Artists Aboard Special Excursion to Wheeling Stop at Martinsburg Roundhouse
Updated: 3 days ago
MARTINSBURG, Va. - (June 1, 1858) - A train carrying artists from Baltimore stopped at Martinsburg today amid a planned promotional trip by the B&O Railroad across the Allegheny Mountains to Wheeling, Va.
Harper's weekly contributor David Hunter Strother, who resides in Martinsburg, provided an account of the promotional trip sponsored by the railroad:
"We arrived about five o'clock in the afternoon at Martinsburg, one hundred miles from our starting-point. At this station the Railroad Company have extensive work-shops and stabling for their iron animals, which are duly groomed and doctored, and make night and day hideous with their noise-reminding one of Paddy's description of the World's Fair . . ."
Construction of the Original Shops at Martinsburg
The B&O built the first Depot buildings in Martinsburg beginning in 1848, six years after the first train arrived in Martinsburg in May 1842. At the onset of construction, The Martinsburg Gazette newspaper reported that the population of the County seat of Berkeley was a little over 2,000.
On October 1, 1849, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad General Superintendent William Parker submitted the following Depot Buildings report to President Thomas Swann as part of the Report of the President and Directors to the Stockholders:
"The provision at "Sandy Hook" so called, has been long felt to be entirely inadequate to our wants, and a provision no less than that which has been made, or undertaken at Martinsburg, is judged to be urgently needed by the service, and will, in fact, ere long need additions-the making of which has been kept in view, in the plan thus far pursued. The constructions there in progress will consist of
1. A Brick Engine House, with a turn-table in front, and eleven Stalls for Locomotives.
2. A Brick Machine Shop, with Smithy and stationary Engine shed attached, with additional water tank overhead.
3. A Penstock or pipe for delivering water to the tenders.
4. Two coal sheds, with depositaries for wood attached.
5. A Temporary Engine House removed from "Sandy Hook," and erected to postpone for a time the erection of another of brick, which would otherwise be greatly needed, but of which in fact we could not avail during the coming winter.
6. Over two miles of siding to enable the numerous burden trains to meet and pass, as well as lie over during the night.
7. On account of the rocky nature of the site, which is perhaps as favorable as could be found, proper for the purpose, much expense has been incurred in grading the yard and grounds contiguous to this improvement—but, in doing so we have availed of the rock excavated as material for ballast of the track, and for the masonry of the foundations. I anticipate from this establishment a material relief to the works and operations at Mt. Clare Depôt."
In 1850, railroad stockholders were advised that the several buildings in progress and contemplation at the beginning of the fiscal year have been continued, together with the grading of the grounds and fixtures indispensible to the station, at a cost of $17,761.84.
"The expenditure at this point may be now deemed nearly complete-so far as the wants of the road for the current year can be anticipated. The locality, selected on grounds of position, social advantages, and distance from Baltimore has been expensive of improvement, owing to the irregularities of the surface and the prevalence of rock in all directions.
Less than 15 years later, the original shops were raided in 1861 by Confederate troops and then fully destroyed in a much more destructive attack in October 1862.
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