B&O Railroad Museum
BALTIMORE, Md. — Baltimore & Ohio Railroad No. 51, the first Electro-Motive Corp. streamlined diesel locomotive, was placed on display in the B&O Museum’s historic roundhouse on Jan. 29 following completion of the locomotive’s restoration. The 1937 EA model set the standard for art deco locomotive design by EMC, which later became the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, that lasted for three decades.
The museum’s executive director, Kris Hoellen, said in an interview Friday, “This restoration is part of the critical storytelling of the museum. The first half of the story is collecting, and the second half is telling the stories.” She said the museum is already planning for 2027, the bicentennial of the founding of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the oldest railroad in the United States.
No. 51 and the other units in the order (EAs Nos. 51-56, and EBs Nos. 51X-56X) were assigned to the B&O’s premier train, the Capitol Limited, between Washington, D.C. and Chicago. No. 5 ran overnight to Chicago, arriving in the morning, and returned to Washington on No. 6 the same afternoon. The Pennsylvania Railroad, its primary competition, needed eight steam locomotives (four doubleheaders) to make the same run.
The locomotive is displayed in the roundhouse through February ,and will later be moved to the north car shop, where it will be the centerpiece of a new interpretive display highlighting the anniversary. “This restoration would not have been possible without our donors and sponsors,” Hoellen said, noting as well the efforts of volunteers. “The museum’s restoration team are true artists.”
Jamie Partridge, restoration manager, said there were multiple challenges in the project. “We spent a lot of time looking at old photos for details,” he said. A major challenge was replicating the nose ornament, an 8-foot piece of stainless steel that was formed on an English wheel by restoration specialist George Harwood, who built the device from scratch. Partridge and Harwood also designed the sharply pointed pilot, which had been replaced at some point by a standard EMD “Bulldog” pilot.
