The branch allows Norfolk Southern, since the opening of a new bridge in 2001, to bypass the city of Wilmington, Delaware and allows direct access to both the Port of Wilmington and the New Castle Secondary, which connects to the Delmarva Subdivision of the Delmarva Central Railroad that runs to Central Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Both ends of the branch connect with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and, like all of the PRR's through-freight lines, was electrified from 1935 [2] until the Conrail era.
Download coordinates as: The line begins at its northern terminus at the Bell Interlocking [3] near Claymont, Delaware, a flying junction 39°46′34″N 75°28′43″W / 39.776234°N 75.47851°W / 39.776234; -75.47851 (Bell Interlocking Flyover) built by the former Pennsylvania Railroad originally to allow thru-freight traffic access to the double-track Shellpot Branch from the four-track Philadelphia-Washington Mainline without crossing over any of the passenger-only tracks.
Consisting of a single grade-separated overpass bridge used by northbound NEC (that is, Amtrak intercity and Wilmington/Newark Line commuter trains (southbound trains remain at ground level)), the two inner tracks which become the Shellpot Branch duck underneath of the bridge and comes level with the two passenger tracks at the Bellevue Substation 39°46′03″N 75°29′02″W / 39.76750°N 75.48389°W / 39.76750; -75.48389 (Bellevue Substation 12), which converts the 138 kV, 25 Hz AC transmission power to the 11 kV, 25 Hz AC traction power used on the overhead catenary used by the Amtrak and SEPTA trains.
3 Drawbridge, located 3.77 miles from Bellevue Tower,[3] had become a dilapidated two-track structure that forced Conrail, due to budgetary restrictions, to abandon the bridge and restructure Shellpot Branch operations in the mid-1990s.