| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Kennett Square, Pennsylvania [1] |
| Reporting mark | OCTR |
| Locale | Chester County, Pennsylvania and New Castle County, Delaware |
| Dates of operation | 1977–1994 |
| Predecessor | Delaware Valley Railroad |
| Successor | East Penn Railroad |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Octoraro Railway was an American shortline railroad that operated in Pennsylvania from 1977 to 1994.
This company was formed in 1976. It obtained a lease from SEPTA to operate freight trains on the Octoraro Branch, a former Pennsylvania Railroad branch line, between Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and the state line near Sylmar, Maryland. It also leased the Wilmington and Northern Railroad, a former Reading Company branch, from Elsmere Jct. (Wilmington, Delaware) to South Modena (Modena, Pennsylvania).
The company then created a connection between the two lines at Chadds Ford. [2] [3] [4]
The Octoraro Railway ceased operations on June 30, 1994. The Delaware Valley Railway acquired the company on July 1, 1994. [5]
Delaware Valley, a subsidiary of RailAmerica, operated the line until 1999, followed by the Brandywine Valley Railroad (BVRY). [5] The Morristown and Erie Railway provided freight service from July 1, 2003, to November 18, 2004, but operated under the trade name of Octoraro Railroad. [4] East Penn Railway took over operation in 2004 and purchased the right of way from SEPTA. [6] In 2007 the company merged to become East Penn Railroad and operates the Octoraro line.
The West Chester & Philadelphia Railroad (WC&P) operated in the greater Philadelphia area from 1848 to 1881. It became the West Chester Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). It has been operated as the Media/Wawa Line on the SEPTA system since 2022. It was known as the Media-Elwyn Line from 1983-2022.
The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast–southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie Bridge at Maybrook, New York with Easton, Pennsylvania, where it interchanged with various other companies.
The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881.
The Wilmington/Newark Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail commuter rail system in the Philadelphia area. The line serves southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, with stations in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, Wilmington, Delaware, and Newark, Delaware. It is the longest of the 13 SEPTA Regional Rail lines.
Schuylkill River Passenger Rail is a proposed passenger train service along the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania, with intermediate stops in Norristown, King of Prussia, Phoenixville, and Pottstown.
The Pennsylvania Company, later known publicly as the Pennsylvania Lines was a major holding company. It included the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, the PRR's main route to Chicago. It also owned but did not operate the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, another line to Chicago. It merged back into the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918.
The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad connecting Baltimore, Maryland with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1861, when the PRR acquired a controlling interest in the Northern Central's stock to compete with the rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). For eleven decades the Northern Central operated as a subsidiary of the PRR until much of its Maryland trackage was washed out by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, after which most of its operations ceased as the Penn Central declined to repair sections. It is now a fallen flag railway, having come under the control of the later Penn Central, Conrail, and then broken apart and disestablished. The northern part in Pennsylvania is now the York County Heritage Rail Trail which connects to a similar hike/bike trail in Northern Maryland down to Baltimore, named the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. Trackage around Baltimore remains in rail service as well as most of the trackage in Pennsylvania which is operated by Norfolk Southern and the southernmost section in Pennsylvania is operated by the Northern Central heritage railway.
The North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County in Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1852, and began operation in 1855. The Philadelphia and Reading Railway, predecessor to the Reading Company, leased the North Pennsylvania in 1879. Its tracks were transferred to Conrail and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in 1976.
The Brandywine Valley Railroad is a class III railroad operating in Pennsylvania.
The Sunbury Line is a rail line owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to Binghamton, New York, connecting with Norfolk Southern's Southern Tier Line at Binghamton and Norfolk Southern's Buffalo Line at Sunbury.
The West Chester Branch is a railway line in southeastern Pennsylvania. At its fullest extent, it connected with the Philadelphia–Washington Main Line at Arsenal Junction near the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia-Chicago Main Line near Frazer, Pennsylvania. It was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) system up until the formation of Conrail in 1976. Today, SEPTA operates the Media/Wawa Line commuter service as far west as Wawa, while the West Chester Railroad heritage railway operates between West Chester station and Glen Mills.
The Pope's Creek Subdivision is a CSX Transportation railroad line in Maryland, running from Bowie to Morgantown where the Morgantown Generating Station is located and the Chalk Point Generating Station.
East Penn Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates a number of mostly-unconnected lines in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Except for two industrial park switching operations, all are former Pennsylvania Railroad or Reading Company lines, abandoned or sold by Conrail or its predecessors.
The Chester Creek Branch was a 7.25-mile (11.67 km) railroad line that operated in southern Delaware County, Pennsylvania, from 1869 to 1972.
The Wilmington Rail Viaduct is a series of fills and bridges, about 4 miles (6.4 km) long, that carries the Northeast Corridor through the city of Wilmington, Delaware, above street level. Constructed between 1902 and 1908, the structure consists principally of fills supported by heavy stone retaining walls, punctuated with plate girder bridges over streets, and augmented by a few sections of brick arch viaduct. Its construction is typical of the Pennsylvania Railroad's architectural practices at the time, and the viaduct has been documented by the Historic American Engineering Record and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) as part of a series of grade crossing eliminations along the Northeast Corridor, the elevation of the rail line necessitated several other changes to rail infrastructure in Wilmington, including the construction of the Wilmington Shops at the east end of the viaduct, and the construction of the Wilmington Station and adjacent Pennsylvania Railroad Office Building along the elevated right-of-way.
HOOK Tower is a closed interlocking tower on the Pennsylvania Railroad in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.
The Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad (P&BC) was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It operated a 110-mile (180 km) main line between West Philadelphia and Octoraro Junction, Maryland, plus several branch lines.
Morristown & Erie Railway is a short-line railroad based in Morristown, New Jersey, chartered in 1895 as the Whippany River Railroad. It operates freight rail service in Morris County, New Jersey and surrounding areas on the original Whippany Line between Morristown and Roseland, as well as the Morris County-owned Dover & Rockaway Branch, Chester Branch, and High Bridge Branch. The M&E also operated the Maine Eastern Railroad from November 2003 to December 31, 2015.
The Delaware Valley Railway was a short-line railroad in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The railroad was owned by RailAmerica. The Delaware Valley Railway operated two lines: one running from Elsmere, Delaware north to Modena, Pennsylvania and one running from Sylmar, Pennsylvania to Wawa, Pennsylvania. The railroad interchanged with CSX Transportation in Elsmere and the Brandywine Valley Railroad in Modena. The Delaware Valley Railway took over operations of these lines from the Octoraro Railroad on July 1, 1994. In 1999, the Delaware Valley Railway ceased operations, with the Brandywine Valley Railroad taking over operations of these lines. These lines are currently operated by the East Penn Railroad.
The Wilmington and Northern Branch is a partially-abandoned railway line in the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania. It was constructed between 1869 and 1870 by the Wilmington and Reading Railroad, a predecessor of the Wilmington and Northern Railroad. At its fullest extent it connected Reading, Pennsylvania, with Wilmington, Delaware. The Philadelphia and Reading Railway leased the line in 1900. With the Reading Company's bankruptcy and the creation of Conrail in 1976 the line's ownership fragmented, and the section between Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, has been abandoned.
