The B&O Railroad Museum has embarked on an ambitious Campus Transformation Plan, with the restoration of the historic South Car Works building as its centerpiece. This renovation project is an effort to revitalize the museum grounds in preparation for the 200th anniversary of American Railroading. The South Car Works, which operated continuously as a railroad repair facility from 1869 to the early 1990s, is a nationally significant landmark and one of the oldest such facilities in the world. The project’s goals are multifaceted, encompassing historic preservation, educational expansion, and economic development in the surrounding Southwest Baltimore community.

The renovation will dramatically change the museum’s visitor flow and engagement with its neighborhood. The South Car Works building will become the new entrance, reorienting the facility to face Southwest Baltimore. The renovated building will feature a new exhibit called Innovation Hall, which will showcase the present and future of railroading technology with interactive exhibits. Visitors will also find smart classrooms to support the museum’s growing educational programs, a lobby, and dedicated, temperature-controlled archival space that will make the museum’s extensive collection of historical documents publicly accessible for the first time.

Another significant feature is the CSX Bicentennial Garden, a tiered, tree-lined amphitheater and plaza created through the excavation of a former retaining wall and surface lot. This area is designed to be a vibrant, free-to-use community gathering space.