Camden Station
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| Camden Station MARC, Baltimore Light Rail |
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 MARC train on a stub track east of the B&O Warehouse |
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| Address | 301 W Camden St Baltimore, MD 21230 |
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| Lines | Commuter Rail: Camden Line Light Rail: Light Rail Hunt Valley – BWI Marshall
Light RailHunt Valley – Cromwell
Light RailPenn Station – Camden Yards
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| Connections | 3, 27, 120, 160, 320, 410, 411, 420 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 6 (3 Light Rail, 3 MARC) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Owned by | CSX Transportation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Camden Station, now also referred to as Camden Yards, is a train station at the intersection of Howard and Camden Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, served by MARC commuter rail service and local Light Rail trains. It is adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Camden Station was originally built in 1856 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as its main passenger terminal in Baltimore and is one of the longest continuously-operated terminals in the United States.[1]
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[edit] History
[edit] Development
In 1852, the Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) approved the purchase of five blocks of land fronting on Camden Street at a cost of $600,000 for the construction of a new passenger and freight station to serve the city of Baltimore from a larger, more centrally-located site than the B&O's 1830s–1850s depot, Mount Clare Station.[2] Architectural renderings for Camden Station were submitted by Niernsee and Neilson in 1855. Construction began in phases in 1856 under the supervision of Baltimore architect Joseph F. Kemp, who also partly designed the final version, a three-story brick structure with three towers in the Italianate architectural style.[2][3] The center section was substantially completed by 1857; thereafter, the station was used by the B&O's passenger trains until the 1980s, one of the longest continuously operated railroad terminals in the U.S.[1] Construction was completed in 1867 with the addition of two wings and the towers following the end of the Civil War.[4] The station's center tower was originally 185 feet (56 m) high.[5]
[edit] Civil War years
In February, 1861, Abraham Lincoln travelled through Camden Station in February 1861, on his way to Washington, D.C. to be inaugurated as President of the United States.[6] News of the Battle of Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War, first reached Baltimore on April 12, 1861, at the B&O's Camden Station telegraph office.[5] The following week, Union troops of the 6th Massachusettes Regiment travelling south on the B&O barricaded themselves at Camden Station when they were attacked by Confederate sympathizers in the Baltimore riot of 1861.[5] During the four-year conflict, the B&O's line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. was the sole rail link between the Federal capitol and the North, resulting in a vital role for Camden Station as B&O's Baltimore terminal.[7] Trainloads of wounded soldiers and Confederate POWs came through the station following the Battle of Antietam, 75 miles (121 km) west of Baltimore on September 17, 1862.[6] President Lincoln changed trains at Camden Station on November 18, 1863 enroute to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to deliver the Gettysburg Address.[6] Lincoln also used Camden Station on April 18, 1864 when he made an overnight visit to Baltimore for a speaking engagement. A year later, at 10 a.m. on April 21, 1865, the assassinated president's nine-car funeral train arrived at Camden Station, the first stop on its slow journey from Washington to Springfield, Illinois, via the B&O and the Northern Central Railway's Baltimore-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, line.[8]
[edit] 20th century
Between 1897–1961, Camden Station also had lower level platforms for B&O's New York-Washington passenger trains using the Howard Street tunnel to reach Mount Royal Station. The first mainline electrification of a steam railroad in the U.S. occurred at Camden Station on June 27, 1895 when an electric locomotive pulled a Royal Blue train through the Howard Street tunnel.[9][10]
In 1912, the B&O remodeled the central waiting room, enlarging it and adding oak panelling with marble wainscoting for the Democratic National Convention, held in Baltimore that year.[11]
The first streamlined, non-articulated diesel locomotive in the U.S., EMC EA-EB #51, began using Camden Station's lower level platforms in 1937 on the B&O's famed Royal Blue. After the cessation of B&O passenger service to New York on April 261958, the lower level platforms continued to be used only for passenger trains serving Mount Royal Station. When Mount Royal closed in 1961, the lower level platforms were removed. The lower level tracks and the Howard Street tunnel continue to be extensively used by freight trains of B&O's successor CSX Railroad, as part of its mainline system.[4]
In addition to the New York–Washington trains, the B&O also operated extensive long-distance service at Camden Station to such cities as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis.[7] The Capitol Limited, Shenandoah, and Washington - Chicago Express to Chicago and the National Limited, Diplomat, and Metropolitan Special to St. Louis were among the many trains arriving and departing daily from the station in the twentieth century. The inception of Amtrak on May 1, 1971 marked the end of all B&O long-haul passenger service.[7]
Beginning in 1887, the Annapolis & Baltimore Short Line Railroad also used Camden Station for its trains to Annapolis, Maryland. Except for an interval between 1921–1935, when the successor WB&A Railway used a separate station at Howard and Lombard Streets, frequent electric interurban trains to Maryland's capitol served Camden station until the Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad replaced rail passenger service with buses on February 5, 1950.[12]
[edit] Current operations
MARC schedules still refer to the stop as "Camden Station", although only the station's platforms are now used. The original B&O station building is no longer used for train passengers. The MTA's Light Rail service refers to the stop as "Camden Yards": its name derives from the B&O's freight yards formerly part of the site. The adjacent B&O Warehouse is now part of the Baltimore Orioles' stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The rail station is served by both the Baltimore Light Rail and MARC commuter rail. The latter rail line provides direct service to Washington, D.C., and the former to BWI Airport. The Light Rail began service around the time that the Orioles' stadium opened.
In May, 2005, a new sports museum, Sports Legends at Camden Yards, opened in the original Camden Station structure. The following year, Geppi's Entertainment Museum opened above the Sports Legends museum.
 MARC II Single Level Nippon Sharyo Cab Car #7757 |
 EMD GP40WH-2 #52 at Camden Station, July 2, 2004 |
 Light Rail train in front of the original Camden Station |
[edit] See also
- Baltimore Belt Line
- Baltimore Civil War Museum
- Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
- President Street Station
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Stephen J. Salamon etal. (1993). Baltimore and Ohio – Reflections of the Capitol Dome. Silver Spring, Md.: Old Line Graphics. ISBN 1-879314-08-8.
- ^ a b James D. Dilts (1993). The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press. pp. 376 and 446. ISBN 0-8047-2235-8.
- ^ "Maryland Historical Trust". Ruscombe, Baltimore City. Maryland Historical Trust. 2008-11-21. http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=1531&COUNTY=Baltimore%20City&FROM=NRCountyList.aspx?COUNTY=Baltimore%20City.
- ^ a b Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., Royal Blue Line. Sykesville, Md.: Greenberg Publishing, 1990. (ISBN 0-89778-155-4)
- ^ a b c Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 131. ISBN 0-471-14389-8.
- ^ a b c Scott Sumpter Sheads and Daniel Carroll Toomey (1997). Baltimore During the Civil War. Linthicum, Maryland: Toomey Press. p. 170. LCCN -97060687.
- ^ a b c John F. Stover, History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1987 (ISBN 0-911198-81-4), pp. 172–176.
- ^ Toomey, Daniel Carroll. The Civil War in Maryland. Baltimore, Md.: Toomey Press. p. 152. ISBN 0-9612670-0-3.
- ^ Timothy Jacobs, The History of the Baltimore & Ohio. New York: Crescent Books, 1989 (ISBN 0-517-67603-6), p. 68.
- ^ F.G. Bennick, "B&O was first U.S. railroad to use electric locomotives", B&O Magazine, April, 1940, pp. 19–23.
- ^ Potter, p. 132.
- ^ Herbert H. Harwood, Jr. (2004-2005). "Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad". Maryland Online Encyclopedia. http://www.mdoe.org/balt_annap_rr.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
Coordinates: 39°17′00″N 76°37′10″W / 39.28346°N 76.619554°W
