Baltimore, Maryland - 1979

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In 1979 I rode Amtrak to Baltimore to visit my aunt. I had made
the trip from Fort Wayne on the Broadway Limited before, and
wanted to see a different route. I made plans to board Amtrak
Train 50, the Cardinal at Marion, Indiana, and change to Amtrak
Train 66, the Hilltopper, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky. The Hilltopper
is no more, and the tracks then used by the Cardinal in Indiana
are becoming the Cardinal Greenway.

July 21, 1979 - I drove to my parents' place south of Bluffton and left my car there, and Dad drove me to Marion.
The "station" on 10th Street in Marion was an open-sided plywood shelter on a gravel lot. The train was about
45 minutes late already, only 164 miles out of Chicago. I had a ticket for the sleeping car, which afforded me
more comfort and privacy than a coach.

Train 50 arrives at Marion behind one of Amtrak's workhorse F40 locomotives.

The tracks then used by the Cardinal were formerly Chesapeake and Ohio, owned by
CSX Transportation. CSX experienced a freight derailment at Oxford, Ohio, so at
Muncie, Indiana our train was rerouted eastward over former Nickel Plate tracks then
owned by Norfolk & Western. Then, we moved onto former Pennsylvania tracks owned
by Norfolk and Western. Passenger trains hadn't run over these lines in many years,
so it was a rare-mileage treat.

We took a siding near Newcastle, Indiana, to wait for Train 51, the
westbound Cardinal to pass. It soon appeared behind a GE P30CH
locomotive blowing its trademark plume of black smoke.

Gone in a cloud of dust and diesel smoke

Hot on Number 51's heels was freight train Norfolk & Western 37 Extra West.

Under way again, heading through the switch and back onto the main

Off the regular route through Richmond, Train 50 stopped at the long-closed, weed-strewn 1902 Pennsylvania
Railroad station.

Train 50 at Cincinnati

We arrived a little over an hour late, around 11 p.m.
at Catlettsburg, but that wasn't a problem because the
Hilltopper wasn't scheduled to leave there until 5:33
the next morning. The station was a small, fairly well-kept
cinder-block building with a cement platform. There
were some teenaged girls with a boombox camped
out in the brightly fluorescent-lighted waiting room, but
the night was warm and balmy so I sacked out on an
empty baggage cart outside, with my big ol' rucksack
for a pillow.

I woke frequently to the sound of heavy coal trains roaring up the grade on the CSX line across the river, but I
didn't mind. The setting was pretty idyllic for a train lover. The Hilltopper, made up of two Amfleet coaches and
an F40, pulled up to the platform a little after 5 a.m. and the only employees at that time were the N&W
operating crew, polite, friendly, and neatly uniformed. The brakeman and conductor helped people with their
baggage and small children, and we were on our way on time, at a brisk pace over smooth track. We picked
up one or two Amtrak car attendants a little farther down the line, maybe at Huntington, WV.

The Hilltopper was a sweet ride; any way you see it, much of West Virginia
is beautiful, and on a Sunday morning business was brisk on the train. I think
the stops averaged 30 – 40 miles apart, and many of the riders were
short-distance, families going to the next town for church or to have dinner
with grandma. The on-board staff were friendly and attentive, and I saw
people waving from front porches as we passed.

The railroad operation was very smooth; track was good, and everything
went according to schedule; there was very little radio chatter, because
there seemed to be no need for it. They just followed a routine
procedure and ran the train.

For much of the ride, I stood at the rear door of the last coach with my
camera for a broad-field view that I couldn't get from a coach window.
I think this was near Narrows, West Virginia. We popped out of a tunnel
and right onto a curved bridge.

The concrete structure that straddles the tracks in the distance is a coal dock, used for fueling locomotives
in the steam era.

They serviced the locomotive at Richmond, Virginia, probably to avoid having to do it at Washington, which is
much busier and prone to congestion. I saw the southbound Auto Train pulling out as we rolled up to the
platform, but couldn't get a clear shot at it.

We were on time at Washington Union Station and the schedule said there
was a 55-minute layover, so I hopped off, noted the track number and a
couple of car numbers and names, and set out to explore the station.

Allowing about fifteen minutes, I headed back to my coach. When I arrived at the track, there was no train! After
a heart-pounding frenzied search I found it on a nearby track and scrambled on board just as the car attendant
prepared to close the door for departure. What I hadn't known was that the layover was so that they could add
more cars including a sleeper and food service, so that the train could run on through to Boston overnight. The
switching involved changing platforms.

We arrived on time at Baltimore's 1912 Penn Station. That was before the Amtrak renovation, but even then the
building was well kept and impressive.

Baltimore cityscapes

The Phoenix Shot Tower was used to make lead shot for rifles from
1828 until 1892. Molten lead was poured through a sieve at the top of
the 234-foot tower, and took the shape of perfectly-formed spherical
droplets as it fell. It was caught in a large water tank at the bottom for
final cooling and to cushion the landing and preserve the spherical
shape. Until the Washington Monument was completed at the end
of the Civil War, this was the tallest building in the United States.
It was designated a National Historic Monument in 1972.

The Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built during the period from 1805 to 1821. It
was designed by architect Benjamin Latrobe and is America's first Cathedral. The towers were not completed
until the 1830s, more than ten years after Latrobe died, and controversy still exists as to whether they were
designed by Latrobe's son or by another architect.

Baltimore's notorious sleaze-and-red-light district was still very much alive, although it was shrinking as the
establishments were displaced by building renovations that accompanied the construction of the subway.
I was trying to be discreet about taking pictures, but a thug in the doorway of one of the "emporiums" spotted
me and headed my way at a trot. I abandoned all decorum and took off running as fast as I could. I think I went
about two blocks before I looked back, and he had given up the pursuit. I thought it would be a good idea to
give up the pursuit of photos there, too.

Conveniently-located police department

Subway construction on Baltimore Street. They dug vertical shafts to track
level at the station locations, and during business hours they covered the
openings with big steel plates. Underground crews bored tunnels through
bedrock, sometimes as deep as 120 feet below the surface, and moved
the debris to the station locations during the day, and then at night they'd
open the shafts and hoist the debris out with cranes and load it into trucks.
It was pretty noisy and dusty downtown at night.

Inner Harbor

The Port of Baltimore opened in 1729. At first, its major export commodity was tobacco. Large shipments of
wheat to the Caribbean and Europe came later, and in the 19th century oil refineries and iron making were
major industries. After the end of World War II shipping began to move to other ports, and the harbor went into
serious decline. By the 1950s the area was a deserted slum of abandoned, decrepit warehouses producing
virtually no tax revenue. It wasn't a place anyone wanted to go.

In the late 1950s the business community began to investigate ways to bring life back to this area. It took
twenty-five years for progress to become tangible, but the Inner Harbor has become a center for recreation,
entertainment and education. Among other venues are a science museum and an aquarium.

Launched in 1854, the USS Constellation was the last all-sail vessel built for the
United States Navy. She was the second ship to bear her name; the first was a frigate
commissioned in 1797, that served until 1853. This Constellation served on anti-slave trader
patrol 1854-1861, and protected Union shipping from Confederate raiders in the
Mediterranean during the Civil War. She came to Baltimore in 1955.

At the time of my visit, it was thought that this Constellation was the original one
commissioned in 1797. 'Tweren't so.

Fort McHenry dates to 1776 and the Revolutionary
War, when it was known as Fort Whetstone. The
British never attacked Baltimore during the
Revolutionary War, and the Fort didn't face hostile
action then. It was renamed in honor of James
McHenry, President Washinton's Secretary of War.

During the War of 1812, the British bombarded Fort McHenry for 25 hours in September, 1814 and the Fort
held, saving Baltimore from capture. During the Civil War, its guns were turned toward the city to protect it from
those in Maryland who would have joined the Confederacy. It was also a prisoner of war camp, and following
the Battle of Gettysburg, more than 7,000 Confederate prisoners were detained there. It is the nation's only
National Historic Shrine, having received that designation in 1939.

One day, my aunt, my nephews and I boarded
MV Port Welcome for a trip to Betterton Beach.
It was a great opportunity to see the harbor and
commercial shipping facilities as we departed.

Betterton was founded as a fishing village in the 1700s, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was a
popular beach destination that could be reached by steamer from the nearby cities. Its decline came with the
construction of the Bay Bridge and the popularity of the automobile that gave people easy access to ocean
beaches. Part of Betterton's desirability as a swimming beach came from the fact that it is far enough up in the
Chesapeake that fresh water from the rivers decreases the salinity and keeps out sea nettles.

In these photos, Betterton looks as though its better days are behind it.

These 1979 views from the World Trade Center will show you how much Baltimore has changed.

Check out Camden Yards. In 1979, the huge B&O freight houses were some of the last remnants of
the old harbor district.

B&O intercity passenger trains came to an end with the birth of Amtrak in 1971, and the Camden Station
headhouse was closed. Ticket sales for commuter trains to Washington Union Station were moved to a railcar
in the boarding area behind.

The B&O Railroad Museum, located in the historic
Mount Clare Roundhouse, showcases historic
locomotives and passenger and freight cars and
other artifacts like clocks, watches and dining car china.

The 1873 ten-wheeler Camelback was powerful and dangerous. The
engineer's cab straddled the boiler, and could become a sweatbox. The
fireman shoveled coal on an open platform behind the boiler, fully
exposed to the elements and in danger of being thrown off and possibly
run over. Verbal communication between engineer and fireman was
difficult to impossible, and when a side-rod bearing failed at speed the
free end of the rod might flail about and destroy the cab and the engineer
along with it. Camelbacks were sometimes known as Mother Hubbards,
for the cupboard-like appearance of the cab.

Shay Locomotive No. 6 was built by Lima in 1944 for the Western Maryland Railroad where it worked in helper
service, pushing coal trains up a steep grade. After this picture was taken, it was removed from the museum
and loaned to Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia, where it takes tourists up a mountain logging railroad.
At Cass, it's known as "Big 6" to distinguish it from another Shay there that already carried that number.

Shay locomotives use a three-cylinder engine mounted vertically on the right side of the boiler that drives
geared axles via a drive shaft that runs the length of the locomotive. The axles are mounted on articulated
trucks like those under a freight or passenger car. This design was originated by lumberman Ephraim Shay;
it provides for uniform adhesion and optimum traction on uneven temporary logging or quarry track, and allows
the locomotives to negotiate tight curves. The locomotives are slow, with a maximum speed usually around
15 mph, but they have tremendous lugging power and can negotiate grades as steep as 12 percent. On a
conventional freight railroad, a 2 percent grade is considered severe.

No. 6 is the last Shay built, and the biggest one still in existence. In contrast with other Shays, which are
hand-fired coal burners, Big 6 is an oil burner. With its heavy exhaust beat and deep, throaty whistle, it's a
treat to hear the echoing sounds of it working a train up the steep grades.

Big 6 getting ready for a day's work at Cass in 2000

Jersey Central 1000 was the first commercially successful diesel-electric locomotive. It is a 60-ton, 300-horsepower
switch engine built by Ingersoll Rand and General Electric in 1925.

As Streamline Deco took the design world by storm and the first diesel
s streamliners appeared on a few railroads, several roads hired industrial
designers like Henry Dreyfuss and Otto Kuhler to create a streamlined
look for their steam locomotives. Many older locomotives were retrofitted
with shrouding, and new locomotives were designed with it. In addition,
Brooks Stevens designed streamlined equipment including some famous
round-ended parlor cars for the Milwaukee Road, and Raymond Loewy
designed the sleek GG-1 electrics that replaced the Pennsylvania's
box-cabs. Loewy also designed streamlining and new color schemes
for Northern Pacific.

Number 51 was America's first streamlined diesel-electric locomotive. It's shown here with a trainset from the
Capitol Limited, the B&O's premier Chicago – Washington, D.C. train.

Amtrak throws around train names with "limited" in them in a rather cavalier fashion. The true "Limiteds" were
all-first-class trains, with sleeping cars, diners, and lounges, and without coaches. They offered the finest in
personal, attentive service and the best food, and only stopped at stations in major cities and at division
points where locomotives and crews were exchanged. Limiteds were accorded the highest priority by the
railroads, and freight and lesser passenger trains went to the sidings whenever necessary to provide a clear
track and fast running. They were the flagships upon which the railroads built their reputations.

Gritty old power plant

That's all, folks!

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