National news reports this morning show severe flooding in Elliott City, MD, home to the nation's oldest existing passenger depot. Have not seen/heard any specifics about how this historic treasure may have been impacted, if at all. Any area residents have first-hand reports to share?
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Allan
I've looked at local news and do not see any Building damage. In the video with the cars washing away you, I believe you can see the RR bridge in the background and water is no where near it.
A local friend of mine reported to me:
CSX has closed the rails pending an inspection of the adjacent bridge to the station. All the cars flowed down the street and piled up at the bridge. Two local building were damaged. Roads and sidewalks were washed out. It is really bad but I don't think the station was damaged.
He never as seen something like this happen is such a short period of time.
The rain was really hard for a while last night. I was in Walkersville working on 9331 and turned around and the adjacent rail was under water in the engine house. Never seen that before.
Jamie
Thanks for the info, Jamie! I once lived in the area and always enjoyed visiting Elliott City.
Not to pick a nit, but since I was born/raised in Washington, D.C., I was a tad confused with Elliott City 'near Baltimore'. I asked Google/Maps to clarify....which promptly 'corrected/redirected' me to Ellicott City....as I suspected. Been 50+ years since I resided in the area, but my only solid recollection of Ellicott City was a small but worthwhile hobby shop....specializing mainly in HO, I believe....even produced their own kits, maybe even did some importing?....later set up a second shop in the Denver area under the same name.....probably all gone by now. (At my olphart age, recalling the name is a struggle.....but it will come to me at the weirdest, irrelevant time, I'm sure!
)
Sorry to read of the loss of life, much less property, in this downpour and flooding!
KD
Ken,
You are probably referring to Pro Custom Hobbies which was located on Frederick road in Catonsville about 5 miles east of Ellicott City. Joe Luber was the owner and opened a shop just east of Stapleton Airport in Denver. While the Baltimore shop did quite well the Denver shop was not as successful. Joe fell in to ill health and died many years ago at a rather young age from leukemia as I recall. Joe used the tagline "Ralphie the rhino" on his products in O and HO.
His wife, Corey, sold the business and it still exists as Pro Custom Hobbies in Eldersburg, MD, maybe 10 miles west of the old Catonsville location.
Stop by at York. I can tell you some great Joe Luber stories. He was a real card and a buddy.
As a sideline story, Lee Riley, the Bachmann guru who died maybe a year ago worked for Joe at Pro Custom in the 1970's. Nolan Null worked for Joe for a number of years and later became one of the folks behind the Proto 2000 line marketed by Life Like - later Walthers.
Bob
Wow! We didn't get much more than a sprinkle in nearby VA but the thunder & lightning were frightening.
Ellicott City had been the site of several disasters, fire and flood, sorry to say.
Im trying to post a link to the article and pictures. the train bridge is shown with the station roof just on the edge of the shot. watch the video of the cars going by.
Bill took me twice as long to get home from the RR with all the flooding on Rt 15.
Hints of the Big Thompson flood in CO ca 1974? I was in E.C. when my future wife was working in Westminster, MD. WE had dinner in E.C. and as a rabid fisherman, I was entranced by how a small stream ran right through the center of town, almost like the town was built on/around it. Reminded me of some CO towns. That narrow valley and 6 inches of rain in a hurry proved a recipe for disaster. Hope the historic depot did OK.
Ellicott City was formerly known as Ellicott's Mills and was built around the Patapsco River. As its name implies, the area was a mill town and there were a number of mills along the Patapsco in years past.
Allen Friends of mine are still not able to enter town or even get within a half of mile of town.
I had mistakenly thought the station was next to the bridge, that was the depot. A friend of mine used to volunteer down at the station and know the area very well, he lives 10 minutes from the station. He even remembers the flood in 1972 and the damage it did. From the pictures he has seen on TV, the lot next to the station is damaged. given that, he believes the station gift shop down on the first floor would in fact been flooded 5-6' deep. The basement structural walls are 2' thick and should survive no problem. 1972 flood didn't hurt the structure just the cosmetics that caused the renovation. I will try to get info as we can find out.
My other friend told us that his buddy owned the restaurant and they never saw it coming. They evacuated the first floor up to the second only to have water come down the hill and get them on the second floor. they went to the third and thought the place was going collapse and finally got rescued by the fire department.
Jamie
GOOD GRIEF, I hadn't heard of this at all until just now. 
When I was stationed at Aberdeen in the late 90s, I used to love going down there. Lots of antique stores, and the ancient depot was really cool to walk around in (any word on damages to that structure?). Such a neat little town.
I hope they rebuild quickly, as this is the middle of the tourist season and obviously a flood this size will have badly harmed the city, financially.
BTW, in 2012, two girls were killed right there as they sat on the bridge at the center of town and a coal train derailed, instantly buying them under tons of coal. What a horrific way to die...
Ellicott City will take years to rebuild. The Patapsco River washout the center of town when it over flowed it's bank. Once in a thousand year rain storm did all the damage.
If I remember correctly, Gerry Williams of Williams electric trains had his offices well outside of town in the direction of Columbia. I think they were in a small strip mall off Route 100.
I went there many years ago (1997?) to pick of side frames for my brass sharknose diesels. I got to meet Gerry -- really nice man. There were display shelves with all his locomotives and storage space behind the office area.
Jan
Not sure if this is the same bridge 1952 and 2016:
Boy, it was scary...
Here is the latest explataion from the weather folks on it. 6 inches of rain in two hours 9-11PM. there are two photo's in the link #2 and # 3 show CSX working on the bridge above. from the derailment photo posted above and in photo #3 you can see the Viaduct that carried the normal water flow from the top of the hill. No match for that amount of rain.
CSX FAN posted:Here is the latest explataion from the weather folks on it. 6 inches of rain in two hours 9-11PM. there are two photo's in the link #2 and # 3 show CSX working on the bridge above. from the derailment photo posted above and in photo #3 you can see the Viaduct that carried the normal water flow from the top of the hill. No match for that amount of rain.
Yep, that street is like a funnel. If you've ever been there, is obvious even in a bone dry day. I'm not surprised where the water went, only the amount of it going that way.
It was quite the weekend. I was over near there today but of course you can't get too close to Main Street.
I actually bought my 2016 Lionel National Train Day box car from one of the shops on Main Street. Don't know for sure but suspect they got a fair amount of water damage like most of the places.
Allan,
I was dining on near 40 and Rogers which was also having heavy flooding that night. Had to wait it out at the restaurant to get out. I cannot imagine what the people down town experiences. The water where I was at flowed into Ellicott City. The historic Clock was swept down the river. Yesterday, search and rescue found it and they returned it back to its spot temporarily. Some else found the clock face as well. Most of the Ellicott down town is restricted. On Monday they allowed shop owners to view their shops under escort from the out side. Some are completely destroyed while others have flooding on the 1st floor. Today, the residents can go to their homes under escort to pick up key essential items. It will be a long while before the down roads are open. I have not heard any news from the EC B&O Museum. Some of the pictures of the area show it is intact.
Allan,
The B&O RR museum just sent out an email to its members. Below is an excerpt about them on reporting the damage.
On August 3, 2016 Museum staff and representatives from Howard County were permitted access to the historic B&O Ellicott City Station. We are extremely pleased to report that, other than some minor damage to electric wires and ductwork in a crawl space, the building is safe, secure and undamaged as are the artifacts and equipment within.
Given the Station’s location at the corner of Main Street and Maryland Avenue and its north face at the confluence of the Tiber River and the Patapsco River it is truly miraculous that little to no damage occurred. The north portion of the plaza in front of the station and the buildings across Main Street are some of the hardest hit areas.
Due to the massive cleanup and recovery efforts in Ellicott City the Museum will remain closed until further notice. We will send notice as soon as we are able to determine a re-opening date.
Glad to hear. If memory serves, there wasn't too much to destroy on the lower landing, but there were some display rooms if I recall...
Macaroni posted:Ellicott City will take years to rebuild. The Patapsco River washout the center of town when it over flowed it's bank. Once in a thousand year rain storm did all the damage.
In this case the river did not overflow its banks into the city, rather a "wave" of rainwater washed down Main Street to meet the river.
The Ellicott City B&O RR musuem will reopen on Thanksgiving Weekend:
Below are details from the B&O
Holiday Festival of Trains
November 25 - January 29
Wednesday - Sunday
11 am - 4 pm
Holiday Festival of Trains
Ellicott City Station reopens to the public Thanksgiving weekend with Civil War Santa kicking off the Station's annual Holiday Festival of Trains.
Please note that the Washington D.C. Metropolitan LEGO Group's LEGO display will not be exhibit this year due to the delay of reopening Ellicott City Station after the historic July flood.
Went to a wedding in EC in early October. Things were coming together with work still remaining to be done.
The other big event for them is the Annual Midnight Madness which kicks off the holiday shopping season. Currently set for December 2nd.
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