Oakland’s 1884 Baltimore & Ohio station brings a touch of resort architecture to a mountain railroad town. Baldwin & Pennington designed the Queen Anne building, which served a community increasingly associated with tourism in Garrett County. The depot made a traveler’s first impression of Oakland as well as handling the practical work of arrivals and departures. Its roof, brickwork and colored glass deserve close attention before heading inside.
The station entered the National Register in 1974. After the city acquired it in 1998, a restoration completed around 2000 brought back details such as period paint colors, roof materials and stained glass. The museum combines the restored rooms with railroad objects and accounts of local travel. A baggage scale, telegraph equipment and dining china point toward different aspects of railway service, from handling goods and passing messages to feeding people along a route.
Outside, a Baldwin steam locomotive carries a history that reaches well beyond Maryland. Built in 1920 as No. 40 for the Jonesboro, Lake City & Eastern in Arkansas, it later carried No. 76 while leased to the Frisco. It went on to scenic railway service in Pennsylvania and spent time with preservation groups in Ohio and Michigan. Oakland acquired it with donor support, and it arrived in 2018 for restoration as a museum exhibit. The engine’s B&O presentation now helps visitors read the scene beside the station.
A caboose and freight equipment broaden the outdoor display. Look into the relationship between the large machines and the smaller objects inside. A lantern could communicate an instruction, a scale helped handle shipments and the locomotive supplied the power to move the train. Together they show how people used the station and equipment as parts of one business. The museum offers volunteer interpretation of the depot and selected vehicles.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Maryland
- National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation (formerly B&O Railroad Museum) — Baltimore: Major railroad museum
- B&O Ellicott City Station Museum — Ellicott City: Historic station and railroad museum
- Bowie Railroad Museum — Bowie: Depot and railroad history museum
- Irish Railroad Workers Museum — Baltimore: Railroad workers’ homes and social-history museum
- La Plata Train Station Museum — La Plata: Depot and local railroad museum
- Queponco Railway Station Museum — Newark: Historic depot and railroad collection
- Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum — Walkersville: Railroad museum and operating collection
- Western Maryland Railway Historical Society Museum — Union Bridge: Railroad museum and archival collection
- All 9 railroad museums and sites in Maryland
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region