The B&O Railroad Museum is located in West Baltimore one block south of the Irish Railroad Workers Museum. It is where many of the early Irish immigrants of West Baltimore found employment. Located among Baltimore City's historic southwest neighborhoods, at the original site of the historic Mt. Clare Shops, the B&O Railroad Museum is recognized universally as the birthplace of American railroading. It was here within the Museum's 40-acre campus that Baltimore businessmen, surveyors, and engineers set about building the B&O Railroad in 1829, in what was then the countryside of west Baltimore. There, they laid the first commercial long-distance track, built the first passenger station, and invented America's first railroad. Irish immigrants contributed greatly to this effort and were a large part of the workforce that built America’s first railroad. Railroad work has been conducted at Mt. Clare for over 190 years, continuing today.
A National Historic Landmark, Affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum, and independent educational resource, the B&O Railroad Museum collects, preserves and interprets artifacts related to early American railroading, particularly the Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Western Maryland, and other mid-Atlantic railroads to the delight of over 200,000 visitors a year. Nearly 200 pieces of locomotives and rolling stock provide a continuum of railroad technology history from 1830 through the present day, and hundreds of thousands of small artifacts provide a unique glimpse of railroading through tools, exquisite time-pieces, fine art, presentation silver, uniforms, furniture, and personal memorabilia. Additionally, an extensive collection of scale models and toy trains illustrate America's long fascination with trains and railroading. The grounds of the Museum encompass significant historic structures, and includes bridges, earthworks, and archaeological resources.
The Irish Railroad Workers Museum and the B&O Museum often partner on events and lectures of mutual interest.
