeches, conferences etc.
Where is the drive or perhaps more accurately the pride to do this? Is it time to reintroduce railroads to the public outside of spills, wrecks and Amtrak?
I think Trains should keep us up to date on “birthdays”. I recall that Trains did not mention the “birthday” of Richard travithicks (spelling?) locomotive. The 200th anniversary of the first locomotive was in 2003. No metion in Trains.
If they ignored B&O anniversary, I’m not surprised.
I was surprised on both counts which I did not miss in passing I am also surprised and disappointed that it took American Hertitage to write about it. Do’nt get me wrong, I am glad they did. The 200th birthday of American Railroads is what, 20 years away? One can only hope…talk about under the radar…
Yesterday was it. The B&O was the first in the USA.
I lament that they dont get the proper exposure as they should in HO scale. Some of thier trains were the finest availble to the Mid-Atlantic.
One could have hoped that CSX might take the hint from UP and start up a hertitage paint scheme…of pre-merger roads starting with the B&O…and not those one color, latter day schemes…now that I would love to see…
They need to buy Brute units that wont stink and splash exhaust all over the body trying to run a train before trying to spend money on the Fallen Flags schemes. CSX to me has these little units that get real dirty and fall apart trying to run these really big trains.
The B&O was chartered 2/28/1827.