On July 25, 1864, Martinsburg was ground zero for a fight between two well-known war generals as part of a bigger picture., the famous raid on​ Chambersburg made by Confederates.

Built new at B&O Shops, Washington, Indiana (B&O Class I-5) in 1925, our Caboose spent most of its service life in West Virginia.

A Historical Timeline of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops

The great railroad strike of 1877 started on July 16 in Martinsburg, West Virginia in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Striking workers would not allow any of the stock to roll until this second wage cut was revoked. The governor sent in state militia units to restore train service, but the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers and the governor called for federal troops.Meanwhile, the strike spread t

The whole of the outlaws were now driven into the engine house, and owing to the great number of wounded requiring our care, and not being supported by the other companies as we expected, we were obliged to return. Had the other companies come up we could have taken the engine house then. Immediately after we drew off.

On May 22, 1861, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's troops stopped all trains going East from Martinsburg and Point of Rocks. Once he determined that all of the trains that had been caught, he blew up the bridges to the West and blew down the rocks onto the tracks to the East, and the pirating of the B&O Railroad was on. In total, 42 locomotives and 386 cars were stolen and destroyed. 36 1/2 miles of track, 17 bridges, 102 miles of telegraph wire, the Colonnade" Bridge.

The West Roundhouse at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops is the sole surviving cast-iron frame roundhouse in the world and is an important example of mid-19th century industrial building design, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.