Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States | Museum

In the late 19th century, an overzealous publicity agent developed a trade show exhibit for a major American railroad headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. This exhibit survived the railroad that sponsored it,  and grew to become a "national treasure" of railroad artifacts. Today, it comprises the collection of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, in Baltimore, United States,  the oldest, most comprehensive American railroad collection in the world.
Located among Baltimore City's historic southwest neighborhoods, at the original site of the historic Mt. Clare Shops, the Baltimore & Ohio  Railroad Museum is recognized universally as the birthplace of the United States railroading.  It was here within the Baltimore & Ohio Railraod Museum's 40-acre campus that businessmen, surveyors, and engineers set about building the B&O Railroad in 1829,  laying the first commercial long-distance track, building the first passenger station, and inventing America's unique railroad. Railroad work has been conducted at Mt. Clare for over 130 years. And it continues today.  A National Historic Landmark, Affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum, and independent educational resource, the Baltimore & Ohio 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. And the grounds of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum encompass significant historic structures, many of which are restored,  as well as bridges, earthworks, and archaeological resources.