Delmarva Division
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.
[3] 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.
[7][8][9][10] On March 1, 1898, service was extended to Lewes, DE where it connected to a terminal that allowed passengers to catch a ferry to Cape May.
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 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.
[9][16][11][7] Two days later it was placed under the control of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway (BC&A) and the two were operated as twins.
Leaf sold the western portion, from Love Point to West Denton, MD to the Baltimore and Eastern Railroad (B&ER) a subsidiary of the BC&A, and thus the PRR.
[21] About two 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.
Passenger cars were pulled by a USATC S100 Class 0-6-0 tank locomotive, produced for the US Army in World War II.
went out of business and DTC leased the track to Norfolk Southern (NS) which used it to store Purdue's grain cars.
[30] 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.
[32] The line was decommissioned in 2018 and the tracks east of the Allen Harim Poultry Plant in Harbeson were removed that year.
[33] In early 2018, DCLR again lost its contract to serve what remained of the lines and DelDOT awarded it to the Delmarva Central Railroad (DCR).
[34] The Mardella Industrial Track, a remnant of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway west of Salisbury, was broken into two pieces after the Conrail merger.
One piece consisting of a little over a mile of track in Salisbury from south of Naylor street, diverging west along Wilson and then crossing Johnsons Pond, came into ownership of Norfolk Southern.
The other, a continuation of the line across Johnsons Pond to Quantico Creek southeast of Hebron, Maryland was sold to MDOT.
at a junction between W. Isabella Street and Weldon Place in Salisbury, Maryland and runs for about 2,500 feet to a point just north of W.Salisbury Place/Ocean Gateway/US-50.
[35] 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 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.
[3] 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.
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.
[32] The line was decommissioned in 2018 and the tracks east of the Allen Harim Poultry Plant in Harbeson were removed that year.
[33] 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 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.
[33] From Georgetown to Snow Hill several old stations remain including the one at Queponco Road in Newark, DE, which is now a museum.
In 2020, the Federal Government announced that it wanted the Franklin City Depot removed and began looking for people to take it.
The Harbeson Railroad Station privy, built in 1870, was donated to the Lewes Historical Society and moved to their campus by 2022.
[27] 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.
