In 1827, when the idea of transportation by rail was born, when a small group of enterprising businessmen adopted this method of bringing the trade of the rapidly growing West to the city of Baltimore, when the first charter ever drawn up for a public carrier of passengers and freight by rail was granted to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, these momentous events were commerated by Enoch Wood, of Burslem, England, one of the leading manufacturers of Staffordshire china, in 2 beautiful plates stamped on the reverse - "The Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road."

For the 100th anniversary of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the blue china in use on it's dining cars was especially prepared in the United States of America to celebrate this centenary birthday of the Father of American Railroads. The 2 souvenir plates prepared by Enoch Wood to mark the establishment of the Baltimore & Ohio in 1827 were engraved by English potters who had never seen an American locomotive, so that the train illustrated on the plate shown on the preceding page is typically British with a locomotive patterned after the illustration of Messrs. Losh and Stephenson's patent of 1816, printed in Strickland's "Report on Canals & Railroads" in 1826. No locomotive of this type was ever used in America. The inclined plane presented on the other plate shown on the opposite page was, in the early days of railroading, the usual method of overcoming grades too steep for a locomotive & train to climb. In those early days the cars were pulled up & lowered down a series of inclines by cables operated by stationary engines, with a fresh locomotive waiting for the train when it reached the other side of the hill. Of course, such an arrangement was bothersome & consumed a great deal of time, so that as the science of railroading progressed & the emand for greater soeed in traveking began to be felt, the railway engineers found other ways of overcoming grades by a longer track running more gradually around the side of the hill, by leveling the tops of the hills, or by boring tunnels thrrough them, so that now inclined planes are not in use on railroad lines although they still serve to carry street cars and passengers up & dosn hill as, for example, the inclined railways at Pittsburgh & Cincinatti. A trace of some of these old planes on the Baltimore & Ohio may be found on the Old Main Line near Ellicott City, where the 1st and last of a series of 4 inclines have furnished names to the stations still known as Plane No. 1 & Plane No. 4.

The "Philip E. Thomas," with it's large smokestack, was a familar type of locomotive until Ross Winans designed & built in the Mount Clare Shops of the Baltimore & Ohio, at Baltimore, his famous camel-back locomotives, the most powerful engines of their day. The camel-back is the type which carried the Baltimore & Ohio trains with Union troops & supplies over the heavy grades of the Alleghany Mountains during the trying days of the Civil War. After the close of this war came the Mogul type of locomotive which was gradually supplanted by the more powerful Pacific. The Mogul "600" was awarded 1st prize at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

The modern climax to this pageant of motive power is the double-unit Diesel-elecric, "51," which first pulled the Capitol Limited over the Alleghany Mountains in 1937. The Baltimore & Ohio has since added to it's fleet of powerful Diesel-electrics, until now all of it's important main line passenger trains are Diesel operated. Forming the borders of the blue china are these cuief points in the development of railway motive power, running in a picturesque pageant from the First Stone, laid on July 4, 1828, around the plates to the present climax in the sleek, streamlined Diesel, pointing once more to the First Stone as it leads the way to a new parade in the Baltimore & Ohio's 2nd century of progress.

For the scenes within the border, there was selected, first, historic Harper's Ferry, with it's scenic beauty which has entranced thousands from Thomas Jefferson down to the present day tourist on Baltimore & Ohio trains. This spot is also memorable for it's story of John Brown's raid & the subsequent part the fortified heights played in Civil War history.

The Potomac River Valley shown on the tea plate is typical of many miles of the Baltimore & Ohio line which follows this historic river through the gaps it has cut in the Blue Ridge & the Alleghanies. The ancient rival of the railroad, the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, is shown where it, too, follows this natural path through the mountains, a path at times so narrow as to give rise to the lengthy controversies between canal & railroad for the coveted right of way.

The Cheat River scene on the celery tray is typical of the rugged wilderness with it's almost unsurmountable natural barriers through which the pioneer surveyors of this pioneer railroad had to fight their way. The railroad track winds up to the crest of the Alleghanies along the side of Laurel Ridge with the Briery Mountains on the opposite bank. On the large platter the beautiful scene at Indian Creek shows the junction of that stream with the historic Youghiogheny. All of the nearby country is sacred to memories of the early life of Washington & the struggles of the colonists for this territory in the French & Indian War. Near here is the site of Fort Necessity where Washing made his 1st & only surrender, withdrawing with all the honors of war in the face of a superior force of French & Indians on July 4th, 1754. On the heights near this spot also is the grave of Braddock, the brave but stubborn English General who paid for his folly with an even more overwhelming defeat & his life. The Narrows at Cumberland shown on the medium platter mark the gap in Wills Mountain, through which Braddock & his forces marched to their defeat. It is also the gap through many thousands of pioneers made their way westward over the Old National Pike, the original stone bridge of which is shown in the picture.

The Carrollton Viaduct, shown in the small saucer, is the oldest stone arch railroad bridge in America, being the 1st one built by the Baltimore & Ohio in order to carry it's original line from the historic First Stone across Gwynn's Run on the old route to the Patapsco River at the Relay House.

The 2nd oldest bridge of this type is at this latter point. it is the Thomas Viaduct, pictured on the bread & butter plate & the small platter. This beautiful stone arch bridge across the Patapsco River was completed in 1835 to carry the first rails of the Metropolitan Branch leading into the young Capital City of Washington. It was quite an engineering feat for it's day, being built on a 4 degree curve. How well the railroad's early engineers did their work is proved by the fact that this bridge, constructed for the light traffic of those early days has been in continuous service for over a century 7 shows no sign of strain under the heavy traffic loads of the present day. On the hills above the Relay House a Federal garrison protected this vital junction point of the railway dring the Civil War.

The making of this special blue china was a stupendous task & was actually under way for more than 2 years. In the manufacture of most sets of china a conventional pattern is used, one which can be repeated over & over in sections to fit the shape of the various pieces. But in this Baltimore & Ohio design there is no repetition, each border and each center scene is a complete and separate unit and was especially engraved in full detail for every kind of dish. It was necessary to do all of the engraving of the copper plates by hand, since photo-engraving could not be made to produce the desired effect. The different shades of blue in the scenes are produced by making impressions on the copper plates of varying depths. For example, the shading which produces the effect of distance & perspective in the various scenes is obtained by cutting series of fine dots, carved deeper as the darker blues of the foreground are desired. There are approximately 2,600 of these dots to the square inch. The center of the dinner plate, including the view of Harper's Ferry & it's enclosing rose border, but not including the locomotive border contains approximately 90,000 of the fine dots all carved by hand to the various depths required for the shading. It was not only necessary to engrave all the designs freehand, but it was also found necessary, as explained above, to make fresh engravings for the center & border of every piece of different shape. It may be safely stated that never before in an American pottery have such a larg number of copper plates been required for a single set. 16 large coppers were required for tis Colonial pattern, more than 4 times the usual number.

3 engravers, specially trained for this artistic work devoted their whole time for a year in the preparation of the copper plates for this 1 set of chinaware. Even after the completion of the engravings, every piece of china requires a large amount of hand work. The engravings are printed on a thin rice paper and the wet print placed in position on the dish to be decorated, which has previously been molded and fired to the form known as the "biscuit," or more commonly the "bisque." The design is then transferred by rubbing, somewhat like a decalcomania, after which the paper is washed off and the dish is ready for glazing & firing.

To follow each article of chinaware through the factory would make an interesting story. About 3 months are consumed in the manufacture of each piece, 30 days of which are necessary for completing the product after printing the pattern on the bisque. Each piece requires 3 firings at extremely high temperatures, during any one of which it may warp or crack or have to be discarded. It is baked for approximately 72 hours before the pattern is printed on it, fired abain for almost 9 hours after printing, then glazed and fired for the 3rd & last time from 36 to 42 hours. Durint the firing, each piece must be kept from touching any other, so that no rough spots may mar the surface. To do this, each piece is held in the kilns in a separate container or "sagger" with the touching edge resting on a clay base covered with a flint wash, which is too hard to fuse at the temperatures used in firing.

The deep blue color used in this china is very difficult to handle, because of it's tendency to run & blur the pattern under the intense heat to which it must be exposed in producing a strong, high-grade ware suitable for dining car service. In the cheaper grades of earthenware, such as found in the old Staffordshire, the dishes are only fired to about 1/4 the temperatures required here, and the color can be handled more easily. But that kind of soft china chips and cracks very easily and cannot stand the strain of dining car service. While modern in texture the new china follows closely in style that of the old Staffordshire china and was designed originally in the 20 dining cars which the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company had built 7 furnished in American Colonial style. While the task was found greater than anyone imagined in advance, it is felt that the final result in this dinner set of blue china, especially prepared for your use as a guest in a dining cat of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, was a fitting commemoration of the 100th anniversary of America's first passenger & freight railroad.