Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Squire Whipple attended from 1822 until 1828 the academic schools of the District, and then entered the senior class of Union College, Schenectady NY, graduating in 1829. He then began civil engineering practice, first as a rodman, then as leveller of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and after two years was engaged on the surveys and computations for the enlargement of Erie Canal. From 1837 to 1850 he conducted numerous surveys of railroad and canal projects. His special talents laid, however, in the design and analysis of mechanical contrivances. 

A memorandum from H. C. Hutchins, dated July 12, 1918, states, Mr. Martin, Chief Engineer, wishes to consider the possibility of building a railroad siding from the Baltimore and Ohio belt line. .. Captain Harris was very enthusiastic for the construction of a railroad siding in order to facilitate the shipment of camp supplies and coal... A memorandum dated August 8,1918, from Mr. Vanderlip discusses surveys for extending the railroad siding and additional land south and west. 

This device, known as contracting out, provided a temporary respite from tort claims, but it also served as a new target of labor and public agitation. Unfortunately, the courts were notoriously eager to uphold the status of these clauses as late as 1900 the US Supreme Court, for instance, in Voight v. Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company ruled, in language the current justices might well endorse, that the worker... 

America s first common-carrier-railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio (B O), was chartered in Maryland on February 28, 1827. Some data on the basic facts of North American railroads (1999) are shown in Table 3.1. 

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