The Queen Anne’s Railroad was a railroad that ran between Love Point, Maryland, and Lewes, Delaware during the late 19th and early 20th Century. It connected to Baltimore via ferry across the Chesapeake Bay, to Cape May, New Jersey via a ferry across the Delaware Bay and to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware via another railroad. It changed owners several times during its history. It struggled to compete with the automobile, service was cutback and sections of the railroad were abandoned. The section from Ellendale, DE to Milton, DE is owned by the state of Delaware and operated by the Maryland and Delaware Railroad, but the rest of the line is in some state of non-use, abandonment, removal or trail conversion.
The company also owned and operated the Queen Anne's Ferry & Equipment Company which consisted of the steamers Endeavor, Queen Anne and Queen Caroline.[1]
Towns served
editThe following towns were served by the Queen Anne's Railroad:
- Love Point, Maryland
- Stevensville, Maryland
- Chester, Maryland
- Queenstown, Maryland
- Centreville, Maryland (via the Centreville Branch)
- Queen Anne, Maryland
- Denton, Maryland
- Hickman, Delaware
- Adamsville, Delaware
- Greenwood, Delaware
- Owens, Delaware
- Ellendale, Delaware
- Milton, Delaware
- Lewes, Delaware
An article appearing in the April 9, 1897 issue of The Morning News announcing the opening of the new railway lists the stations, in order, as Queenstown, Bloomingdale, Wye Mills, Willoughby, Queen Anne, Hillsboro, Downes, Tuckahoe, Denton, Hobbs, Hickman, Adamsville, Blanchard, and Greenwood where the line terminated while construction continued to Ellendale.[2]
History
editThe Queen Anne's Railroad company was incorporated by a group of [Centreville, Maryland|Centreville]] businessmen in Maryland on February 26, 1894 and received legislative authorization from Delaware to extend its line to Lewes in February 1895.[3] The goal of the railroad was to create a link from Baltimore to Centreville and the Atlantic Coast.[4]
Construction began on June 27, 1895. By April of 1897 the railroad was constructed and operating between Queenstown, MD and Greenwood, DE.[4] It was extended to Milton, DE by August 29th of that year.[4][5][6] In 1898, service was extended to Lewes, DE.[3] At Pilottown the tracks crossed the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal at the present day location of Queen Anne Avenue and continued to a ferry terminal that allowed passengers to transfer by ferry to Cape May, New Jersey. It also connected to the resort of Rehoboth via a line owned by the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.
In 1899, the Queen Anne's Railroad converted a building in Rehoboth Beach at the corner of Rehoboth Avenue and Surf Avenue (now the corner of Rehoboth Avenue and the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk) "into an elaborate welcome center for the resort visitors who used the Queen Anne's trains."[7] This welcome center included 100 bathhouses, a 40 foot by 40 foot dance floor, bowling alley, shuffleboard, electric lights, and accommodations for 1,000 excursionists and was located one block from the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia railroad station in Rehoboth Beach that was utilized by the Queen Anne railroad after the rail lines linked in Lewes.[8] The Queen Anne Railroad planned to construct their own rail line from Lewes to Rehoboth Beach that would have followed the beach, giving a view of the ocean and passing just beside the Great Dune at the Cape Henlopen Light, at the present day Cape Henlopen State Park.[9]
In 1901, the rail line was extended 13-mile (21 km) west to Love Point, Maryland and north from Queenstown to Centreville. That same year, the railroad began operating a summer-only Cape May Express train between Queenstown and Lewes with a connecting steamer across the Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey. At Love Point it connected to a ferry line, shortening the ferry trip to Baltimore.
The Queen Anne went bankrupt in 1904.[6]
Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railway Company
editThrough a complex series of acquisitions, Queen Anne's Railroad ceased to exist and its assets became the property of the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railway Company (MD&V), a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, on January 27, 1905.[5][10][3]
Into the 1920s the railroad operated trains from Love Point on the eastern Chesapeake shore town, east to Queenstown, Maryland, to Greenwood, Delaware and then to Lewes, Delaware.[11]
In January 1924, the MD&V sold the railroad to the E. B. Leaf Company and later that year Leaf sold the western portion, from Love Point to West Denton, MD, to the Baltimore and Eastern Railroad. It sold the eastern portion, from West Denton to Lewes, to the Maryland and Delaware Coast Railroad at the same time.[6]
Baltimore and Eastern Railroad
editThe nearby Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway was merged into the Baltimore and Eastern Railroad in 1928.[10] Passenger service was terminated in 1931 and replaced by bus service and sections of the railroad were abandoned throughout the intervening years.[4][12][13]
The Ellendale to Milton section, later the Milton Industrial Branch, was purchased in 1934 for the purpose of continuing freight service to Milton. It survived as part of Penn Central up through the Penn Central bankruptcy and ConRail merger but it was omitted from the system plan for Conrail.[14]
The bus that started in the 1931 was gone from the schedule by 1941, as the company dropped its passenger operations.[15]
DelDOT
editWhen Penn Central went bankrupt, the Milton Industrial Track was sold to DelDOT. The Delaware Coast Line Railroad (DCLR) operated freight traffic on it until 1994. In 1994, when the rail line came under control of the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC0, the Maryland and Delaware Railroad was awarded a five-year contract to operate the Milton Industrial Track between Ellendale and Milton to serve the Draper-King Cole Cannery located just east of Chestnut St in Milton. After Draper went out of business in 1999,[16] Norfolk Southern leased the line to store grain cars on it for Purdue and operations returned to DCLR.[6] DCLR restarted operations on the Milton Industrial Track in 2010 for use by a propane facility on the west side of Milton but the portion of track between Gravel Hill Road/MD-30 and downtown Milton was abandoned. The section from Ellendale to MD-30 is the only portion still in use.[6] In early 2018, DelDOT decided not to renew its contract with DCLR and the Delmarva Central Railroad won the bid to take it over effective January 1, 2019.[17]
In the 1990s, a dinner train operated on the original trackage of Queen Anne's Railroad between Lewes and Nassau, Delaware. The heritage railroad branded both its locomotives and passenger cars as "Queen Anne's Railroad," but it had no direct links to the original 1894-1905 railroad. The dinner train's center of operations was at the former Lewes, Delaware station. Passenger cars were pulled by a USATC S100 Class 0-6-0 tank locomotive, produced for the US Army in World War II.[18][19]
Delaware's 2006 Rail-to-Trail and Rail with Trail Facility Master Plan included a recommendation that the Milton Industrial Spur be evaluated for a rail trail, but that was prior to use being restarted in 2010. The Milton-Lewes Line was not studied but the report notes broad opposition to its conversion, further noting that ownership of the rail corridor is unknown and appears to have reverted back to private ownership in some cases.[20]
Remnants
edit
In Queen Anne's County, Maryland, the railroad right-of-way from Stevensville to Chester has been turned into part of the Cross Island Trail, a rail trail which is, in turn, part of the American Discovery Trail.
The Stevensville Train Depot remains in Historic Stevensville, MD and serves as a museum.[21]
The railroad still legally exists between Queenstown and Queen Anne's but that track has mostly been removed.[22] There is still a trestle over the Wye East River.
Between Queen Anne and Denton the railroad is owned by MDOT, but much of the rail has been removed. For a time in the 1990's this section was operated by the Cheseapeake Railroad. This section includes extant railroad bridges over Tuckahoe Creek and the Choptank River.
Between Denton and Ellendale the railroad has been abandoned as has the section between Milton and Lewes.
The original railroad station in Sudlersville is still in existence and serves as a museum
An 700 foot section of the rail right-of-way in Milton, DE was converted into the Milton Rail Trail in 2009 and extended west by 1600 feet, including a trestle over Ingram Branch, in June of 2020.[23][24]
On the west side of Milton another trestle, over Pemberton Branch, is also extent.[25]
A Delaware state historical marker in Milton and another in Ellendale's historic Railroad Square district commemorate the railroad.
Other parts of the right of way have been turned into Love Point Road, US-50, other roads and utility corridors; and several culverts remain.
References
edit- ^ Queen Anne's Railroad Company - Maryland 1902. Scripophily.com advertisement for 1902 stock certificate. Retrieved 2010-06-08
- ^ "New Railroad Opened". The News Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. April 9, 1897.
- ^ a b c "The Gift of a Second Railroad". Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Queen Anne's railroad". Retrieved 18 November 2024.
- ^ a b "Queen Anne's Railroad". State of Delaware, Delaware Public Archives. October 31, 2007. Archived from the original on July 21, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e "Ellendale to Milton, DC". Retrieved 18 November 2024.
- ^ Michael Morgan (July 21, 2021). "A 'splendid beach train ride' that never happened". Delaware Wave. Bethany Beach, Delaware.
- ^ "The New Queen Anne's Railroad". Delaware Gazette and State Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. June 22, 1899.
- ^ "The New Queen Anne's Railroad". Delaware Gazette and State Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. June 22, 1899.
- ^ a b Richard Parks (August 15, 2009). "History of the Baltimore and Eastern Railroad". Retrieved July 15, 2011.
- ^ "Maryland & Delaware Coast Railway". Official Guide of the Railways. National Railway Publication Company. 1921.
- ^ "Baltimore and Eastern Railroad Company". Official Guide of the Railways. 71 (3). National Railway Publication Company. August 1938.
- ^ "Maryland & Delaware Coast Railway". Official Guide of the Railways. 64 (9). National Railway Publication Company. February 1932.
- ^ Frederick County Land records, folio 1169, page 712
- ^ "Maryland & Delaware Coast Railway". Official Guide of the Railways. 74 (1). National Railway Publication Company. June 1941.
- ^ Murray, Molly (14 January 2001). "Pieces of History on Block". The News Journal. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ Laepple, Wayne (August 22, 2018). "Delaware Coast Line shuts down after 36 years". Trains. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
- ^ Queen Anne's Railroad Society (2020-09-06). "At The Salted Rim, Millville, De". Facebook. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
- ^ Queen Anne's Railroad (1993), retrieved 2023-06-10
- ^ "Delaware Rails-to-Trails and Rails-with-Trails Facility Master Plan Final Report" (PDF). Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ "Stevensville Train Depot". Historic Sites Consortium of Queen Anne's County.
- ^ "Maryland Rail Map" (PDF). Retrieved 15 November 2024.
- ^ "DelDOT Marks Opening of New Milton Trail". Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ Spence, Kevin (9 January 2009). "Milton tries to cross bridge to recreational trail". Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ "Milton's hidden railroad bridges". Retrieved 15 November 2024.