Baltimore 1996

Baltimore, Maryland - 1996

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In 1996 I spent a couple of weeks working in an office park in Towson, north of downtown Baltimore. On the weekend I drove my rental car to Lutherville and took the light rail downtown for sightseeing.

Inner Harbor and Federal Hill area

The Pride of Baltimore, a replica of an 1812-era Baltimore Clipper, was commissioned in 1977, and in 1986 she was capsized by 80 mph winds in a sudden squall off Puerto Rico. The Captain and three crew members were lost. The memorial between Federal Hill and the inner harbor commemorates their loss.

Camden Station was opened in 1856. The station was closed in 1971, and when I took this picture the exterior had been renovated to go along with the opening of Camden yard, but the building was still closed. Since then it has been restored and reopened this year as the Babe Ruth Museum. MARC commuter trains run between Camden Station and Washington, D.C. Union Station.

I stayed in a hotel in Towson, north of downtown and within walking distance of the office park where I was working.

Fire trucks and trains and trolleys, Oh my! The Fire Museum of Maryland was across the street from the office where I worked. I thought I'd check it out quickly, and ended up spending a few hours there. The collection is extensive, and all the equipment has been restored and is maintained in operable condition. On Steamer Sunday every year, they get the horse-drawn steam pumpers and water towers, and operate them.

This is a rare piece of equipment. The earliest application of gasoline power to firefighting was the Christie Tractor. It was an engine-powered drive unit with steering capability and a driver seat, that replaced the front axle of a steam pumper and made the unit self-propelled, eliminating the need for horses to pull the pumper.

There are several chain-drive Mack Bulldogs, including this equipment service truck. The Bulldogs used heavy roller chains between the differential output shaft and the rear wheels.

Placement of the pump in front of the radiator gives the Ahrens-Fox pumpers a distinctive appearance. The large nickel-plated dome atop the pump is a surge chamber that absorbs pump pulsation and evens out the flow of water through the hoses.

Stutz fire trucks were built in Indianapolis by the company that built the legendary Stutz Bearcat high-performance automobiles.

The nearest light rail station to my hotel was at Lutherville. I rode the train to a stop near the Amtrak station, and then took off from there on foot.

Mount Royal Station was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Passenger service at this station ended in 1971, and it's now the home of the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Union Station opened in 1911. It was designed by Kenneth Murchison, and originally served trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Western Maryland Railroad.

A MARC commuter train sits at Union Station as an Amtrak Northeast Direct train arrives at stops at the platform.

The Baltimore Streetcar Museum, on Falls Road, occupies the former site of the Maryland and Pennsylvania (Ma & Pa) Railroad shops.

12-bench open car 1164 was one of 110 cars bought from the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia in 1902.

Note the richness of the interior finishing in this car, especially the ceiling panels.

Single-truck car 554 was built in 1896 by Brownell. It has nine benches.

Peter Witt Car 6119 was built by J.G. Brill. Peter Witt was the designer who originated the concept of front entrance and center exit, for faster loading and unloading of passengers. These cars were originally designed as two-man cars, but always operated as one-man cars in Baltimore.

Car 7407, on the left, was built by Pullman Standard in 1944. It was one of the last rail cars ordered for Baltimore until the MTA ordered the current series of light rail cars.