ISSN 1053-4415

A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE PUBLISHED BY THE & OHIO RAILROAD HISTORICAL SOCIETY $8.00 VOLUME 41, NUMBER 2 SECOND QUARTER 2019

B&O’s Mount Royal Station PAGE 3

PAGE 17 Message from the President I hope spring will arrive soon so we Our community outreach presentations The ofcial publication of can get to our outdoor activities. This are set for 2019. On March 21st member THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD HISTORICAL SOCIETY winter had more occurrences of snow, but Ray Lichty will do his presentation on Lake P. O. Box 1608 little impact on operations at the archive. Michigan Railroad Ferries. On June 13th Sykesville, Maryland 21784 Work is progressing on the B&O in Balti- member Ira Silverman will do a presenta- E-mail: [email protected] more book and a pre-publication fyer is tion on Railroads of Switzerland. And Website: borhs.org included with this Sentinel. Plans for the fnally, on October 17th Carroll County Missing Sentinel: [email protected] Mini-Cons are fnal and fyers are included resident and Sparrow Point historian Bill The Baltimore and Ohio Historical Society is a non-proft with this mailing. Te annual convention Wolfe will talk about Bethlehem Steel corporation dedicated to preserving and disseminating historical information about The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. is almost locked in with just a few details at Sparrows Point. If you are in the area, to be confrmed to give the membership please attend. Copyright ©2019 ISSN 1053-4415 an outstanding three days of experiences. As always, we are attempting to increase This past week we had our second our membership. We were fairly suc- Founders Day Dinner at world headquar- cessful this past quarter in the Maryland ters. Among the 43 attendees were Kris area. If you need recruiting materials for SOCIETY OFFICERS Hoellen, Executive Director of the B&O community functions or train events, let Greg Smith - PRESIDENT Museum in Baltimore, and Ed Rothstein, us know. Having had conversations with [email protected] Col. Ret., Commissioner District 5, Carroll other historical groups and museums, Grant Berry - VICE PRESIDENT County, Maryland. Both were impressed we are all faced with how to get younger- [email protected] with what has been accomplished by the generation people involved in preserving Allen Young - SECRETARY [email protected] Society these past few years, and the wealth history. Suggestions and trial applications Chris Winslow - TREASURER of information contained in our collection. from members to determine what activi- [email protected] Mr. Rothstein has volunteered to help us ties work in recruiting younger members BOARD OF DIRECTORS with a grant proposal, and that will be my would greatly be appreciated. Bruce Elliott (2020) Mike Shylanski (2021) next objective afer we put the Baltimore Te retire-the-mortgage program has Henry Freeman (2020) Tom Dupee (2019) book to bed. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 39) Travers Stavac (2021) John Howard (2019) Bob Hubler (Past President) Ofcers’ terms expire annually. Directors’ terms expire in October of the indicated year. In This Issue All directors may be reached at [email protected]. B&O’s Mount Royal Station by David Pfeiffer...... 3 EDITORIAL STAFF Ken Wing, EDITOR—[email protected] Eating the C ompetition’s Lunch B&O Managers Ride PRR’s Liberty Limited Clifton Linton, Gene Stebbins, by Ira Silverman ...... 13 and Richard Zeren, ASSOCIATE EDITORS [email protected] B&O China - Part 2 Modern Dining Car Patterns – Capitol Gold through Strata Dome Nick Fry, ARCHIVIST by Allen Young ...... 17 Greg Smith, (INTERIM) ARCHIVES PHOTO EDITOR Passenger Car Air-Conditioning: B&O’s Quest to be First John Teichmoeller, B&O MODELER Craig Close, RUNNING LIGHT EDITOR by John Geist and Allison Seyler ...... 25 Roberta Poling, Thunder Grafx, Ltd., B&O Chicago Terminal x4499 by Dwight Jones ...... 31 GRAPHIC DESIGN—[email protected]

Running Light ...... 36 Contributors welcome: Articles, manuscripts, photographs, reviews, and other Archive Center and Building Report...... 39 historical data are solicited for publication. Original material will be returned upon publication. Send all material to: Ken Wing, [email protected] or mail hardcopy material to On the Covers P.O. Box 1608, Sykesville, MD 21784 FRONT COVER: Mount Royal Station in Baltimore as it appears today, seemingly COMPANY STORE missing only the large B&O letters on the clock tower. Restored in 1967, the station Orders: Company Store link at borhs.org was a pioneer adaptive reuse that now houses the Maryland Institute College of Art. [email protected] See David Pfeifer’s article opposite. (David Pfeifer photograph, edited by Sentinel staf) MEMBERSHIP [email protected] BACK COVER: B&O 51, whose post-retirement photo graced the Sentinel’s 2018 Q4 One year regular membership is $45.00. For other classes cover, has made a trip back through the magazine to the rear cover, and back in time or inquiries, write to the Society’s P.O. Box address, to when it was new. In this image, it dignifes yet another cover—that of the B&O’s or email [email protected]. For an address change, write to the P.O. Box address, dining car menu. For the rest of the menu, and a story about how the B&O measured or email [email protected] its dining car service against the competition, see the article beginning on page 13. Memberships, once accepted, cannot be returned.

2 Second Quarter 2019 A color postcard of Mount Royal Station, circa 1920. (ICC, Bureau of Valuation, Engineering Field Notes, located at the National Archives at College Park) B&O’s Mount Royal Station By David Pfeiffer Avoiding the grim fate of many historic from downtown, the B&O began digging B&O and the new General Electric Com- railroad stations in the country, the B&O’s the Howard Street tunnel from Camden pany. Samuel Rea, who later worked on the Mount Royal Station still graces the land- Station to the site of its new uptown station, Penn Station electrifcation project in New scape of Baltimore. It is now home to the Mount Royal Station. York City, and in 1912 became president of Maryland Institute College of Art. The The Howard Street tunnel was built the , was the design history of the station is a shining example during the period 1890 to 1895, to connect engineer for the project. Te frst mainline of a grand railroad station, historic preser- Camden with Mount Royal Station and the electric locomotive was built by GE and vation, and adaptive reuse. new Baltimore Belt Railroad, to expand delivered to the B&O in June 1895. It was Following the Civil War, the Baltimore the B&O to points north of the city. Te a 96-ton behemoth designated as “B&O 1” & Ohio Railroad decided to compete with tunnel was 1.5-miles long, double tracked and used to pull trains through the tunnel, the Pennsylvania Railroad for the passen- and with a 0.8 percent uphill grade head- using for power an overhead rail. In 1902, ger trafc along the northeast corridor. ing north. Steam engines were not a viable the overhead rail was relocated to track Te new service from Washington to New mode of transportation through the tunnel level. All in all, the electric line was 3.5 miles York was called the Line, known due to the smoke and steam billowing out long. Steam engines took over just north of for its quality, style, and class. Te main of the tunnel. Te tunnel project cost about Mount Royal at Huntington Avenue. Te bottleneck on the route was the ferry that $2.4 million to build. project was a great success for GE. carried cars, both passenger and freight, Te B&O was the frst railroad in the Construction of Mount Royal Station from Locust Point to Canton. It was a both US to operate an electric locomotive to began in 1894 and was completed and clumsy and time-consuming route. At frst, pull trains through a tunnel. Tis was the opened for passenger use on September 1, a bridge was considered, but by 1891, to frst mainline railroad electrifcation in the 1896. Te station was built as a through sta- create the most efcient route northward country. Te project was headed up by the tion as the fnal piece of the tunnel project. Second Quarter 2019 3 A B&O electric locomotive and an eastbound Royal Blue Line train in in 1896. (ICC, Bureau of Valuation, Engineering Field Notes, located at the National Archives at College Park)

It was located on the Bolton lot in a pri- that the tracks came out of the north end from the main wall. Te tower once had marily residential area just west of the city of the tunnel below street level and then “B&O” letters below the clock faces on all center. With both passenger and freight went under Mount Royal Avenue a block four sides and was topped of by a steep trains using the tunnel, water transfer by north, so the station either had to be a two- copper-clad roof. car ferry was abandoned. level structure or built at track level. Te On the inside of the station, the rich Te station was designed by architects railroad decided to build it at track level, décor of the vaulted 125-foot-long main E. Francis Baldwin and Josias Pennington, which necessitated that the block had to waiting room with two-story ceilings who designed some of Baltimore’s most be extensively excavated and the grounds provided comfortable surroundings for notable Victorian-era structures. Working regraded. Tis is the reason why the station Royal Blue Line passengers. Te waiting for the B&O Railroad for the last quarter of is in an artifcial hollow below street level. room had general and ladies’ sections with the 19th century, they designed the famous Te station’s striking architecture can a central ticket ofce and a small restaurant. 22-sided roundhouse next to the Mount be described as a mix of Romanesque and B&O customers waited in style—mosaic Clare Station in downtown Baltimore. Te Renaissance styles, with its distinctive foors, oak wainscoting, and stamped metal world’s largest circular industrial building square 150-foot-high central clock tower, ceilings. Modern, at the time, amenities when completed, it is now home to Balti- rough cut Port Deposit granite fnish, and included a private ladies’ parlor, a gentle- more’s B&O Railroad Museum. Te Mount red tile roof. It was one of the last public men’s smoking room, and a news and cigar Royal project was to be, as Herb Harwood buildings built in this style. It was a sym- stand. Te station was particularly known wrote, “Baldwin’s last, largest, and fnest metrically designed two-and-one-half for its rocking chairs, added in the 1920s, B&O station.” story building with a wide 250-foot front- oriental carpets, and freplaces at each end Problems cropped up during the design age facing east. Te main entrance was and of the waiting room. A gramophone play- period. The difficulty with the site was is still a porte-cochere, projecting forward ing music added a graceful touch. 4 Second Quarter 2019 Exterior view of Mount Royal Station with B&O seal. (ICC, Bureau of Valuation, Engineering Field Notes, located at the National Archives at College Park)

Adjacent to the station on the west side Herbert H. Harwood “was everything the beautiful, luxurious, and underutilized.” is the huge train shed, covering the entire Camden was not—spacious, supremely Te station was the B&O’s last major pas- distance from the tunnel to the tunnels fashionable, aesthetic, and well matched senger station construction project and under Mount Royal Avenue. Today, CSX to its genteel surroundings.” Te book of cost $300,000 to build. The good news trains exiting the tunnel continue to travel the Royal Blue also declared “Mount Royal was, the opening of the Howard Street through the shed. Te shed, which still Station enjoys the distinction of being the tunnel and Mount Royal Station did, in exists in near original condition, is 800 most magnifcent railway station in the fact, speed up the Royal Blue Line service feet long, 71 feet wide and had three tracks United States built and used exclusively from Washington to New York to match which narrowed to two tracks to the Mount by one railway.” Mount Royal served the the Pennsylvania Railroad’s running times. Royal Avenue tunnels. In 1936, the shed “better” residential areas as they moved During its history, the City of Baltimore was extended from 400 feet to its current north and northwest from the city, and used the station as its official welcom- length of 800 feet to accommodate longer the station was convenient to the northern ing point to greet distinguished visitors, trains. An attractive ornamental iron fence Baltimore suburbs. including several US presidents, British separates the shed from the grounds and Unfortunately, the station was never as Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald, decorates the covered staircase from the popular with passengers as was Camden Cardinal Gibbons, and Queen Marie of shed to Mount Royal Avenue. In the front Station downtown, even though passenger Romania. of the station, a curving driveway led business increased during the early years As more Americans embraced the downhill into the hollow, past gardens and as the residential neighborhoods filled automobile and the airplane, passenger lawns to the front entrance. Te driveway in. Harwood added that “in its way, the rail travel declined sharply and, by the and the adjacent parking lot allowed for monumental station was as symbolic of the late 1950s, the B&O’s famed Royal Blue ample parking at the station. Royal Blue Line as the ornate rolling stock service had ceased. Reluctantly, the B&O Te station, according to noted author and graceful high-drivered locomotives: closed the Mount Royal Station in 1961, Second Quarter 2019 5 The Mount Royal train shed (drawing from ICC Bureau of Valuation records; image taken by author)

6 Second Quarter 2019