A GIANT PASSES. Charles Roberts, railroad historian, game designer.

Famed Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad author and historian and game designer Charles Roberts died Friday from complications of emphysema and pneumonia, the Baltimore Sun has reported. He was 80.

Roberts’ father and grandfather were B&O railroaders, and he was a great-great nephew of Charles Swann Roberts, the railroad’s president from 1848 until 1853. His books included five major titles on B&O and nine on PRR.

Roberts also started the game publishing company Avalon Hill Co. in 1958. Board games he published included “Rail Baron,” “Dispatcher,” and “B&O/C&O.” Parker Brothers bought the company in the early 1960s.

Avalon Hill bought the rights to "Diplomacy," in addition to publishing battle and campaign simulations from a number of wars.