The New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad( reporting mark NYP&N) was a railroad that owned and operated a 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. [1]
The idea of a railroad on the Eastern Shore dated back to the 1853 when the North and South Railroad was chartered by the Virginia legislature. It never initiated construction and in 1878 the Peninsula Railroad of Virginia acquired the rights. In 1882 the NYP&N was created by consolidating the unbuilt Peninsula Railroad Company of Maryland and the Peninsula Railroad of Virginia to create a railroad from the existing southern terminus at Pocomoke City to Norfolk. [2]
The rail line to Pocomoke City had been built in stages, first by the Delaware Railroad and then by the Eastern Shore Railroad. 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 was revived and, in 1866 - after the disruption of the Civil War, the Eastern Shore extended the line to Crisfield, Maryland. It built a branch from a point at Kings Creek, called Peninsular Junction, to Pocomoke City in 1871; but it struggled and it was foreclosed on in 1879. [3]
The NYP&N was the vision of William Lawrence Scott, an Erie, Pennsylvania, coal magnate, who wanted to build a shorter railroad route between the coal wharfs of Hampton Roads by utilizing a ferry line across the Chesapeake Bay and a railroad line up the Delmarva Peninsula to the industrial north. [4] His plan was to continue the rail line from Pocomoke City to Cape Charles and use a rail ferry to reach Norfolk. Scott enlisted engineering help from Pennsylvania Railroad Vice-President, Alexander J. Cassatt, who saw the merits of the plan and took a hiatus from PRR to work on the new line. [5] Cassatt surveyed the line on horseback, designed ferries and wharfs, acquired other railroads, most notably the Eastern Shore Railroad.
Work began on the line south of Pocomoke City in April of 1884 and the line to what would become Cape Charles was ready for operation on October 25, 1884. [2] Two weeks later the first passenger steamer left Cape Charles for Norfolk. [6] The same year it absorbed the Eastern Shore Railroad. [2] The next year the railroad started using barges, or car floats, to carry railroad cars to Norfolk via Port Norfolk(Portsmouth). [6]
The Cape Charles Railroad, a subsidiary of the NYP&N, was incorporated on March 24, 1906 and began building a rail line from a point just east of Cape Charles, which became known as Cape Junction, down the peninsula a few years later. [7] They opened the line to Townsend by December 1, 1910 and it opened to Kiptopeke on March 8, 1912. This was the furthest south any railroad ever reached on the peninsula. [7] The Cape Charles Railroad was folded into the parent company in 1917. [2]
The NYP&N was always affiliated with the PRR which would eventually take control of it. In addition to Cassatt the PRR financed construction of the rail line. [8] In 1908 it purchased a controlling share of the NYP&N's stock. In 1920 it took over operations with a 999-year lease and in 1922 it converted the railroad into the "Norfolk Division" of the Pennsylvania Railroad. [2] When the PRR reorganized in 1930, The Norfolk Division became part of the Delmarva Division. [2]
In 1940, the United States Army built Fort Winslow just south of Kiptopeke and the following summer, the PRR laid track into the fort. [9]
Through the first half of the 20th century, several trains a day ran along the train line. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the PRR operated the day train, the Del-Mar-Va Express, and the night train, the Cavalier. At peak levels in the mid-1940s, the company also operated southbound, the Furlough, and an additional night train, the Mariner, in addition to unnamed local trains. Northbound the PRR added the Sailor, the Mariner night train, and an unnamed local train. [10]
The PRR began to scale back passenger service in 1949 when they close several stations on the line, including Kiptopeke, Townsend, Capeville, Bayview, Weirwood, Keller, Melfa, Hopeton, Bloxom and Mears. [11] The passenger ferry service from Cape Charles was shut down on March 1, 1953 and by 1957 all that remained was a once-a-day Philadelphia–Cape Charles train. [12] [2] [13] In 1958, passenger rail south of Delmar ended and after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1964 all ferry service from Kiptopeke ended. [14] [2]
The original ferry crossing was 36 miles. [15] Both passenger and freight ferries existed. Up to 30 freight cars could be loaded on flat barges pulled by a tugboat for the trip. The original passenger ferries, Cape Charles & Old Point Comfort, side-wheeler paddle steamers, could hold an entire train on their two tracks. In 1889 the New York the first propeller driven ship, 200 feet long, 31 feet beam was built for the run to Norfolk, and in 1890 the Pennsylvania, a larger vessel (260 feet long, 36 feet beam) was added. In 1907 the Maryland was built with the same dimensions, and the last ship was the Virginia Lee. [16]
Because the NYP&N had trouble getting other railroads to interchange with it, it orchestrated the creation of the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad in 1898, to serve as a "neutral" terminal switching company and interchange rail cars between the various competing railroads near the Elizabeth River. [2]
In 1926 the NYP&N built the Little Creek Extension and acquired tracking rights over Norfolk Southern Railroad from the Little Creek inlet, which cut the crossing distance to 26 miles. [6]
In 1953, the railroad cancelled rail ferry service from Cape Charles and instead used a ferry running between Kiptopeke and Little River. [12]
In 1956, the PRR and Norfolk Southern tried to get the planned Chesapeake Bay Tunnel to include railroad tracks but were unsuccessful and when the tunnel opened it dealt a serious blow to rail demand on the peninsula. [17]
In 1968 the railroad moved with all of the other PRR properties to the Penn Central, where the NYP&N ceased as an entity. The Penn Central declared bankruptcy just two years later.
Penn Central abandoned the Cape Charles-Kiptopeke branch, which was down to two agricultural supply customers, in 1972. [18] The Nature Conservancy purchased the abandoned right-of-way in 1985 and the track was removed. [2]
The rail line became part of Conrail which first made plans to abandon the rail line south of Pocomoke City, but Northampton and Accomack counties intervened and moved operations between a series of short line railroads. The Virginia and Maryland Railroad owned the line and operated freight service on it between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia from 1977 to 1981. In 1981 the Eastern Shore Railroad took over operations and, to keep the line running, Northampton and Accomack counties bought the line in 1986. In 2006, Cassatt Management, LLC. took over the ESHR and changed the name to the Bay Coast Railroad. [2] It ceased operations on May 18, 2018 and the Delmarva Central Railroad took over operations. It merged the line from Pocomoke City to Hallwood, Virginia into its Delmarva Subdivision and abandoned the line between Hallwood and Cape Charles. [19] [20] Service on the Norfolk side was taken over by the Buckingham Branch Railroad. [21]
The railroad from Pocomoke City to Hammond is an active rail line owned by Canonie Atlantic Company, which is in turn owned by the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission (A-NTDC). Delmarva Central Railroad operates it.
The Surface Transportation Board approved the abandonment of the Hallwood-Cape Charles section on 31 October 2019 and in 2021 the state began removing the track. [22] In 2020, VDOT produced a feasibility study for converting the railroad into a shared use path. [23] VDOT plans to start work on two segments of the trail, totaling 3.5 miles in length, in Spring 2025 and complete it in Summer 2026. [24]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge has converted most of the right-of-way between Cape Charles and Kiptopeke into the Southern Tip Bike & Hike Trail and plans to build more. The Nature Conservancy donated part of the easement and land for the trail and the Service constructed 5-miles of trail, in two phases, in 2011 and 2019. The trail extends from the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge north to Capeville Road in Capeville, Virginia. [25] Future phases are planned to extend the trail all the way to Cape Charles and may or may not use the right-of-way. [26] Along this right-of-way, several bridges and culverts from the railroad remain. [26]
Several stations remain
The Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center collection consists of thousands of photographs, documents and objects, many of which relate to the railroad. [30] The pilot house from the barge Captain Edward Richardson, which used to ferry railcars across the Chesapeake, is located on the grounds next door. [31]
The Cape Charles Railroad yard was cleared for development and all of its contents sold, donated or scrapped. [32]
The owner of the Capeville Station intentionally burned it down in 2018 after the they were issued a dangerous structure notice from Northampton County, but the locked safe was salvaged for the Cape Charles Museum. [7]
The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Parksley is a town in Accomack County, Virginia, United States. The population was 842 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Eastern Shore Railway Museum.
Cape Charles is a town / municipal corporation in Northampton County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,009 as of the 2010 Census.
The Eastern Shore of Virginia is the easternmost region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It consists of two counties on the Atlantic coast. It is detached from the mainland of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. The 70-mile-long (110 km) region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula. Its population was 45,695 as of 2020.
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.
The Eastern Shore Railroad, Inc. was a Class III short-line railroad that ran trains on the 96-mile (154 km) former New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad line on the Delmarva Peninsula between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia, interchanging with the Norfolk Southern Railway at both ends. It took over from the Virginia and Maryland Railroad (VMR) in October 1981 when the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission (A-NTDC) purchased the line from the VMR. It stopped operations in 2006 and was then replaced by the Bay Coast Railroad.
The Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry was a passenger ferry service operating across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay from the 1930s until 1964. Known also as the Princess Anne-Kiptopeke Beach Ferry or Little Creek-Kiptopeke Beach Ferry, the service connected Virginia Beach, Virginia with Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Departures from and arrivals to Cape Charles were matched with times of Pennsylvania Railroad passenger trains such as the Del-Mar-Va Express and the Cavalier that operated the length of the Delmarva Peninsula.
The Bay Coast Railroad was a Class III short-line railroad that ran trains on the 96-mile (154 km) former New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad line on the Delmarva Peninsula between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia, interchanging with the Norfolk Southern Railway (NSR) at both ends. It took over from the Eastern Shore Railroad (ESHR) in 2006. It ceased operations on the Delmarva line around 2012 and leased part of the line to Delmarva Central Railroad in 2016. In 2018 it filed to cease operations entirely, handed operations of the Delmarva line from Pocomoke City, MD to Hallwood, VA to the Delmarva Central Railroad (DCR), handing Little Creek-Norfolk operations to the Buckingham Branch Railroad and abandoning the line from Hallwood to Cape Charles, VA.
State Route 184 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs 3.20 miles (5.15 km) from Washington Avenue and Bay Street in Cape Charles east to U.S. Route 13 and US 13 Business near Bayview. SR 184 connects US 13 with Cape Charles in southern Northampton County. The state highway is the old alignment of US 13 from when the U.S. highway used the Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry to cross the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk. SR 184 was designated after US 13 was extended south to the new terminal of the Little Creek Ferry at Kiptopeke and later the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
The Queen Anne's Railroad was a railroad that ran between Love Point, Maryland, and Lewes, Delaware during the late 19th and early 20th Century. It connected to Baltimore via ferry across the Chesapeake Bay, to Cape May, New Jersey via a ferry across the Delaware Bay and to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware via another railroad. It was the last major railway built on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The rail line changed owners several times during its history. In the 20the century, the railway struggled to compete with the automobile and service was cutback. Over time, sections of the railroad were abandoned.
The Eastern Shore Railway Museum is located at 18568 Dunne Avenue, Parksley, Virginia, United States. The museum exhibits historic rail cars and equipment. The museum also contains a restored train station with railroad memorabilia from the lines that operated on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Kiptopeke State Park is a state park located in the southern end of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the Delmarva Peninsula in Northampton County, near Cape Charles. From 1949, the site was owned by the Virginia Ferry Corporation and used through 1964 as the northern terminus for the Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry service which crossed the lower Chesapeake Bay from the Eastern Shore / Delmarva to Norfolk and Hampton Roads harbor on the Western Shore. In 1964, the ferry service was replaced by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which opened up giving automobile traffic convenient access to the park, the Cape, Delmarva and "The Shore" to the urban centers to the west in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Union Station is a historic railway station located at Salisbury, Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. It was constructed in 1913–14, near the junction where the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad intersected with the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad in the center of Salisbury. Both railroads became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). It has a 1+1⁄2-story, Flemish bond brick main block covered by a medium-pitched hip roof sheathed in slate, with single-story wings. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the PRR ran several passenger trains a day, including the Del-Mar-Va Express, through the station, north–south from Philadelphia to Cape Charles, Virginia.
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 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. In 1891, it was extended north approximately 14 miles (23 km) with the purchase of existing track to New Castle and Wilmington. 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.
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.
The Southern Tip Hike & Bike Trail is a 5.0-mile (8.0 km), shared-use rail trail that runs from Capeville, Virginia, to the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. It was built by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the abandoned right-of-way of the old Cape Charles Railroad, a subsidiary of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N), which ran from 1910 to 1972. Planned phases would extend the trail all the way to Cape Charles.
