Once a year, Baltimore’s oldest stretch of railroad track belongs to the dogs. On October 25, the National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation will host Tails on the Rails, letting leashed pups and their owners board a train for a one-mile ride to Carroll Park, followed by a costume parade and a Howl-a-Ween party back at the museum.
It is a dramatic exception to how the museum normally operates. Under standard policy, pets are strictly prohibited from the 40-acre campus except for working service dogs, which makes this single October afternoon the only time all year that dogs are welcome on the grounds and train cars at all, according to Spotatrain. For one day, the museum that used to be known as the B&O Railroad Museum turns its rules upside down for the sake of wagging tails and puppy playdates.
As reported by WBAL-TV, the day kicks off with Yappy Hour at 1 p.m., where dogs and their people can mingle before boarding the Mile One Express for the trip to Carroll Park. Kris Hoellen, executive director of the National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation, told the station that the dogs genuinely take to train travel, saying they “sit on their seats and look out the window.”
A Ride Down America’s First Commercial Rail Line
The train itself travels a route with serious historical weight. The Mile One Express runs along the first commercial mile of railroad right-of-way ever laid in the United States, where construction began in 1829. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had been chartered in 1827 as the nation’s first common-carrier railway, per the National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation. Dogs riding those rails this month will be retracing the literal birthplace of American commercial rail travel…