Pics of Camden Yards when it was a yard, not a sports complex?

[motor]

Where can I find pics of the B&O's Camden Yards when it was a yard, not an industrial park or the site of baseball and football stadiums?  How bout pics as well of Camden Station back in the day? 

motor

[wanswheel]

Library of Congress photos

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/md/md0800/md0840/photos/085976pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/md/md0800/md0840/photos/085977pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/md/md0800/md0840/photos/085978pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/md/md0800/md0840/photos/085990pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?pp/hh:@field(TITLE+@od1(Baltimore+++Ohio+Railroad,+Camden+Station,+South+side+of+Camden+Street+between+Eutaw+++Howard+Streets,+Baltimore,+Independent+City,+MD))

Mike

[Anonymous]

great sheet film photos of the camden yards glennbob      P.S.  my guess is they are 4 by 5 inch negs shot with a press camera....

[Anonymous]

great sheet film photos of the camden yards glennbob

[Anonymous]

Yep, that's Baltimore!

Ive forgotten what monster that four-track freight warehouse was. That was the B&O freight house?

[motor]

Great pics, Mike.  Thanks a lot.  They appear to have been taken in the late '60s-early '70s. I can make out the Holiday Inn, Civic Center (now 1st Mariner Arena), Charles Center, USF&G building (now Legg Mason building), etc.

IMHO I thought there were tracks on both sides of the long warehouse but the west side seems to have been an industrial park before Oriole Park went in.

Speaking of Oriole Park, Hilton (I think it's Hilton) is building a new hotel at the north end of the long warehouse, just beyond center field.  I go to a couple of games a year and right now the new hotel is a hole in the ground.  I wonder what it'll look like next spring.  When finished it'll probably block the view of the downtown skyline from inside the baseball stadium.

motor

[Anonymous]

I think you left the Shot Tower out. =)

[wanswheel]

Motor, somewhere on the web there has to be close-up pictures of locomotives at Camden Yard, but the Google images are all about the ball park. If the new hotel blocks the view maybe it'll have corner rooms where people can see downtown and follow the ball game with binoculars. Here's a picture of Camden Station with towers, from way back when.

http://mdhsimage.mdhs.org/Library/Images/Mellon%20Images/Z24access/z24-00758.jpg

Safety Valve, the B&O Warehouse seems to be at a different location.

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/md/md0900/md0910/photos/086103pv.jpg

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/md/md0900/md0910/photos/086104pv.jpg

Glennbob, thanks for taking a look. Those old photographs are priceless.

http://mdhsimage.mdhs.org/Library/Images/Mellon%20Images/Z24access/z24-01086.jpg

Mike

 

[daveklepper]

The last photo, the one with the Brill Semiconvertable deck-roof streetcar, shows Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station.   I was fortunate to have visited Baltimore while the streetcars were still running.

 

I also used Baltimore's Camden Station.  I had ridden the Royal Blue line through to Washington and back with an eighth grade school group, but just past through the Mount Royal and Camden Baltimore stations.  But in 1947 I visited my Aunt Sue in Washington, and she wondered why she saw me off at the bus station instead of Union Station, given my well-known love for trains.   What I didn't tell her was than instead of going directly to New York, I took the bus to Alexandria, Maryland, and then rode the Baltimore and Annapolis interurban to Camden Station, where two tracks were electrified to handle the B&A cars/trains.   But then I went (by streetcar) over to the PRR station for a fast ride home.

[Anonymous]

The last photo, the one with the Brill Semiconvertable deck-roof streetcar, shows Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station.   I was fortunate to have visited Baltimore while the streetcars were still running.

 

I also used Baltimore's Camden Station.  I had ridden the Royal Blue line through to Washington and back with an eighth grade school group, but just past through the Mount Royal and Camden Baltimore stations.  But in 1947 I visited my Aunt Sue in Washington, and she wondered why she saw me off at the bus station instead of Union Station, given my well-known love for trains.   What I didn't tell her was than instead of going directly to New York, I took the bus to Alexandria, Maryland, and then rode the Baltimore and Annapolis interurban to Camden Station, where two tracks were electrified to handle the B&A cars/trains.   But then I went (by streetcar) over to the PRR station for a fast ride home.

Was not the Royal Blue the top Crack (As in elite.. not drugs) train that intends to take people into New Jersey as fast as possible? I gotta read up on it...

[Anonymous]

The last photo, the one with the Brill Semiconvertable deck-roof streetcar, shows Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station.   I was fortunate to have visited Baltimore while the streetcars were still running.

 

I also used Baltimore's Camden Station.  I had ridden the Royal Blue line through to Washington and back with an eighth grade school group, but just past through the Mount Royal and Camden Baltimore stations.  But in 1947 I visited my Aunt Sue in Washington, and she wondered why she saw me off at the bus station instead of Union Station, given my well-known love for trains.   What I didn't tell her was than instead of going directly to New York, I took the bus to Alexandria, Maryland, and then rode the Baltimore and Annapolis interurban to Camden Station, where two tracks were electrified to handle the B&A cars/trains.   But then I went (by streetcar) over to the PRR station for a fast ride home.

Was not the Royal Blue the top Crack (As in elite.. not drugs) train that intends to take people into New Jersey as fast as possible? I gotta read up on it...

The Royal Blue was B&O's premier train between Washington and Jersey City, NJ.  The train followed B&O tracks to Philadelphia.  From there it took the Reading to Bound Brook, NJ and then the Jersey Central to Jersey City Terminal.  What was also unique about that service was that they used to have trainside buses along Track 1 in Jersey City that would take B&O passengers to various destination in New York City.  B&O passenger service north of Baltimore ended in April 1958.

Check out the book "Royal Blue Line" by Herbert H. Harwood.  It is an excellent book on the B&O operations north of Baltimore.

[daveklepper]

With my eighth grade school group, we used the B&O station on the north side of Columbus Circle, 59th Street and Central Park West, and took the B&O bus to trainside at the Jersey Central Jersey City terminal.   The bus took the CNJRR ferry and did not use the Holland Tunnel.   There was a turntable and the far end of the platform to turn the bus around, right next to the President class Pacific that powered the all-blue train.   The dining car was terrific.  We came back the same way.   Mr. Contini, my home room and math teacher, was livid with rage, when I saw there was a two hour period of free time and went off and road streetcars instead of staying with the group although I returned in plenty of time to board the bus from the hotel to Union Station in DC.   Our hotel was right near the intersection of the 14th Street and New York Avenue streetcar lines.   I went out as far toward Benning as I could before coming back in time.  Mr. Continin said I should never have left the hotel before the bus departed without getting his permission first.  I was 13 at the time and had already made train trips to North Carolina and Viriginia by myself.   I had always used the PRR to DC, but enjoyed the B&O.  I think Mr. Continini puniished me by not letting me have the apple pie with ice cream in the diner on the return trip.  But the streetcar exploration was still worth it.

[wanswheel]

These links are to Joseph Roborecky's photos of B&O buses

  (www. trainnet.org/Libraries/catalog003.htm)

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/B_O72.JPG

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/B_O89.JPG

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/B_O71.JPG

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/B_O_2.JPG

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/B_O_1.JPG

Mike

[Anonymous]

It's interesting that I found this thread today.  Last night I watched an interesting thing on the History Detectives (PBS) on the demise of street cars, focusing on Ohio.  I'd forgotten all about that little episode in our history.  There are some great oictures on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Streetcars are still alive and well:

http://www.baltimoremd.com/streetcar/

[One Track Mind]

Stopped by this thread to see what my buddy Safety Valve had to say as I know he's from Baltimer......but then I saw Otto's post about that PBS deal that was on last night. A very interesting program if it comes on again, try to catch it. If you didn't live through that period it was very educational. Although it was not mentioned, from what I learned on the program and what I have been told, surely Little Rock was one of the 40 cities they were talking about. And indeed streetcars are back here also. To the delight of some and the chagrin of others.

[Anonymous]

That's right, we do have streetcars working daily here in Little Rock. I will try to capture some videos soon.

http://www.littlerock.com/info-maps/riverrail/

[daveklepper]

The new light rail system in Baltimore is terrific, with the line to the north on the old PRR Baltimore Northern RofW very scenic.  And the Baltimore trolley museum right by the PRR station is terrific also, with a good selection of the most typical cars, including PCC's, that ran in Baltimore.  And then there is the B&O museum.

 

The Royal Blue Line of the B&O was unusual in one respect.  It was a true interline operation.   The B&O did not have trackage rights over the Reading and the CRRNJ, but yet B&O crews did run throuigh to Jersey City.  I don't remember whether the tickets were in three portions, but I would not be surprised if they were.   And the transitions from B&O to Reading and Reading to CRRNJ were made at speed north of the Reading's North Broad Street station and at Bound Brook, without station stops.   The Reading trains from Reading Terminal to Jersey were similar run throughs.  The B&O did not use the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, which was stub-end, but had a fairly modest through station on or near the east bank of the Skuckhill River, if I remember correctly somewhat north of the PRR 30th Street Station of the west side of the river.

[motor]

My mother, when she was growing up, would take the B&O from Chester, PA to Camden Station when visiting her aunt (my great aunt) in South Baltimore.  Harwood's book contains a couple of pictures of the B&O's Chester station, one from c. 1900, the other from 1957.  The Chester book in the Images of America series has a photo of it too, on the last day of B&O passenger service northeast of Baltimore.

Click on this to see a couple of old postcards of the B&O Chester station.

http://oldchesterpa.com/railroad_b&o.htm

The station met its maker when Interstate 95 was built alongside the B&O.

Thanks for providing the photos of Camden Yards back in the day, whoever did it (I forget (:-)).

motor

[Anonymous]

(Not a reply to Dave, I hit the wrong button.)

I have some very good pictures of old Camden yard. I was born in '58, by grandfather was some sort of boss on the Camden line. Some days he would take me and my older brother to work.

His office was in an old 'train station' with a little porch and creaky floors. I guess this was in about 1966. The light in the building was yellow for some reason and the whole place smelled of kerosine.

I remember my Grandfather would give me a pad of paper to draw on at a spare desk. Once he yelled at a man for putting 40 cars in a 37 car space. (Or something like that.)

Sometimes he would hand us off to a train crew to take us around. We sat on some sort of old sofa from a house in the back of the cab of a switch engine. It had a fridge, and a water cooler that made funny noises. From somewhere the crew produced grilled cheese sandwiches. I seem to remember chili too.

I very much remember Big Jim holding me up so I could see out the window as we butted into a line of boxcars at the port, bump, bump, bump, bump.

Sometimes he would bring home Polish hams, or whole hands of bananas that 'fell off the train."

Nobody can beat my pictures of old Camden yard.

[Anonymous]

"Fell off the train." LOL.

Believe me there is a occasional ... box of food stuffs that gets lost and needs special handling after it has been signed off by all concerned. =) I recall that samples would be made availible to us as well from time to time. One of the best was Salsa from Mexico that was really good. I think it took us two about a week to eat 6 pounds worth. whew. None of that liquid stuff you get in the store.

I was taken to the yards as a child before the big stadium was dropped into that area. I dont remember much, but I recall the platform and remember one trip where a covered hopper derailed along with a boxcar with a work gang gathered under a wheel trying to get the whole thing back on the rail.

I think there were other yards in the area. Western Maryland, Pennsy and Ma and Pa had yards or access to them but not necessarily at Camden.

[Anonymous]

Great pictures. Thanks.

[penncentral2002]

I remember seeing Camden Yard very late in its life as a railyard on a couple of school trips to Baltimore, which would have been in the late 1980s (think 1987/1989 which would have been sixth and eight grade).  Thinking that had to be only a couple of years before the stadium was built, but it made quite an impression on me - remember seeing all sorts of cool things there then (alas, didn't have the foresight or ability to photograph it then).

Do think that Camden Yards had a better fate than the Western Maryland yard in Baltimore which got turned into a Wal-Mart!

[Ishmael]

Ma & Pa had a yard up on Falls Road. The Baltimore Trolley Museum uses some of the line and the old roundhouse is a county maintenance shed. Lot of old M&Pa buildings. The photos are outstanding, thanks to whomever posted them.

My daughter and her husband lived in Hampstead in Carroll County north of Bal'mer and we visited often over the ten years they were there. Two of my grandchildren were born in Baltimore Hospital. As you can see by my avatar, I became a convert to the old B&O. Also to crab cakes.

I also have some photos of the modern, (1987) M&Pa taken in Hanover, PA on old PRR trackage.  Mt. Clare station is one of my favorite places on earth.

B&O did come into St. Louis, but we were the end of the line.