Camden Yards station
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| Camden Yards MARC, Baltimore Light Rail |
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| Address | 301 W Camden St Baltimore, MD 21230 |
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| Connections | Baltimore Light Rail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 6 (3 Light Rail, 3 MARC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Owned by | CSX Transportation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Camden Yards or Camden Station 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
The original passenger station, a three-story brick structure with three towers in the Italianate architectural style, was designed by Niernsee and Neilson for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). Construction began in 1856 and 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][2] The two wings and towers were added to the structure after the end of the Civil War in 1865.[3]
In the 1860s, 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 during the Civil War.[4] 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.[5] During the Civil War, 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.[5] President Lincoln changed trains at Camden Station on November 18, 1863 enroute to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to deliver the Gettysburg Address.[5] Lincoln also used Camden Station on April 18, 1864 when he made an overnight visit to Baltimore for a speaking engagement. A year later, the assassinated president's funeral train paused at Camden Station on April 21, 1865, on its slow journay from Washington to Springfield, Illinois via the B&O and the Northern Central Railway's Baltimore-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania line.[5]
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.[6][7]
The first streamlined, non-articulated diesel locomotive in the U.S., EMD 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 26, 1958, 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.[3]
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.[4] 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.[4]
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.[8]
[edit] Current operations
MARC schedules still refer to the stop as "Camden Station", although the original B&O structure 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 on the site, adjacent to the B&O Warehouse. The view from much of the Baltimore Orioles' stadium, officially named "Oriole Park at Camden Yards", is dominated by the former B&O Warehouse behind the right-field wall. Many seats in the stadium also have a good view of the downtown Baltimore skyline. The stadium planners incorporated the warehouse into the architecture of the ballpark experience rather than tear it down or shorten it. The floors of the warehouse contain offices, service spaces, and a private club. The warehouse has been hit on the fly only once; Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a blast that reached the wall, but not during a game; it was during the Home Run Derby contest of the 1993 MLB All-Star Game.
Immediately adjacent to the current stadium on the east side of the B&O Warehouse is a rail station 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 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 train on a stub track east of the B&O Warehouse (background) |
 MARC II Single Level Nippon Sharyo Cab Car #7757 |
 EMD GP40WH-2 #52 at Camden Station, July 2, 2004 |
[edit] See also
- Baltimore Belt Line
- Baltimore Civil War Museum
- Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
- President Street Station
[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.
- ^ James D. Dilts (1993). The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2235-8.
- ^ a b Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., Royal Blue Line. Sykesville, Md.: Greenberg Publishing, 1990. (ISBN 0-89778-155-4)
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d Scott Sumpter Sheads and Daniel Carroll Toomey (1997). Baltimore During the Civil War. Linthicum, Maryland: Toomey Press, p. 170. LCCN -97060687.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Herbert H. Harwood, Jr. (2004-2005). Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad. Maryland Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
