Certificate: Shares of the Common Stock, shares of $100 each Certificate for 10 shares
Dated: 1900-1901 - Baltimore - United States
Signature: printed
Measure: 11.4" x 7.5"
Coupons: no
Edition: -
Category: Railroads
Condition: VF+
The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was one of the
oldest railroads in the United States, with an original line from
the port of Baltimore, Maryland, west to the Ohio River at Wheeling
and Parkersburg, West Virginia. It is now part of the CSX network,
and includes the oldest operational railroad bridge in the world.
The B&O also included the Leiper Railroad, the first permanent
railroad in the U.S.
The railroad's former shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse,
now house the B&O Railroad Museum.
History
1876 mapTwo men � Philip E. Thomas and George Brown � were the
pioneers of the railroad. They spent the year 1826 investigating
railway enterprises in England, which were at that time being
tested in a comprehensive fashion as commercial ventures. Their
investigation completed, they held an organizational meeting on
February 12, 1827, including about twenty-five citizens, most
of whom were Baltimore merchants or bankers. Chapter 123 of the
1826 Session Laws of Maryland, passed February 28, 1827, and the
Commonwealth of Virginia on March 8, 1827, chartered the Baltimore
and Ohio Rail Road Company, with the task of building a railroad
from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to a suitable point
on the Ohio River. The railroad, formally incorporated April 24,
was intended to provide not only an alternative to, but also a
faster route for Midwestern goods to reach the East Coast than
the seven-year-old, hugely successful, but slow Erie Canal across
upstate New York. Thomas was elected as the first president and
Brown the treasurer. The capital of the proposed company was fixed
at five million dollars.
Early Construction
Construction began on July 4, 1828, and the first section, from
Baltimore west to Ellicott's Mills (now known as Ellicott City),
opened on May 24, 1830. Further extensions opened to Frederick
(including the short Frederick Branch) December 1, 1831, Point
of Rocks April 2, 1832, Sandy Hook December 1, 1834 (the connection
to the Winchester and Potomac Railroad at Harpers Ferry opening
in 1837), Martinsburg May 1842, Hancock June 1842, Cumberland
November 5, 1842, Piedmont July 21, 1851, Fairmont June 22, 1852,
and its terminus at Wheeling, West Virginia (then part of Virginia)
on January 1, 1853.
Table of Cumberland
Coal Shipped over B&O and C&O 1842-1865The state of Maryland
granted the B&O a charter to build a line from Baltimore to
Washington, D.C., in 1831, and the Washington Branch was opened
in 1835. This line joined to the original mainline at Relay, Maryland,
crossing the Patapsco on the Thomas Viaduct, which remains one
of the B&O's signature structures. This line was partially
funded by the state, and was operated separately until the 1870s,
with the state taking a 25% cut of gross passenger receipts. This
line was built in stone, much like the original mainline; by this
time, however, strap rail was no longer used for new construction.
Most of the stone bridges did not last long, being washed out
in floods and replaced at first by Bollman Truss Bridges. The
Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad to Annapolis connected to this
line at Annapolis Junction, Maryland, in 1840. As an unwritten
condition for the charter, it was understood that the state would
not charter any competing line between Baltimore and Washington.
Civil War
American Civil War raids, raiders and raider bases involving the
B&O Railroad:
Some famous battles and raids
The Great Train Raid of 1861, May 1861
The Martinsburg Train Raid, June 20-23, 1861
The Leesburg Train Raid, August 7, 1861
The Romney Expedition, January 1 through January 24, 1862
Various Raids of Brigadier General A. G. Jenkins, Fall, 1862
The Jones-Imboden Raid, April 24 through May 22, 1863
The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864
Gilmor's Raid, July 11, 1864
Confederate raiders and units which raided the B&O Railroad:
Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and
many units under his command
Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early and many units under his
command
Brigadier General Turner Ashby and his "Black Horse"
cavalry
Brigadier General John D. Imboden and the 62nd Virginia Mounted
Infantry (1st Partisan Rangers)
Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins' and the 8th Virginia Cavalry
Brigadier General William E. "Grumble" Jones and the
"Laurel Brigade"
Colonel John S. Mosby's "Mosby's Raiders"
Major Harry Gilmor's "Gilmor's Raiders"
Captain John H. McNeill's "McNeill's Rangers"
Cities involved in raiding the B&O Railroad
Winchester in the Civil War
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Westward by merger
A steel and stone bridge was built across the Ohio River between
Bellaire and Wheeling in 1871, connecting the B&O to the Central
Ohio Railroad which it had leased starting in 1866. This provided
a direct rail connection to Columbus, Ohio and the lease marked
the beginning of a series of expansions to the west and north.
Other railroads included in the B&O were:
Winchester and Potomac Railroad and Winchester and Strasburg Railroad from
1867. This pair of lines connected with the B&O at Harper's
Ferry, West Virginia and constituted the only significant B&O
trackage in present day Virginia.
Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad leased through the Central Ohio
in 1869.
Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad from 1871. This was the B&O entry
into Pittsburgh, thwarting the denial of a Pennsylvania charter
to the B&O.
Somerset and Cambria Railroad from 1879.
Buffalo Railroad from 1880.
West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad from 1890.
Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railroad leased through Central
Ohio in 1890.
Monongahela River Railroad from 1900.
Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad from 1882. This was initially renamed as the
Cincinnati, Washington and Baltimore Railroad in and then again
to the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad in 1889.
The B&OSW absorbed the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1893, giving the
B&O a connection to St. Louis, Missouri, and finally the B&OSW
disaapeared into the rest of the system in 1900.
Ohio River Railroad from 1901.
Pittsburgh Junction Railroad from 1902.
Pittsburgh and Western Railroad from 1902. This was originally
a narrow gauge system which was standard gauged from 1883 to 1911.
It formed the main B&O line west from Pittsburgh. The line
passed the Mars Train Station in Mars, Pennsylvania northwest
of Pittsburgh.
Cleveland Terminal and Vally Railroad from 1909. This was the B&O's
entry into Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Railroad from 1909.
Chicago Terminal Transfer Company, reorganized in 1910 as the Baltimore and Ohio
Chicago Terminal Railroad. This switching line was always operated
as a separate company.
Salisbury Railroad near Pittsburgh, operated from 1912.
Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad from 1912.
Morgan and Kingwood Railroad from 1922.
Coal and Coke Railroad from 1920.
Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Western Railroad from 1927. This was originally
part of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, and gave the B&O
a connection to Springfield, Illinois.
Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway in 1932.
This gave the B&O a line into New York state.
Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad from 1932. Part of the line was
severed from the rest of the system by flooding, and became part
of the Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad in 1955.
(This list omits certain short lines.)
The Chicago and Alton Railroad was purchased by the B&O in 1931 and renamed
the Alton Railroad. It was always operated separately and was
eventually bought by the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad after
receivership in 1942.
On July 20, 1877 there were bloody riots in Baltimore, Maryland from Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad workers. Nine rail workers were killed at the
hands of the Maryland militia. The next day workers in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania staged a sympathy strike that was also met with an
assault by the state militia; Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread
rioting.
New lines in Maryland
In 1866 the B&O began constructing the Metropolitan Branch
west out of Washington, and was completed in 1873 after years
of erratic effort. Before this line was laid, rail traffic west
of Washington had to travel first to Relay or Baltimore before
joining the main line. The line cut a more or less straight line
from Washington to Point of Rocks, Maryland, with many grades
and large bridges. Upon the opening of this line, through passenger
traffic was rerouted through Washington, and the old main line
from Point of Rocks to Relay was reduced to secondary status as
far as passenger service was concerned. Rebuilding in the early
1900s and double tracking in 1928 increased capacity; the "branches"
became the de facto mainline, though the Old Main Line was retained
as relief route.
Meanwhile the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Philadelphia, Wilmington
and Baltimore Railroad in the early 1880s, cutting off the B&O's
access to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The state of Maryland had
stayed true to its implicit promise not to grant competing charters
for the Baltimore/Washington line, but when a charter was granted
in 1860 to build a line from Baltimore to Pope's Creek in southern
Maryland, lawyers for the Pennsylvania RR picked up on a clause
in the unfulfilled charter allowing branches up to twenty miles
long, from any point and in any direction. The projected route,
passing through what is now Bowie, Maryland, could have a "branch"
constructed that would allow service into Washington. The Pennsylvania
picked up the charter through the agency of the Baltimore and
Potomac Railroad and in 1872 service between Baltimore and Washington
began. At the same time the PRR took control of the B&O's
connections to southern lines.
In response, the B&O chartered the Philadelphia Branch in Maryland and
the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad in Delaware and Pennsylvania
and built a parallel route, finished in 1886. The Baltimore Belt
Line, opened in 1895, connected the main line to the Philadelphia
Branch without the need for a car ferry across the Patapsco River,
but the cost of constructing the Howard Street Tunnel drove the
B&O to bankruptcy in 1896. Two other lines were built in attempts
to reconnect to the south. The Alexandria Branch was built in
1874, starting from Hyattsville, Maryland and ending at a ferry
operation at Shepherd's Landing. The Ferry operation continued
until 1901 when the south end of the branch was realigned to link
to the PRR trackage to Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
Before this connection was made, however, another branch was built around
the west side of Washington. This line was intended to cross the
Potomac just north of the D.C. line, to conitnue southwest to
the Southern Railway in Fairfax, Virginia, and if possible to
Quantico, Virginia. The Georgetown Branch was started in 1892
and reached Chevy Chase, Maryland the same year. Financial problems
forced a halt to construction, and by the time the line was completed
in 1910 there was no longer any point to the river crossing. Thus
the branch largely served wholesale and heating coal customers
in the Maryland suburbs and in Georgetown. The line cut directly
across the various creeks, and as a result required a short tunnel
and what was said to be the longest wood trestle on the railroad
over Rock Creek. The line was abandoned in 1986 by CSXT and is
presently used in part as the right-of-way for the Capital Crescent
Trail.
The 20th century
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad took control of the B&O in
1963, and incorporated it, along with the Western Maryland Railway,
into the Chessie System in 1973. In 1980, the Chessie System merged
with the Seaboard System Railroad to create CSX. In 1986, the
B&O finally went out of existence as a formal corporate existence
when it formally merged with the C&O (which itself formally
merged with CSX later that same year). At the height of railroading's
golden age, the B&O was one of several trunk lines uniting
the northeast quadrant of the United States into an industrial
zone. It marked the southern border and corresponded to the New
York Central's marking of the northern border. The Pennsy and
the Erie railroads worked the center. The corners of this map
are Baltimore in the southeast, Albany in the northeast, Chicago
in the northwest, and St. Louis in the southwest.
Early engineering
Carrollton ViaductWhen construction began on the B&O in the
1820s, railroad engineering was in its infancy. Unsure exactly
which materials would suffice, the B&O erred on the side of
sturdiness and built many of its early structures of granite.
Even the track bed to which iron strap rail was affixed consisted
of the stone.
Though the granite soon proved too unforgiving and expensive for track, most
of the B&O's bridges have survived until the present, and
many are still in active railroad use by CSX. Baltimore's Carrollton
Viaduct, named in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (who
laid the cornerstone), was the B&O's first bridge, and is
the world's oldest railroad bridge still in use. The Thomas Viaduct
in Relay, Maryland was the longest bridge in the United States
upon its completion in 1835, and remains in use as well. The B&O
made extensive use of the Bollman iron truss bridge in the mid-1800s;
its durability and ease of assembly aided faster railroad construction.
As the B&O built west from Baltimore in 1830, it followed the banks of the
Patapsco River upstream to the water's source at Parrs Spring
near present-day Mount Airy, Maryland. At the time little data
about the operation of steam locomotives was available, and consequently
the B&O was uncertain if metal wheels would grip the metal
rails sufficiently to pull a train up to the top of Parrs Ridge.
The railroad decided to construct two inclined planes on each
side of the ridge along which teams of horses, and perhaps steam-powered
winches, would assist pulling the trains uphill. The planes, about
a mile long on each side of the ridge, quickly proved an operational
bottleneck, and before the decade of the 1830s ended the B&O
built a 5.5 mile long alternate route that became known as the
Mount Airy Loop. The planes were quickly abandoned and forgotten,
though some artifacts survive to the present
Branches
B&O roundhouse and station complex, Martinsburg, West Virginia (�2001 A.E.
Crane, courtesy of byways.org).Mount Airy
The Mount Airy Branch is the surviving, in-use portion of the
1839-opened Mount Airy Loop. The Loop had been mainline track
until superseded by the Mount Airy Cutoff and Tunnel in 1902.
Frederick
The Frederick Branch was built as part of the original line, opening
on December 1, 1831. The continuation of the main line from Frederick
Junction opened April 2, 1832.
Patuxent Branch
The Patuxent Branch was constructed in the 1880s and split off
from the Washington Branch at Savage, Maryland to serve a mill,
a quarry, and other small industry. After 1925, the line was gradually
cut back, and disconnected completely in 2005.
Source: Wikipedia�
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