Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad

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Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad
1890s Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore map.jpg
An early 1890s map of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad showing the Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad line
Overview
Stations called at Clayton, Delaware; Smyrna, Delaware; Bombay Hook, Delaware
HeadquartersSmyrna, Delaware
Locale Kent County, Delaware, New Castle County, Delaware, Kent County, Maryland
Dates of operation1873–1883
Successor Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length20 miles (32 kilometres) [1]

The Smyrna and Delaware Beach Railroad (SDBR) was a railroad company that operated in the US states of Delaware and Maryland from 1873 to 1883. It first connected to the previously existing Delaware Railroad (DRC) at Clayton, extending a line to Smyrna, Delaware and then to Woodland Beach, Delaware (aka Pierceson's Cove or Bombay Hook) in New Castle County, Delaware. It later connected to Massey's Crossroad via Kent County Railroad (KCRR) trackage. On May 12, 1883, it merged with the KCRR to form the Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad. [2]

Contents

History

The SDBR was chartered July 14, 1865, but no work was undertaken at that time.

In 1871 business interests in New Jersey, including James Fisk, Jr., began showing interest in building the rail line to Bombay Hook - sometimes called the Bombay Hook Railroad - and signed a contract to that effect. [3] [4] But real work didn't begin until Jay Gould provided backing. The SDBR began construction from Woodland Beach, Delaware/Bombay Hook, on the Delaware Bay, west to Clayton, Delaware along the Delaware Railroad in April 1873. In June, Gould gained control of the Kent County Railroad. [5] The first train from Smyrna to Chestertown ran in the first week of October 1873 and trains were running to Bombay Hook by November. [6] Not long afterwards, Gould sold is interest in the New Jersey Southern, but he remained active in the line across Delmarva. [7]

In 1873-74, the KCRR built an extension to Clayton creating a continuos line. [8] The objective of this line was to form a connecting line (with car ferries at both ends) between the Vineland Railway at Bayside, New Jersey, and Baltimore. Gould changed the proposed western terminus of the KCRR from Rock Hall, Maryland to Tolchester Beach and began dredging work there. Most of the line to Tolchester Beach was graded, but the Panic of 1873 led to the collapse of the project and the KCRR was only extended west as far as Nicholson's, which was located between current day Fairlee and Worton. The line between Massey's Crossroads and Clayton was eventually transferred to the SDBR. [1]

In September 1874 the section of railroad in Kent County, DE was seized for debt and sold at auction to The American Dredging Company to protect their claims against the railroad. [9] [10] [11] . [1] [12] By 1875, Jay Gould had purchased the railroad from American Dredging and later that year he purchased the 1.5 miles of track in New Castle County, DE. [13] [14] The line was then closely aligned with the New Jersey Southern Railroad, which connected to it and invested in it, and like the KCRR it was leased to Fred Gerker. [15] [16] A few years later he purchased the KCRR. During this time it was sometimes called the Kent County and Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad and by 1881 it was only used for freight. [16] [17]

NJSR (by then part of Central Railroad of New Jersey) bought the KCRR and SDBR from Jay Gould in 1883 and - as authorized by legislation in 1876 - merged them into the Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad in 1884. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

For some time prior to 1889, the line was out of service, but after it was sold to Philadelphia investors service restarted. [22] In August of 1889, the New Jersey Central ran it's first cars between New York and Delaware using a 3 track barge from Bayside, NJ to Bombay Hook; but the floating pier at Bombay Hook was damaged in a storm just two weeks later. [23] [24]

Legacy

The line was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1900. The segment east of Smyrna was abandoned in 1903 and torn up by 1906. [25] [26] The section between Clayton and Smyrna survived through the creation of Penn Central, but was abandoned in 1976. [25]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Railroad Manual Of the United States. 1878. p. 623. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
  2. ↑ "PRR's Cambridge Secondary Track". 27 April 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
  3. ↑ "A New Peninsular Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 23 June 1871.
  4. ↑ "The Bombay Hook Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 13 December 1871.
  5. ↑ "The New Jersey Railroad & New Line to Baltimore". The Baltimore Sun. 18 July 1873.
  6. ↑ "The New Route from New York to Baltimore". The Baltimore Sun. 10 October 1873.
  7. ↑ "The New Jersey Southern Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 14 November 1873.
  8. ↑ "The New Railroad to New York". The Baltimore Sun. 21 August 1873.
  9. ↑ "Railroad for Sale". The Baltimore Sun. 5 September 1874.
  10. ↑ "The Bombay Hook Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 26 September 1874.
  11. ↑ Poor, Henry V. (1878). Manual of the Railroads of the United States. H.V & H.W. Poor. p. 411. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  12. ↑ "Sale of a Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 26 September 1874.
  13. ↑ "Sale of the Bombay Hook Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 13 October 1875.
  14. ↑ "The Bomnbay Hook Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. 23 January 1875.
  15. ↑ "The New Jersey Southern Railroad and It's Connections". The Baltimore Sun. 8 November 1875.
  16. 1 2 "Rumored Sale of a Railroad on the Eastern Shore". The Baltimore Sun. 10 October 1881.
  17. 1 2 "Kent County Railroad Corridor" (PDF). Retrieved 22 October 2025.
  18. ↑ "The Road Across the Penninsula". The Baltimore Sun. 27 March 1889.
  19. ↑ "An act to consolidate the Kent County Railroad Company with the Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad Company" . Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  20. ↑ "Railroad Consolidation". The Baltimore Sun. 28 February 1890.
  21. ↑ "The Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad". Smyrna Times. 13 February 1884. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
  22. ↑ "A Queer Railroad Story". The Baltimore Sun. 27 July 1889.
  23. ↑ "Another Route to New York". The Baltimore Sun. 19 August 1889.
  24. ↑ "Floating Pier Damaged". The Baltimore Sun. 13 September 1889.
  25. 1 2 "Clayton to Woodland Beach, DE". Abandoned Rails. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  26. ↑ "Bombay Hook Railroad Property Sold". Smyrna Times. 18 April 1906. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
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