HRM Background

The Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum, Inc. is a 501C-3 non-profit corporation organized to save and acquire the 45-acre Western Maryland Railway Roundhouse Complex, restore and develop the complex into a working Railroad Museum and manage and perpetuate the complex.

The Museum currently occupies a building near the roundhouse at 300 South Burhans Boulevard, Hagerstown, MD which is open to the public every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 P.M. year round and is staffed entirely by volunteers. The Museum also organizes train excursions, an annual Railroad Heritage Days event, Christmas train shows and downtown displays. Additionally, qualified Museum personnel make regular Operation Lifesaver presentations to school children and other interested groups.

Currently the Museum possesses 3 diesel locomotives in operating condition, a trolley car, an electric generating car, a caboose, a baggage car, a WWII troop sleeper, an early WM flatcar and a passenger lounge car.

Those interested in more in-depth information about the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum may visit our general web site at http://www.trainweb.com/roundhouse/

The roundhouse complex

The 45-acre roundhouse complex is the largest steam-era complex remaining in the United States, and contains the following:

• A 25-stall brick and steel roundhouse
• A 115 foot turntable
• Overhead cranes and drop tables needed for locomotive restoration
• Two erecting shops
• Warehouse building
• Heating plant
• Approximately 20 undeveloped acres

Plans for restoration

We propose the creation of a National Roundhouse Center and working museum of railroading at the former Western Maryland Railway and shop complex in Hagerstown. We envision a wide range of activities to entice and educate visitors as to the past, present and future importance of railroads and railroading, including an elevated safety walkway in the Roundhouse allowing visitors to observe work in progress on the shop floor as railroad equipment is serviced and restored. We also envision regular excursion train operations to bring visitors from points such as Martinsburg, West Virginia, Cumberland, Maryland, and other appropriate points to be developed as well. Hagerstown is served by both major eastern railroads (CSX and Norfolk Southern).

Visitors will receive an orientation to the Museum at a facility for that purpose, and we envision food service, gift shop, lounge, and other appropriate facilities as part of the excursion train depot (the former stores building).

The roundhouse and shop complex comprises some 46 acres, on which 22 acres may be developed for rail-related commercial purposes. The total site will be large enough for displays of railroad equipment under roof, any form of exhibit installable on flatcars, and even display trains of historic and modern passenger and freight equipment. Along with this facility, room is available for a rail passenger station for possible future MARC or AMTRAK service to Hagerstown, and other commercial development such as shops and accomodations. We also envision a parking area that will service the Museum, the Hagerstown City Park and commercial development on the site. In total, the concept has been described as a Williamsburg of Railroading.

Shuttles will move people around the complex and to other facilities and to observe vehicle displays. We envision both buses and smaller electric trains as appropriate, and also see a trolley connecting the complex with City Park and downtown Hagerstown.

We envision working in close cooperation with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum, in Baltimore, and with other transportation museums and tourism operations in the mid-Atlantic areas, offering servicing, storage, and restoration capabilities based on the increasingly scarce railroad maintenance equipment - i.e. drop table, banding press, drop forge, and the main 115-foot-long turntable still available at the site.

In addition, we hope to work with the Smithsonian Institution, which has expressed an interest in the storage, maintenance, and display capabilities for its collection of historic American railroad equipment. The Winchester and Western, a shortline railroad operating between the Norfolk Southern in Hagerstown and Winchester, Virginia, has also expressed interest in occupying a portion of the facility as a terminal and for equipment maintenance.

We recognize that one-fifth of our national economy is embodied in Transportation, and we feel that it is of the utmost importance to educate American people. This, we believe, will make a significant contribution to transportation in the 21st century and beyond, and will provide a world-class tourist attraction that will both educate and entertain far into the future.