Delaware Railroad

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Delaware Railroad
Delaware Railroad
Stoomlocomotief, RP-F-2001-7-1481-7.jpg
2-6-0 steam locomotive Shoharie
Overview
Headquarters Clayton, Delaware
Locale Delaware
Dates of operation1836–1976 [1]
Predecessor
Successor
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length95 miles (153 kilometres)

The Delaware Railroad was the major railroad in the US state of Delaware, traversing almost the entire state north to south from the mid-1850's until 1976. It began in Porter and was extended south through Dover andSeaford before reaching Delmar on the border of Maryland in 1859. Although operated independently, in 1857 it was leased by and under the financial control of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1881. [2] In 1891, it was extended north approximately 14 miles (23 km) with the purchase of existing track to New Castle and Wilmington. [3] [4] It remained a part of the PRR system and then Penn Central until 1976 when Penn Central went bankrupt at which point it was absorbed into Conrail.

Contents

History

Origin

The railroad was conceived in 1836 by John M. Clayton, a former United States senator who obtained a charter from the Delaware General Assembly to serve the Delmarva Peninsula. He was concerned that a proposal in Maryland to build a line along the western side of the peninsula would harm Delaware's economy. Delaware was highly motivated and exempted the railroad from taxation for fifty years and provided other incentives. Clayton, William D. Waples and Richard Mansfield were appointed as commissioners and a survey of the line was made. The Depression of 1837-1839 prevented investment in the railroad and the charter was forfeited. [5]

The charter was renewed in 1848 under the promotion of Samuel M. Harrington (Clayton at this time was serving as the United States Secretary of State). It called for a line from Dona Landing (just east of Dover) to Seaford that would be part of a Philadelphia to Norfolk route. [5] Sufficient investment was secured by 1852, when the state of Delaware stepped in and bought 5,000 shares of stock to its construction allowing commencement of the operation. In 1853, the PW&B railroad and the du Pont family guaranteed Construction bonds, and the line was built from a junction with the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad in Porter to Dover. It opened in 1855 and the line to Seaford opened in 1856. Moving the northern terminus from Dona Landing to Porter added approximately 35 miles (56 km) to the originally planned length. [5]

The first section was opened with an inaugural eight-car train north from Middletown on September 1, 1855, carrying the president of the railroad and that of the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, the chief engineer, and railroad contractors. [6]

The PW&B leased the railroad in 1855 and starting in 1857 it operated the line as its Delaware Division. It was extended to the Maryland state line at Delmar, Delaware in 1859. [7]

Prior to the railroad, steamship traffic from Philadelphia ran to Dona Landing, a Dona steamship line port on the Leipsic River just off Delaware Bay and approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Dover. Passengers would then go by stagecoach to Dover and south to Seaford where they would then resume travel by ship south to Norfolk on the Nanticoke River. Both the stage and steamship lines were made obsolete by the railroad and hence abandoned. [8]

Route

The railroad ran inland to avoid wetlands near the coast through areas that had been sparsely populated. Railroad access spurred the growth of farms in this part of the state as farmers had means to ship produce north to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. [2] [5] Land that had not been farmed was cleared as the new access to city markets increased agricultural output. The railroad assisted the Delaware peach industry, allowing faster peach transport to market than had been possible by steamship. It also allowed the introduction of peach orchards to areas without access to river shipping. The industry spread downstate from the Delaware City area where it originated as the railroad extended further south. [9] By 1875, five million baskets (900,000 carloads) of peaches were shipped on the Delaware railroad. [2] The railroad is credited with the peach becoming a "signature crop" in Delaware - the first state from which peaches were a commercial crop shipped long distances to market. [10] In 1863, peach farmers sued the railroad after they grew a bumper crop but the railroad did not have enough freight cars to accommodate the entire crop, and as a result there was significant spoilage. [5] The railroad felt the judgment was "exorbitant". [5]

New towns formed along the railroad including Bridgeville, Greenwood, [11] Clayton (named for the railroad's founder John M. Clayton) was nearby Smyrna which did not want the railroad competing with its shipping industry, [12] Wyoming (nearby Camden refused to allow the railroad to be built through the town), [11] Felton (named after David Felton, president of the railroad) [11] and Harrington. [2] In 1855, the railroad located its main office in Clayton. [13]

The Delaware Railroad became the spine to which all Delmarva branch lines connected. After completing its line to Delmar, the Delaware Railroad starting building branches and acquiring control of those that connected to it in Delmarva.

Civil War

Prior to the Civil War, southern sympathizers utilized the railroad as a route south to join the Confederacy. [2] In 1861, Charles du Pont Bird (a descendant of E.I. du Pont) advised General Robert E. Lee that the railroad should be destroyed to prevent its use by the Union Army to ship troops and supplies to Washington, DC. The railroad remained under Federal control throughout the war. [14] The railroad was used to ship contraband south to the Confederacy as its geography placed it in a prime smuggling route. [15]

Extension

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 after the disruption of the Civil War, the Eastern Shore extended the line to Crisfield, Maryland in 1866 and built a branch to Pocomoke City, Maryland in 1871. [1]

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. [1]

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad in 1881 bringing the Delaware Railroad under it's control. It later purchased several east–west lines serving locations throughout the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland, effectively securing a monopoly over the peninsula. These included the Junction and Breakwater Railroad and the Queen Anne's Railroad (later the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railroad). [2]

After opening in 1884, [16] the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad utilized the Delaware Railroad track to reach its line to Cape Charles and this increased business on the Delaware Railroad. Cape Charles was located close to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on Virginia's Eastern Shore and the railroad used a rail ferry to reach Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1891, the former New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad track from Porter to New Castle and the former New Castle and Wilmington Railroad track was added to the Delaware Railroad (both then owned by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore) extending its northern terminus to the Christiana River in Wilmington. With this additional track, the total length was 95.2 miles (153.2 km). [17]

In 1910, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad (the successor to the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore) renewed its lease of the railroad for another 99 years. The lease included the: [4] [18]

Facing competition from automobiles, passenger service was eliminated by 1949.

Penn Central

Facing financial difficulties in the 1960s, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its rival New York Central in 1968 forming the Penn Central which itself filed for what was, at that time, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history in 1970. The mainline of the Delaware Railroad was eventually absorbed into Conrail, created by the Federal Government to operate the potentially profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers.

Becoming profitable in the 1980s, most of Conrail was sold off to CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1998. [19] Norfolk Southern then operated the Delaware Railroad mainline until it was spun off in October 2016 to the Delmarva Central Railroad, a short-line railroad that operates 188 miles (303 km) of track on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Legacy

Today the Delmarva Central Railroad operates trains on the right-of-way of the old Delaware Railroad, which is owned by Norfolk Southern. The railroad extends past the southern terminus of the Delaware Railroad at Delmar another 35 miles (56 km) into Maryland to Pocomoke City and still has several branches that connect to it. [20]

Some of the railroad's old stations, such as the Felton Railroad Station and the Wyoming station still exist. The former was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and was renovated for use as a museum, [21] and the latter was listed in 1980. [22]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaware</span> U.S. state

Delaware is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states region of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state's name derives from the adjacent Delaware Bay, which in turn was named after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Colony of Virginia's first colonial-era governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delmarva Peninsula</span> Large peninsula on the East Coast of the US

The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delmar, Delaware</span> Town in Delaware, United States

Delmar is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States, on the Maryland border along the Transpeninsular Line. Its motto is "The Little Town Too Big for One State." The population was 1,597 at the 2010 census, an increase of 13.5% over the previous decade. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area and a suburb of Salisbury, MD. When added with Delmar, Maryland, the total population of the town was 4,600 at the 2010 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delmar, Maryland</span> Town in Maryland, United States

Delmar [dɛlmɑːr] is a town in Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. The population was 3,003 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. When the population is added to Delmar, Delaware, the town's total population is 4,600.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 13</span> Highway in the United States

U.S. Route 13 or U.S. Highway 13 (US 13) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway established in 1926 that runs for 518 miles (834 km) from Interstate 95 (I-95) just north of Fayetteville, North Carolina, to US 1 in the northeastern suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, near Morrisville. In all, it traverses five states in the Atlantic coastal plain region. It follows the Atlantic coast more closely than does the main north–south U.S. Highway of the region, US 1. Because of this, its number is out of place on the general U.S. Highway numbering grid, as it should be running west of US 11 but does not. Its routing is largely rural, the notable exceptions being the Hampton Roads area in Virginia and the northern end of the highway in Delaware and Pennsylvania. It is also notable for being the main thoroughfare for the Delmarva Peninsula and carrying the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel to it in Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Shore of Maryland</span> Part of the U.S. state of Maryland

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that Maryland shares with Delaware and Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Railroad Company</span> Former railroad in Delaware and eastern Maryland, US

The New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road (NC&F) was opened in 1831, was the first railroad in Delaware and one of the first in the United States. Approximately half of the route was abandoned in 1859; the rest became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) route into the Delmarva Peninsula and is still used by Norfolk Southern Railway. The abandoned segment from Porter, Delaware, to Frenchtown, Maryland, the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad Right-of-Way, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad</span> Railway company, later part of the Pennsylvania Railroad

The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881. Headquartered in Philadelphia, it was greatly enlarged in 1838 by the merger of four state-chartered railroads in three Mid-Atlantic states to create a single line between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Shore Railroad</span>

The Eastern Shore Railroad, Inc. was a Class III short-line railroad that began operations in October 1981 on the 96-mile (154 km) former Virginia and Maryland Railroad line on the Delmarva Peninsula. The line ran between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia, interchanging with the Norfolk Southern Railway at both ends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland and Delaware Railroad</span> Class III short-line railroad in Maryland and Delaware, United States

The Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company is a Class III short-line railroad, formed in 1977 to operate several branch lines of the former Penn Central Railroad in both Maryland and Delaware, United States. These branches were omitted from the system plan for Conrail in 1976 and would have been discontinued without state subsidies. As an alternative to the higher cost of subsidizing Conrail as the operator of the branch lines, the Maryland and Delaware governments selected the Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company (MDDE) to serve as the designated operator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay Coast Railroad</span>

The Bay Coast Railroad operated the former Eastern Shore Railroad line between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. The railroad interchanged with the Delmarva Central Railroad in Pocomoke City and Norfolk Southern in Norfolk; the interchange in Pocomoke City had been with Norfolk Southern prior to December 2016, when the Delmarva Central Railroad leased 162 miles (261 km) of Norfolk Southern track on the Delmarva peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 13 in Maryland</span> U.S. Highway in Maryland

U.S. Route 13 (US 13) is a United States Numbered Highway running from Fayetteville, North Carolina, north to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. In the U.S. state of Maryland, the route runs 42.48 miles (68.36 km) from the Virginia border south of Pocomoke City in Worcester County north to the Delaware border in Delmar, Wicomico County, where the route intersects Maryland Route 54 (MD 54)/Delaware Route 54 (DE 54), which runs along the state line. The majority of the route within Maryland is a four-lane divided highway that passes through rural areas of woodland and farmland. The route also runs through a few municipalities including Pocomoke City and Princess Anne and it bypasses Fruitland and Salisbury to the east on the Salisbury Bypass, which is a freeway. US 13 intersects many major roads including the southern terminus of US 113 in Pocomoke City, MD 413 in Westover, and MD 12 and US 50 where the route is on the Salisbury Bypass. The route shares a concurrency with US 50 along a portion of the Salisbury Bypass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 13 in Delaware</span> Highway in Delaware

U.S. Route 13 (US 13) is a U.S. highway running from Fayetteville, North Carolina, north to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. In the U.S. state of Delaware, the route runs for 103.33 mi (166.29 km). It traverses the entire north–south length of the state from the Maryland state line in Delmar, Sussex County, north to the Pennsylvania state line in Claymont, New Castle County. US 13 connects many important cities and towns in Delaware, including Seaford, Dover, and Wilmington. The entire length of US 13 in Delaware is a multilane divided highway with the exceptions of the segment through Wilmington and parts of the route in Claymont. Between the Maryland state line and Dover, US 13 serves as one of the main north–south routes across the Delmarva Peninsula. From Dover north to Tybouts Corner, the route is followed by the controlled-access Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) toll road, which crosses the route multiple times and has multiple interchanges with it. US 13 bypasses downtown Wilmington to the east before it heads northeast of the city parallel to Interstate 495 (I-495) and the Delaware River to Claymont. US 13 is the longest numbered highway in the state of Delaware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Road, Delaware</span> Unincorporated area in Delaware, United States

State Road is an unincorporated area in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. State Road is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 13 and U.S. Route 40, southwest of New Castle.

The New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad was a railroad line that ran down the spine of the Delmarva Peninsula from Delmar, Maryland to Cape Charles, Virginia and then by ferry to Norfolk, Virginia. It became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system.

The Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic railroad, nicknamed Black Cinders & Ashes, ran from Claiborne, Maryland, to Ocean City, Maryland. It was chartered as the Baltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad in 1886 and began operation in 1890, at which time it purchased the Wicomico & Pocomoke Railroad Company, merging it into its own operations. Over the following 100 years, it struggled to remain profitable, changed names and ownership several times and abandoned most of its rail line. The only portion that remains in service today is the 3.65-mile long Willards Industrial Track, the 0.65-mile Mardela Industrial Track and the 0.6-mile Mill Street Industrial Track - all in Salisbury, Maryland - operated by Delmarva Central Railroad on track owned by Norfolk Southern Railroad. Track, bridges and right-of-way remain across Delmarva and at least one portion has been turned into a rail trail.

The Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Railroad is a defunct American railroad that operated passenger service from Broad Street Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Franklin City, Virginia in the late 19th Century and most of the 20th Century. At the latter city, steamship connections could be made to Chincoteague, Virginia on the Atlantic Ocean-side exterior islands.

The Delmarva Central Railroad is an American short-line railroad owned by Carload Express that operates 188 miles (303 km) of track on the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The railroad operates lines from Porter, Delaware to Hallwood, Virginia and from Harrington, Delaware to Frankford, Delaware along with several smaller branches. The DCR interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway and the Maryland and Delaware Railroad. The railroad was created in 2016 to take over the Norfolk Southern Railway lines on the Delmarva Peninsula. The DCR expanded by taking over part of the Bay Coast Railroad in 2018 and the Delaware Coast Line Railroad in 2019.

The Del-Mar-Va Express was a named passenger train of the Pennsylvania Railroad that at its peak went from New York City to the southernmost point of the Delmarva Peninsula, Cape Charles, Virginia. Initiated in 1926, the train's north–south passage through Delaware stood in contrast with the main passenger traffic through Delaware being a brief passage through cities in the upper reach of Delaware, mainly Wilmington. Most importantly, the train served as a more direct path from New York City and Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia, by way of a ferry from Cape Charles across the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, a path that bypassed Baltimore and Washington, D.C. This saved time in comparison to travel over PRR, Atlantic Coast Line and Norfolk & Western trains through Washington to Norfolk. The Del-Mar-Va trip, including ferry travel was 11 hours from New York; and the longer all-land route through Washington was 13 hours and 40 minutes.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kunico, Gary. "MARYLAND RAILROADS STATEWIDE HISTORIC CONTEXT" (PDF). Retrieved 3 December 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Munroe, John A. (2006). History of Delaware (Fifth ed.). University of Delaware Press. ISBN   0874139473 . Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  3. ↑ Vernon, Edward (1873). American Railway Manual, Volume1. American Railway Manual Company. p. 277. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Lease of the Delaware Railroad". The News Journal. Wilmington, DE. February 16, 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 20 September 2017– via Newspapers.com. Lock-green.svg
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Caoace, Nancy (2001). The Encyclopedia of Delaware. Somerset Publishers. ISBN   9780403096121 . Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "Opening of the Delaware Railroad to Middletown". Public Ledger. Philadelphia. September 5, 1855. Retrieved 17 September 2017– via Newspapers.com. Lock-green.svg
  7. ↑ "A Brief History of the Town of Delmar" . Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  8. ↑ Conrad, Henry Clay (1908). History of the State of Delaware, Volume 2. p. 650. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  9. ↑ Kee, Ed (2007). Delaware Farming. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   9780738544496 . Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  10. ↑ Clemons, Denise (2016). A Culinary History of Southern Delaware: Scrapple, Beach Plums and Muskra. Arcadia Publishing. p. 35. ISBN   9781625858153 . Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 Rendle, Ellen; Cooper, Constance J. (2001). Delaware in Vintage Postcards. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   0738513806 . Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  12. ↑ Hansen, Jess (2013). Smyrna, Clayton, and Woodland Beach. Arcadia Publishing. p. 8. ISBN   9781467120333 . Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  13. ↑ Thomas, Selma, ed. (1975). Delaware: an inventory of historic engineering and industrial sites. US Department of the Interior. p. 20. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  14. ↑ Morgan, Michael (2012). Civil War Delaware The First State Divided. Charleston: The History Press. ISBN   9781609494452 . Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  15. ↑ Miller, Richard F. (2015). States at War, Volume 4: A Reference Guide for Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey in the Civil War. University Press of New England. ISBN   9781611686227 . Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  16. ↑ Badger, Tom; Badger, Curtis (2009). Accomack County. Arcadia Publishing. p. 77. ISBN   9780738567846.
  17. ↑ Hayman, John C. (1979). Rails Along The Chesapeake: A History of Railroading on the Delmarva Peninsula, 1827-1978. Marvadel Publishers. ASIN   B0006DXHV0.
  18. ↑ Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs: Railroad, canal, navigation, telegraph and telephone companies. Part 4. Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs. 1908. p.  215 . Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  19. ↑ Burns, James B. (1998). Railroad Mergers and the Language of Unification. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN   9781567201666 . Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  20. ↑ "UPDATED: New short line to take over NS's Delmarva Secondary". Trains Magazine. October 19, 2016. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  21. ↑ "National Register Information System – (#83000843)". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  22. ↑ "National Register Information System – (#80000931)". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
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