The Museum is actively preparing for the 200th anniversary celebration of the railroad in 2027! The campus transformation will be complete by 2027 in time for the anniversary. With the new CSX Bicentennial Garden and Innovation Hall coming soon, as well as exciting new exhibitions and programming honoring the past, the present and the possible, the time is now to reimagine our future.

The Museum will create an amphitheater for free community use at the entrance of the South Car Works. We will excavate the current area, make a tiered tree-lined terrace available for the community to enjoy for concerts, movie nights, or just a nice place to eat lunch. This area of the Museum’s property (all contained within the Museum’s existing footprint) will serve as a vibrant event space and provide a fresh, new location to welcome visitors to the Museum. It will be known as the CSX Bicentennial Garden!

Innovation Hall
The top floor of the building will be used to create a new Innovation Hall displaying the present and future of railroading technology. The Museum has the most comprehensive collection of 19th century rolling stock in the Western Hemisphere and significant pieces of 20th century rolling stock innovations. However, the Museum does not currently have space to display, engage, and educate the public on new railroad technological innovations, such as hybrid engines for cleaner fuels, positive train control, and modern-day command operation centers. The Innovation Hall will contain interactive exhibits on the newest technologies contributing to a faster, safer, more efficient, and smarter rail network.

Archival Space
Did you know the Museum maintains an extensive archives collection comprising more than 30 million documents containing:

• Employee records for genealogical searches
• Complete set of B&O Railroad Board of Director minutes starting with the first meeting of the Directors in 1827
• Correspondence with U.S. presidents such as between President Lincoln and the B&O; the B&O supported the Union and was known as “Lincoln’s Railroad”
• Over 200,000 photographs along with original paintings by American artists commissioned by the B&O and other amazing collections.

The first floor of the South Car Works will provide dedicated temperature-controlled space for the archives, allowing for reading rooms and for the general public to access the archives and for educators to teach children how to use ‘original source’ documents.

Smart Classrooms
Space will be dedicated for two smart classrooms. The Museum’s education program has doubled in size since 2019, and the trajectory is for more growth both in terms of onsite visits and digital learning opportunities. The smart classrooms are intentionally being placed next to the archives for the students to learn about railroading history and careers and how to use original source materials.

Community Economic Development:
By creating a beautiful entrance and accessible community space and turning the Museum’s face to Southwest Baltimore, the goal as an anchor institution is to help catalyze further investment in the community and to improve overall community quality of life.

Create better wayfinding and flow for Museum guests:
Having guests enter the Museum and walk back through time, starting with the present and future, moving towards the 20th century and finishing with the first 100 years of railroading in the 1884 B&O Roundhouse creates a better experience for the guest.

Historic Preservation and Railroading Legacy:
The B&O South Car Works is a national landmark with its outside walls protected under easement. The building deserves to be restored and its legacy honored.

The total investment for the project is $38 million dollars. To date, the Museum has raised  $30 million dollars. Steve Angel, President and CEO of CSX, and Benjamin H Griswold IV, Chair Emeritus of Brown Advisory, are serving as the Museum’s campaign co-chairs. CSX’s gift is the lead private gift followed by the state, a public-private partnership. The B&O Railroad was our nation’s first public-private partnership project. Naming opportunities exist, and the Museum looks forward to working with everyone to complete this transformative project, national in relevance, local in impact.

The construction is 70% complete and on schedule to open in January 2027.

For general information and donation inquiries, please contact:200thCampusCampaign@NationalRailroad.org.