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The Delmarva Division is the set of railroads on the Delmarva Peninsula of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia that were part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) through most of the 20th Century. The lines were built by several different companies and then eventually consolidated under the control of the PRR and later the Penn Central Railroad. Throughout the 20th Century some of the rail lines were abandoned and following the bankruptcy of Penn Central and break-up on Conrail ownership changed many times.

Creation

The first section of rail that would eventually become the Delmarva Division was built by the Delaware Railroad with financing from the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad. The line was built from a junction with the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad in Porter, Delaware, to Dover, Delaware, in 1855. It was extended to Seaford, Delaware, in 1856. The PW&B leased the railroad starting the next year. It was extended to the Maryland state line at Delmar, Delaware in 1859.

In 1857, the Junction and Breakwater Railroad (J&B) built a "junction" with the Delaware Railroad in Harrington, DE and by 1859 it had reached Milford, DE. Work was stalled by the Civil War but resumed in 1867 and the line was completed to Lewes, DE and the Delaware Breakwater, via Georgetown, by 1869. By 1878 it had built a 5-mile extension to Rehoboth. In Rehoboth it eventually built connections to Canneries along the canal, factories along Laurel Street, a passenger station on Rehoboth avenue and a wye that connected to Henlopen Junction.

The Delaware Railroad was only allowed to construct a rail line within the state of Delaware. After it reached Delmar in 1859, the 1835 charter of the Eastern Shore Railroad was revived and it extended the line to Crisfield, Maryland in 1866 and a branch to Pocomoke City, Maryland in 1871.

On May 22, 1874, the Breakwater & Frankford Railroad (B&F) opened a connection to the J&B at Georgetown that ran from Georgetown to the Maryland line at Selbyville, DE just south of Frankford,DE.

By 1876, the Worcester Railroad had connected to the B&F at Selbyville and extended the line to Franklin City, Virginia.

In 1879 the Eastern Shore Railroad was foreclosed on and acquired by the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N) which built an extension from Pocomoke City to Cape Charles, Virginia in 1884.

Consolidation

Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Railroad

In 1883 the J&B, B&F and Worcester railroads merged to form the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Railroad (DMVR). In 1891 the DMVR defaulted on two mortgages and was taken over by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at the request of the Delaware General Assembly.

In 1897, the Queen Anne's Railroad connected its track to the DMVR at Ellendale, DE as part of a line that was opened to Milton, DE. On March 1, 1898, it finished its track to Lewes where it connected to the DMVR at a point just east of the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal. It then used the DMVR trackage to connect to Rehoboth.

Pennsylvania Railroad

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad

In 1881, the PRR purchased the PW&B, bringing the Delaware Railroad under its control.

In March 1891, the DMVR approached default on two mortgages totaling $600,000 and so the PW&BR took control of the company and added its trackage to the Delmarva Division. The Delaware General Assembly met with DMVR directors and those of the PW&BR in order to avoid the default and keep the rail lines open. DMVR shareholders remained minority owners of the line until 1919, when they were unable to meet financial obligations, and the minority shares were sold to the PRR.

Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington

In 1902, the PRR merged the PW&B with the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad to create the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad (PB&W) and PB&W branded trains began running on the Delmarva Division.

In 1921, the PB&W acquired the NYP&N and added it to the Delmarva Division.

In 1934 the DMVR bought the section of railroad between Ellendale and Milton from the Queen Anne's Railroad when it went bankrupt. It became the Milton Industrial Track, a branch of the Delmarva Division.

The Pennsylvania Railroad passenger trains operated along the route until the late 1960s, stopping at towns just a few miles inland from resort towns on the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula. Frequency along the route dwindled from three trains in each direction in the early 1910s to one train a day in each direction in 1941.

Branches were abandoned and passenger service was scaled back. Most passenger service ended in the 1940s. By 1957 all that remained was a once-a-day Philadelphia–Cape Charles train. In 1958, the route was shortened: from Philadelphia to Delmar. The last train was a Wilmington–Delmar train, called the Blue Diamond which last ran in 1965.

Penn Central

In 1968, the PRR and its longtime rival New York Central Railroad merged to form the Penn Central and trains were run on the division by the new entity for a few years; but the Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970/ Penn Central continued to operate trains in bankruptcy until 1976, when the company's railroad assets were sold To Conrail.

Conrail and Successors

Conrail took over the assets of Penn Central on April 1, 1976. It quickly set about shedding unprofitable lines, breaking the system up between several owners and abandoning some parts.

Crisfield Industrial Track

The Crisfield Branch, the old Eastern Shore Rail line from King's Creek Junction just north of the Manokin River to Crisfield, was never conveyed to Conrail. Instead it was sold to MDOT. Everything on the line south of US 13 was abandoned immediately and the last train, pulling eight San Luis Central ice reefers of onions for a local plant that produced frozen onion rings at the time, left Crisfield on April 4, 1976. The tracks were soon pulled up and the old freight station torn down..

About 2 miles of track from King's Junction to US-13 is still in use, owned by MDOT and operated by the DCR to serve a chicken processing plant on Revells Neck Road. The rest is in the process of being converted into a rail trail.

The line from Clayton to Smyrna was also abandoned without conveying to Conrail.

Lewes Industrial Track

In 1981, Conrail announced plans to abandon the Lewes Industrial Track, the railroad between Georgetown and Lewes, and the Milton Industrial Track between Ellendale and Milton. Rather than see rail service end on those lines or subsidize Conrail, DelDOT purchased them. Investors incorporated the Delaware Coast Line Railroad (DCLR) in 1982 to serve the DelDOT owned lines, and it was then hired by DelDOT to do that.

Also in 1981 the Canonie Atlantic Company purchased the 96 miles of track from Pocomoke City to Norfolk and created the Eastern Shore Railroad, unaffiliated with the one that built the line south of Delmar, to operate on it. In 1987, after failing to turn a profit, the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission (A-NTDC), a dual-county government board, purchased all of the stock in Canonie Atlantic.

The line from Frankford to Snow Hill, the Snow Hill Branch Line, was sold to the Snow Hill Shippers Association, a group of businesses that relied on the line, in 1982. Snow Hill Shippers hired the Maryland and Delaware Railroad (MDDE) to operate it.

In the 1990s a dinner train operated on the track between Nassau and Lewes, branded as the "Queen Anne's Railroad." The dinner train's center of operations was at the former Lewes, Delaware station. Passenger cars were pulled by a USATC S100 Class 0-6-0 tank locomotive, produced for the US Army in World War II. The last passenger train service to Lewes was in 2007.

The Maryland & Delaware Railroad (MDDE) assumed operation of the two DelDOT rail lines that the DCLR had been serving in 1994 when it was awarded a five-year contract by Delaware. MDDE did not seek renewal of the Delaware contract and operation of the two lines was returned to DCLR in 1999.

Delmarva Mainline and Secondary

In 1999 Conrail sold most of the Delmarva Division track to Norfolk Southern (NS). NS bought the Delmarva Mainline (the old Delaware Railroad line) from Porter, DE to Pocomoke City, MD and the line that branches off from that at Harrington and runs to Frankford. It called the branch the Delmarva Secondary line.

In 2016, Norfolk Southern turned operation of the Delmarva Mainline and Secondary lines to the Delmarva Central Railroad.

In 2000 the MDDE acquire the Snow Hill Branch Line, from the Snow Hill Shippers Association.

The Eastern Shore Railroad was taken over in February 2006 by Cassatt Management, LLC., and was operated and renamed as the Bay Coast Railroad.

In early 2018, DCLR lost its contract to operate what remained of the Lewes Industrial Track. The Delmarva Central Railroad took over the contract and extended its existing operations to include the DCLR's tracks effective January 1, 2019. DCLR then exited the railroad business and sold off its equipment.

Freight service continued to run to Lewes where it served the SPI Pharma plant near Cape Henlopen with two to three transports a month. Operations fluctuated between DCLR and MDDE until September 2016 when DelDot closed the swing bridge over the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal to rail traffic. Over the years it had sunk 7-8 inches due to settlement in the canal and some pieces of timber had split; and was thus found to be structurally unsound. In 2017, DelDOT determined that repairs to the swing bridge would be too costly and that they would abandon the line from Lewes to Cool Spring Road. A train pulled the last tank cars out of Lewes on December 15, 2017, ending train service to Lewes. The line was decommissioned in 2018 and the tracks east of the Allen Harim Poultry Plant in Harbeson were removed that year.

The Bay Coast Railroad ceased operations on the line from Pocomoke to Norfolk on May 18, 2018. In June 2018, the Delmarva Central Railroad took over the portion between Pocomoke City and Hallwood, Virginia and the line from Hallwood to Cape Charles was abandoned. Service on the Norfolk side was taken over by the Buckingham Branch Railroad.

Today, the Delmarva Central Railroad operates the Delmarva Mainline and Secondary Line, both owned by NS; the Milton Industrial Track and the remaining Lewes Industrial Track, both owned by DelDOT; and the "Eastern Shore" Rail line from Pocomoke to Hallwood which is still owned by Canonie Atlantic Company/A-NTDC. The Snow Hill Branch Line is owned and operated by the MDDE.

Contraction

In the mid-1940's the railroad bridge across the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal in Rehoboth was removed and service terminated east of the canal.

Passenger service on the Division was eliminated in 1949.

In 1956, the PRR abandoned the tracks between Snow Hill, Maryland and Franklin City, Virginia.

In the 1970s, Penn Central abandoned the rail line between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

Freight service continued to run to Lewes, where it served the SPI Pharma plant near Cape Henlopen with two to three transports a month, until September 2016 when DelDOT determined the swing bridge over the canal was structurally unsound, as it had sunk 7-8 inches due to settlement and some pieces of timber had split, and closed it. As a result of the bridge closure, SPI Pharma began shipping by truck and three tank cars remained stranded at SPI Pharma. In 2017, DelDOT determined that repairs to the swing bridge would be too costly and that they would abandon the line from Lewes to Cool Spring Road. Originally the tank cars were to be transported across the swing bridge, but due to the instability of the bridge they decided to transport the tank cars by truck across the canal and reassemble them onto the tracks on the other side for them to be hauled by rail to Georgetown. The three tank cars were trucked out of SPI Pharma in November 2017. A train pulled the tank cars out of Lewes on December 15, 2017, ending train service to Lewes. The line was decommissioned in 2018 and the tracks east of the Allen Harim Poultry Plant in Harbeson were removed that year.

In 2017, Canonie Atlantic Company/Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission applied to abandon the 49.1 miles of rail line from Hallwood to Cape Charles. It ran it's last train in May of 2018 and on Oct 31, 2019 the STB approved it's abandonment application and it was railbanked. In 2020, the Virginia Department of Transportation began studying transforming the railroad into a trail called the Eastern Shore Rail to Trail. In October 2021 the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission voted to remove the tracks and that work was performed in 2022.

Remnants

The Delmarva Subdivision, Indian River Subdivision and Dagsboro Industrial Track (all owned by Norfolk Southern and operated by Delmarva Central Railroad); the Milton Industrial Track and the Lewes Running Track between Georgetown and Harbeson (both owned by DelDOT and operated by the Delmarva Central), and the Snow Hill Branch Line (owned and operated by MDDE) are still in operation.

The historic Milford train station is still in use, but as office space.

The 1892 Georgetown Train Station closed when passenger service ended in 1949, but was restored in 2003 and now contains office space.

The abandoned right-of-way from Fischer Road on the east side of Harbeson to just west of Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes was converted into the Lewes-Georgetown Trail and there are plans to extend it west to the end of the track in Harbeson.

The Harbeson Railroad Station privy, built in 1870, was donated to the Lewes Historical Society and moved to their campus by 2022.

In Lewes, the Lewes Junction Railroad & Bridge Association built a railroad history park, which includes a 1917 caboose, that had been used by the old Delaware Coast Line Railroad on its last run in 2017 and by the Queen Anne's dinner car in the 90's; a 210-foot portion of original track, and a replica of the old train station next to the Lewes Public Library.

The old Lewes-Rehoboth Canal bridge, and the date stone from the west abutment, are on permanent display along the Lewes-Georgetown Trail at American Legion Road in Lewes. The bridge was a hand-cranked swing bridge that was originally built in 1869 and modernized by PRR in 1916. The bridge was reconstructed in 1997. After DelDot decided it was unsafe in 2016, leading to the rail line east of the canal being shut down, it was removed on Feb. 15, 2022 and the canal was restored over the next year.

Some of the abandoned right-of-way from Lewes to Rehoboth Beach is used for the Junction and Breakwater Trail.

The Rehoboth Beach Train Station which was built in the late 1800s currently serves as Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center. It was in service until the 1920s. After that it served as offices, small shops and a restaurant until it was sold in 1950. It was donated to the city and the Rehoboth Railroad Station Preservation Society and moved to its present location at 501 Rehoboth Avenue in 1987.

From Georgetown to Snow Hill several old stations remain including the one at Queponco Road in Newark, DE, which is now a museum.

The right-of-way from Snow Hill, MD to Franklin City, MD was abandoned and all the tracks have been removed. The stations at Snow Hill and Girdletree, MD; the depot at Franklin City and a couple of vintage RR crossing signs in Girdletree where the line used to be are the only remnants of the section south of Snow Hill. In 2020, the Federal Government announced that it wanted the Franklin City Depot removed and began looking for people to take it.

Most of the Crisfield Industrial Track that was abandoned in 1976 is in the process of being converted into a trail. 4.7 miles of the trail from Crisfield to Marion was opened in 2020 and dedicated in July 2021 as the Terrapin Run Trail (previously known as the "413 Rail to Trail"). Construction on the 2nd phase from Marion to Westover is planned for 2024.

Stations

The Marion train station still stands in the town of Marion Station, Maryland. In 1997, a revitalization project began to restore the building. It was reopened in the early 2000s as the new Accohannock Indian Museum, containing various relics from the time when Marion Station was a bustling city.

The Felton Railroad Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and was renovated for use as a museum. The Wyoming station was listed in 1980 and is also extent.

References

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• Defunct Delaware railroads
• Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad
• Sussex County, Delaware
• Transportation in Sussex County, Delaware
• Railway companies established in 1857
• 1857 establishments in Delaware