Baltimore's Inner Harbor and The B&O Railroad Museum

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Located a short distance from each other, the Maritime Museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor and the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad Museum make for a fantastic day-trip into Baltimore. With family in town, we ventured north for the day, first visiting the B&O Railroad Museum, which is the birthplace of American Railroading and a massive museum of over 40 acres with nearly 200 trains on display.

Then we headed over to Baltimore's Inner Harbor to explore the Maritime Museum, which really means we boarded and explored three ships and a submarine berthed at the Inner Harbor. First there was the USS Constellation, the last all-sail warship built by the US Navy, then the Lightship Chesapeake, which served in the US Lighthouse Service, the USCGC (U.S. Coast Guard Cutter) Taney, the last surviving warship still afloat from WWII, and finally the USS Torsk, a submarine that served in WWII.

I've added most of the descriptions of the trains and ships directly to the photograph captions, to make it easier to identify which is which. Both museums were well worth a visit, especially for kids...though us adults were pretty excited about them, too.

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Photos

USS Constellation
The USS Constellation is the last all-sail warship built by the US Navy. It was launched in 1854 out of Portsmouth, Virginia, and though her first duties were largely diplomatic, she helped fight the slave trade, fought in the Civil War, acted as a training ship at the Naval Acadamy in Annapolis, Maryland, and served as the flagship of the US Atlantic Fleet in WWII.

B&O Railroad Museum Baltimore
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum is the birthplace of American Railroading. The museum is on a 40-acre historic site where the first commercial long-distance train track was laid in 1829. There are nearly 200 trains on display and it is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum.

B&O Railroad Museum Baltimore
Built about 1904, this Clearance Car was used to make sure locomotives could fit through tunnels with tight clearances. The metal limbs would be extended and then as the car went through the often hand-carved tunnels, a limb that had been pushed in would show the engineers where the tunnel needed to be widened.

B&O Railroad Museum Baltimore
Built in 1830, the "Tome Thumb" was the first successful American steam locomotive.

B&O Railroad Museum Baltimore
The "Gratitude Train," a WWI boxcar given to Maryland by France in gratitude for the help America gave to France.

B&O Railroad Museum Baltimore
Me next to a train wheel to show the size of it.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor
Also shows the Lightship Chesapeake and the USS Torsk.

Inside the USS Constellation
Where the enlisted men slept. One of four decks open to visitors.

The Lightship Chesapeake
The Lightship #116 "Chesapeake" was completed in 1930 for service in the US Lighthouse Service. It became part of the National Park Service in 1971 and the Baltimore Maritime Museum in 1982.

USCGC Taney
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Taney was built in 1936 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. It is the last surviving warship still afloat from WWII that saw action in Pearl Harbor.

USS Torsk
Built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, the USS Torsk was launched in September 1944. She served on war patrol in WWII, between Hawaii, Guam and Japan. She also performed NATO exercises with the Royal Navy in the fifties and helped with Anti-Submarine training in the sixties, before retiring in 1972.