Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (BO, B&O) was an American railroad company . It was the first railroad in the USA intended for public transport. It existed as a company from April 24, 1827 to April 30, 1987. Today, the company's routes are part of the CSX Transportation network . The company was based in Baltimore .
Route network
The route network extended from Baltimore to Philadelphia and Washington and to the west to Cumberland . From Cumberland the main connections were routes to Chicago , St. Louis , Cincinnati , Cleveland , Pittsburgh and Toledo . Much of the route network was in Ohio and West Virginia .
history
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was formed to compete with the competing ports in New York and Philadelphia for the advantage that these ports had to open up the hinterland.
The plan was to build a railway line from Baltimore to the Ohio River intended for public transport . This was a daring undertaking for the time given the technical possibilities and the terrain to be crossed. An alternative would have been a canal, but even with such a canal, crossing the Allegheny Mountains would have been extremely difficult technically.
The company's date of birth is often given as February 28, 1827. On that day, Maryland was the first US state to grant a legal license to operate a railroad, Virginia followed on March 8. On April 24, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was formally established by the shareholders and Philipp E. Thomas was elected its first president. The company received another concession from Pennsylvania on February 22, 1828.
The foundation stone for the first railway line was laid by Charles Carroll, then 90, on July 4, 1828, the last living signatory of the Declaration of Independence . Construction work began on July 7, 1828.
First routes
A route to the Potomac River was planned as the first construction phase . On May 24, 1830, scheduled operation began on the standard gauge line to Ellicott's Mill . The first steam locomotive built in the USA, Tom Thumb , ran this route on August 28, 1830. On December 1, 1831 Frederick, Maryland was reached. In August 1835 the branch line to Washington was completed and in 1837 the bridge over the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia was completed.
Here you met the tracks of Winchester & Potomac and the first connection between two railroad companies in the USA took place. From there, construction was continued westward via Cumberland (Maryland) to Grafton (West Virginia) and then to the northwest, and on December 24, 1852 the destination, the Ohio River, was reached in Wheeling (West Virginia) . The route now had a length of 610 km. From Grafton another line was built on the Ohio to Parkersburg (West Virginia) . The American Civil War brought the further expansion of the network to a standstill. During the war years, the army of the southern states repeatedly carried out acts of sabotage that shut down train operations.
In 1867, the railway company under Albert Schumacher entered into an extensive partnership with North German Lloyd . Passengers on the Bremerhaven - Baltimore line were able to purchase tickets to the Midwest in Europe and transfer directly from the ship to the train at the pier in Baltimore . Baltimore temporarily became the second most important port of immigration after New York. The First World War ended this partnership.
Expansion to the west
From 1866 the railway company began to expand further west. It rented several routes and thus extended its route network from Bellaire (Ohio) via Newark (Ohio) west to Columbus (Ohio) and north to Sandusky (Ohio) . From one point on this route, Chicago Junction (now Willard, Ohio) , a B&O subsidiary, Baltimore & Ohio & Chicago , built a route to Chicago between 1872 and 1874 . Despite the financial problems due to the panic of 1873 , the line expansion continued under President John W. Garrett . A stretch from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, the "Sandpatch Route", and another connection to Washington were put into operation.
In the following period there were some conflicts with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). On the one hand, the PRR viewed Pittsburgh as its own territory, and on the other hand, it was the construction of a B&O route to Philadelphia . Until the 1870s the PRR ( Jersey City - Philadelphia), the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore (Philadelphia - Baltimore) and the B&O (Baltimore - Washington) operated together. However, the B&O wasn't very cooperative.
In particular, the offer of common tickets and freight prices was prevented. In addition, B&O had a relatively secure monopoly on access to Washington at that time. Therefore, the PRR built its own line from Baltimore to Washington in 1882. In return, B&O moved its train routes to the parallel Philadelphia & Reading-Central of New Jersey . In 1881 the PRR took control of Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore . The B&O announced that they would build their own route from Baltimore to Philadelphia as well as train stations on Staten Island . The PRR thereupon canceled the passage rights of the B&O trains in 1884. In 1886, B&O completed its own line. The next extensions were the takeover of control of the Pittsburgh & Western (Pittsburgh - Akron ( Ohio )), construction of a line to the west from Akron to Chicago Junction, control of the Baltimore & Ohio Southern ( Parkersburg (West Virginia) - Cincinnati (Ohio) - St. Louis ).
In order to connect the Baltimore - Philadelphia line with the rest of the network, the Baltimore Belt was built in 1895 . Since it was impossible to cross the city, a 1.6 km long tunnel ( Howard Street Tunnel ) had to be built. Since this was on an incline, heavy smoke development was expected. The company therefore decided to electrify this route. The purchased electric locomotives served as a leader for the steam trains. With the introduction of diesel locomotives, electrical operation was discontinued in 1952.
The new century
The economic situation of the society got worse and worse. Freight rates for freight and passenger trains have always been low, and sales continued to decline, mainly due to competition in coal transport. As a countermeasure, the B&O tried to save on entertainment, with the result that it quickly gained a reputation for unreliability. From 1896 to 1899 it was therefore under bankruptcy administration . Starting in 1899, the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired a larger share of the shares and made Leonore F. Loree president. He made sure that the routes were expanded. Gradients were reduced and curve radii increased, and second tracks were built. In addition, a larger stake in the Reading Company was acquired, which in turn controlled the Central Railroad of New Jersey . In 1906 and 1913 the PRR sold its stake to the Union Pacific Railroad . This passed the shares on to its shareholders instead of dividend payments. In 1910 Daniel Willard became President of the Society. In 1910 the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad was purchased , which continued to operate as the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal . In 1917 routes to Charleston (West Virginia) and from Cincinnati to Toledo (Ohio) were acquired .
In 1927 the centenary of the company was celebrated with the exhibition "The Fair of the Iron Horse". For this purpose, all existing historic locomotives were restored, and at the same time the foundation for the later B&O Railroad Museum was laid . The network expansion continued in 1926 with the purchase of Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western ( Hamilton (Ohio) - Indianapolis - Springfield (Illinois) ) and in 1927 with the acquisition of 18% of the shares in Wheeling & Lake Erie . In the same year the participation in the Western Maryland Railway began . In 1929 the Chicago & Alton Railroad was acquired and operated under its own management as the Alton Railroad . In 1947 this company became independent again.
In 1932 the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway and the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad were acquired. As a result of the global economic crisis , share prices fell to just under 1% of the previous value. Dividend payments were also no longer possible in the following years. In 1934, B&O received usage rights on the McKeesport (Pennsylvania) - New Castle (Pennsylvania) route on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE). Since this route had larger curve radii and less gradients than its own routes, B&O also shifted its passenger traffic to this route.
The B&O competed constantly with the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad (NYC) on the routes New York - Chicago and New York - St. Louis. She tried to compensate for her more unfavorable, because longer, stretches by means of early dieselization from 1935 onwards. On the Washington - New York route, it was never able to make up for its locational disadvantages, especially in New York itself, and finally stopped passenger trains on this route in 1958, with many stations such as Philadelphia being closed. As early as 1948, it had reduced its range of passenger trains across the network from year to year. The last steam locomotive was in service in 1958, two years later the company no longer had any locomotives in its portfolio. On July 4, 1953, the company opened the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in the engine shed of the Mount Clare Station in Baltimore , whose collection goes far beyond the company's vehicles.
The end of the B&O
In 1960, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) began buying shares in B&O. NYC also made an offer, but B&O shareholders turned it down. At the beginning of 1963, C&O already owned 90% of the shares. In 1968 the ICC allowed joint control of Western Maryland. On June 15, 1973, the company became a subsidiary of Chessie System Inc. The last acquisition was in 1981 when the company acquired the Blue Island, Illinois - Henry (Illinois) route from the remnants of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad . On April 30, 1987, B&O was finally taken over by C&O and then integrated into CSX Transportation .
President
- 1827--1836 Philip E. Thomas
- 1836 Joseph W. Patterson (interim)
- 1837-1847 Louis McLane
- 1847-1853 Thomas Swann
- 1853-1855 William G. Harrison
- 1855 - 1857 Chauncy Brooks
- 1857-1884 John W. Garrett
- 1884-1887 Robert Garrett
- 1887 Francis Burns
- 1887-1888 Samuel Spencer
- 1888-1896 Charles F. Meyer
- 1896-1901 John K. Cowen
- 1901-1903 Leonor F. Lovee
- 1903-1910 Oscar G. Murray
- 1910-1941 Daniel Willard
- 1941-1953 Roy Barton White
- 1953-1961 Howard E. Simpson
- 1961 - 1964 Jervis Langdon Jr.
- 1964 - 1965 Walther Touhy
- 1965-1971 Gregory S. Devine
- 1971 - 1979 Hays T. Watkins
- 1979 - 1987 John T. Collinson
literature
- Anthony Coulls: Railways as World Heritage Sites = Occasional Papers of the World Heritage Convention. ICOMOS 1999, p. 14.
- George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads . 2nd Edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
- Herbert H. Harwood, Jr .: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad . In: William D. Middleton, George M. Smerk, Roberta L. Diehl (Eds.): Encyclopedia of North American Railroads . Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN 2007, ISBN 978-0-253-34916-3 .
- David M. Vrooman: Daniel Willard and Progressive Management on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Ohio State University Press, Columbus OH 1991, ISBN 0-8142-0552-6 ( digitized version on the publisher's pages in full access)
