12-20-2008, 07:07 PM
Ralph Wrote:Nice stuff! That Ten Wheeler is sharp looking! Excuse my ignorance...is the B&P a real road or a freelance?
Ralph
The Baltimore and Potomac was a real railroad founded in I think 1872 by a bunch of Southern Maryland farmers and politicians. It was dormant and incomplete for 20 years or so when the PRR bought stock in, and funded the building of, the railroad. It had it's own rolling stock and locomotives but was controlled by the PRR, and became part of a scheme for the PRR to gain entry to Washington D.C. and connect with other PRR controlled roads in Northern Virginia that later became the RF&P RR. (a lot of people don't realize the RF&p from Alexandria, Va. to Aquia Creek, Va was built by PRR interests) The B&P was merged with the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore RR and the Northern Central RR (both also PRR controlled) to form the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington RR, the name it held on paper until the Conrail takeover. CR did much to consolidate the paper railroads during it's restructuring.
For much of it's life, at least from 1902 on, the B&P/PB&W was basically hidden, as all rolling stock and locomotives were marked PRR.
To make a short answer long, my B&P is a fictional version of an independent RR that survived without the PRR's funding, owns mainline from Baltimore to Alexandria, Va. and gives trackage rights to B&O and PRR, and interchanges with the RF&P.
Sorry for the long winded answer!
Dave
-Dave