The Delaware Railroad Company (DRC) was a railroad company that operated in the US state of Delaware from the mid-1850s until 1976, during which time it was the largest in the state. Its original main line began in Bear, Delaware and extended south through Dover and Seaford before reaching Delmar on the border of Maryland in 1859 and it was the only route for train traffic between the peninsula and areas to the north. It eventually built and acquired a network traversing almost the entire state north to south, and with branches going to the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware Bay/Atlantic Ocean. Although operated independently, in 1857 it was leased by and under the financial control of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B), which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1881. Through additional construction, purchases and mergers it built a network that extended to Centerville, Chestertown, Cambridge and Oxford in Maryland and Smyrna in Delaware. It was also a critical part of the connection via the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N) to Norfolk, Virginia; via the Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad (S&DB) to Woodland Beach, DE and Nicholson Station, MD, and via the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Railroad (DMVR) to Lewes and Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and Franklin City, Virginia. It remained a part of the PRR system, and its successor Penn Central, until 1976 when Penn Central went bankrupt, at which point it was absorbed into Conrail.
History Origin The railroad was conceived in 1836 by John M. Clayton, a former United States senator who obtained a charter from the Delaware General Assembly on June 20, 1836 to serve the Delmarva Peninsula. He was concerned that a proposal in Maryland to build a line along the western side of the peninsula would harm Delaware's economy. Delaware was highly motivated and exempted the railroad from taxation for fifty years and provided other incentives. Clayton, William D. Waples, and Richard Mansfield were appointed as commissioners and a survey of the line was made. The Depression of 1837-1839 prevented investment in the railroad and the charter was forfeited.
The charter was renewed on February 22, 1849 under the promotion of Samuel M. Harrington (Clayton at this time was serving as the United States Secretary of State). It called for a line from Donas Landing (a Dona steamship line port on the Leipsic River just off Delaware Bay) to Seaford that would be part of a Philadelphia to Norfolk route. Sufficient investment was secured by 1852 when the state of Delaware stepped in and bought 5,000 shares of stock for its construction allowing the commencement of the operation. In 1853, the PW&B railroad and the du Pont family guaranteed Construction bonds.
Work on the line began in 1855 going south from a junction with the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad (NC&F) in Bear near Porter. The first section was opened with an inaugural eight-car train north from Middletown on September 1, 1855, carrying the president of the railroad and that of the NC&F Railroad, the chief engineer, and railroad contractors. The PW&B immediately started to lease the railroad. The Delaware extended the line to Dover on January 22, 1856, to Seaford on December 11th, 1856 and to the Maryland state line at Delmar, Delaware by early 1860.
Starting in 1857, the PW&B operated the line as its Delaware Division.
Before the railroad, travel south from Philadelphia was a multi-seat trip starting by steamship. Traffic from Philadelphia to Norfolk ran to Donas Landing, approximately northeast of Dover. Passengers would then go by stagecoach to Dover and south to Seaford where they would then resume travel by ship south to Norfolk on the Nanticoke River. Traffic to Baltimore went to New Castle, Delaware crossed the Delmarva Peninsula via the NC&F railroad to Frenchtown, Maryland where they switched to another steamship. The success of the Delaware Railroad (DRC) caused the NC&F to abandon the railroad from Porter to New Castle in 1857 and move its steamship operations to Seaford, and for the stage line to Seaford and the steamship line to Donas Landing to be abandoned as well.
Route The railroad ran inland to avoid wetlands near the coast through areas that had been sparsely populated. Railroad access spurred the growth of farms in this part of the state as farmers had means to ship produce north to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Land that had not been farmed was cleared as the new access to city markets increased agricultural output. The railroad assisted the Delaware peach industry, allowing faster peach transport to market than had been possible by steamship. It also allowed the introduction of peach orchards to areas without access to river shipping. The industry spread downstate from the Delaware City area where it originated as the railroad extended further south. By 1875, five million baskets (900,000 carloads) of peaches were shipped on the DRC. The railroad is credited with the peach becoming a "signature crop" in Delaware - the first state from which peaches were a commercial crop shipped long distances to market. In 1863, peach farmers sued the railroad after they grew a bumper crop but the railroad did not have enough freight cars to accommodate the entire crop, and as a result, there was significant spoilage. The railroad felt the judgment was "exorbitant".
New towns formed along the railroad including Bridgeville, Greenwood, Clayton (named for the railroad's founder John M. Clayton) was nearby Smyrna which did not want the railroad competing with its shipping industry, Wyoming (nearby Camden refused to allow the railroad to be built through the town), Felton (named after David Felton, president of the railroad) and Harrington. In 1855, the railroad located its main office in Clayton.
The DRC mainline became the spine to which all Delmarva branch lines connected. After completing its line to Delmar, the DRC started building branches and acquiring control of those that connected to it in Delmarva.
Civil War Before the Civil War, southern sympathizers utilized the railroad as a route south to join the Confederacy. In 1861, Charles du Pont Bird (a descendant of E.I. du Pont) advised General Robert E. Lee that the railroad should be destroyed to prevent its use by the Union Army to ship troops and supplies to Washington, DC. The railroad remained under Federal control throughout the war. The railroad was used to ship contraband south to the Confederacy as its geography placed it in a prime smuggling route.
Network Expansion Junction and Breakwater (Rehobeth Beach, Delaware) The first railroad on the Delmarva Peninsula to tie into the DRC was the Junction and Breakwater Railroad (J&B). It built a junction with the DRC at Harrington, DE that went east to Milford, which it reached by 1859 and then, following a pause caused by the Civil War, south to Georgetown and then east to Lewes by 1869. In 1874 the Breakwater and Frankford built an extension off of that south from Georgetown to the Maryland state line at Selbyville where the Worcester Railroad continued it to Franklin City, Virginia. The J&B built a 5 mile extension from Lewes to Rehoboth by 1878.. In 1883 the three railroads merged to create the DMVR.
Eastern Shore (Norfolk, Virginia) The DRC was only allowed to construct a rail line within the state of Delaware. In 1853, when the DRC funding was coming into place, the 1835 charter of the Eastern Shore Railroad was revived, a new company organized in 1959 and work on the line south from Delmar continued as one project, reaching Salisbury in April 1860. After the disruption of the Civil War, the Eastern Shore extended the line to Crisfield, Maryland in 1866 and built a branch to Pocomoke City, Maryland in 1871.
In 1879 the Eastern Shore Railroad was foreclosed on and acquired by the NYP&N which built an extension from Pocomoke City to Cape Charles, Virginia in 1884.
Maryland and Delaware (Oxford, Maryland) The Maryland and Delaware Rail Road Company (M&D) was incorporated in 1854 to build a railroad from Talbot county to connect with the DRC at Smyrna Station (later Clayton, Delaware). On December 27, 1857, almost a year after the DRC started operation, the M&D began work on their line. It was graded and bridged as far as Greensboro, Maryland by 1859. Work was interrupted by the Civil War and finally resumed in October 1865. By 1868 trains were running to Ridgely and by 1869 to Hillsborough. The first trains reached Easton on August 14, 1869 and the first freight train left there on August 31. Daily passenger traffic didn't begin until November 15, 1869. An extension to Oxford was built in 1871.
Dorchester Branch (Cambridge, Maryland) In 1867, the DRC Board authorized construction of a branch from Seaford to meet the Dorchester and Delaware Railroad (D&DRR) line from Cambridge, Maryland at the Maryland state line near Oak Grove, Delaware and later lent the D&DRR sufficient capital to complete its 27-mile line from Cambridge. On April 11, 1868, the DRC began laying track at Seaford, Delaware towards the Maryland state line and in November 1868 it opened the Dorchester Branch between Seaford, Delaware and the Maryland state line. On November 8, 1869, the first service over the entire line between Seaford and Cambridge was operated by the D&DRR, which leased the Delaware portion of the rail.
Queen Anne's and Kent Railroad (Centreville, Maryland) In 1868 Queen Anne's and Kent Railroad (QA&KR) mapped a route west to Massey's Crossroads with intentions to connect to the DRC. The DRC agreed to build a branch from their line at Townsend, Delaware to Massey's Crossroads, to be co-owned by the QA&KR, where the Kent County Rail Road Company (KCRR) would also connect. The branch to Massey was completed in the spring of 1869, but construction of the QA&KR fell behind schedule.
In April of 1870, the KCRR began running trains to the DRC from Kennedyville, Maryland through Massey's Crossroads and in June, the QA&KR began running trains from Sudlersville. Both company's leased the DRC's line from Massey's Crossroads to Townsend, though the QA&KR was a part owner of the branch. The QA&KR continued extended it's line and began running trains to Price's Station in May of 1871. It reached Centreville on August 1, 1871.
Smyrna and Delaware Bay (Chestertown, Maryland to Woodland Beach, Delaware) An extension of the KCRR, to Chestertown on the Chester River, opened on February 20, 1872. Another branch, from just north of Chestertown west to Parsons (on the projected line to Rock Hall) via Vickers, opened on August 1, 1872. However, this created a nonsensical dogleg, and it was abandoned and partly removed when a direct line from Parsons to Worton, Maryland was completed in October 1873.
In June of 1873, the KCRR came under control of the Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad. The S&DB built a line across Delaware from Woodland Beach to the state line, crossing the DRC at Clayton. At the state line it connected to the KCRR and the QA&KR at Massey's Crossroads.
The S&DB and KCRR got into financial trouble and were merged into the Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad (B&DBR) in 1883. Operations on the B&DBR line east of Smyrna, Delaware ceased in 1897 and the line to Nicholson station ceased in 1897. The PRR bought the whole line on June 25, 1902, assigned it to its PW&B, and promptly abandoned it east of Massey on July 1. A short section from the west side of Clayton to Smyrna was preserved.
Queen Anne's (Love Point, Maryland to Lewes, Delaware) The last railroad to connect to the DRC was the Queen Anne's Railroad (QAR). It started construction in Maryland in 1895 and reached the DRC at Greenwood in 1897. In 1898 it extended its line to Lewes where it connected to the DMVR line to Rehoboth.
Pennsylvania Railroad and Consolidation