The idea of a railroad on the Eastern Shore dated back to the 1853 when the North and South Railroad was chartered by the Virginia legislature. It never initiated construction and in 1878 the Peninsula Railroad of Virginia acquired the rights. In 1882 the NYP&N was created by consolidating the unbuilt Peninsula Railroad Company of Maryland and the Peninsula Railroad of Virginia to create a railroad from the existing southern terminus at Pocomoke City to Norfolk.[2]
The rail line to Pocomoke City had been built in stages, first by the Delaware Railroad and then by the Eastern Shore Railroad. The Delaware Railroad was only allowed to construct a rail line within the state of Delaware. After it reached Delmar in 1859, the 1835 charter of the Eastern Shore was revived and, in 1866 - after the disruption of the Civil War, the Eastern Shore extended the line to Crisfield, Maryland. It built a branch from a point at Kings Creek, called Peninsular Junction, to Pocomoke City in 1871; but it struggled and it was foreclosed on in 1879.[3]
The NYP&N was the vision of William Lawrence Scott, an Erie, Pennsylvania, coal magnate, who wanted to build a shorter railroad route between the coal wharfs of Hampton Roads by utilizing a ferry line across the Chesapeake Bay and a railroad line up the Delmarva Peninsula to the industrial north.[4] His plan was to continue the rail line from Pocomoke City to Cape Charles and use a rail ferry to reach Norfolk. Scott enlisted engineering help from Pennsylvania Railroad Vice-President, Alexander J. Cassatt, who saw the merits of the plan and took a hiatus from PRR to work on the new line.[5] Cassatt surveyed the line on horseback, designed ferries and wharfs, acquired other railroads, most notably the Eastern Shore Railroad.
Work began on the line south of Pocomoke City in April of 1884 and the line to what would become Cape Charles was ready for operation on October 25, 1884.[2] Two weeks later the first passenger steamer left Cape Charles for Norfolk.[6] The same year it absorbed the Eastern Shore Railroad.[2] The next year the railroad started using barges, or car floats, to carry railroad cars to Norfolk via Port Norfolk(Portsmouth).[6]
The Cape Charles Railroad, a subsidiary of the NYP&N, was incorporated on March 24, 1906 and began building a rail line from a point just east of Cape Charles, which became known as Cape Junction, down the peninsula a few years later.[7] They opened the line to Townsend by December 1, 1910 and it opened to Kiptopeke on March 8, 1912. This was the furthest south any railroad ever reached on the peninsula.[7] The Cape Charles Railroad was folded into the parent company in 1917.[2]
The NYP&N was always affiliated with the PRR which would eventually take control of it. In addition to Cassatt the PRR financed construction of the rail line.[8] In 1908 it purchased a controlling share of the NYP&N's stock. In 1920 it took over operations with a 999-year lease and in 1922 it converted the railroad into the "Norfolk Division" of the Pennsylvania Railroad.[2] When the PRR reorganized in 1930, The Norfolk Division became part of the Delmarva Division.[2]
In 1940, the United States Army built Fort Winslow just south of Kiptopeke and the following summer, the PRR laid track into the fort.[9]
Passenger service
Through the first half of the 20th century, several trains a day ran along the train line. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the PRR operated the day train, the Del-Mar-Va Express, and the night train, the Cavalier. At peak levels in the mid-1940s, the company also operated southbound, the Furlough, and an additional night train, the Mariner, in addition to unnamed local trains. Northbound the PRR added the Sailor, the Mariner night train, and an unnamed local train.[10]
The PRR began to scale back passenger service in 1949 when they close several stations on the line, including Kiptopeke, Townsend, Capeville, Bayview, Weirwood, Keller, Melfa, Hopeton, Bloxom and Mears.[11] The passenger ferry service from Cape Charles was shut down on March 1, 1953 and by 1957 all that remained was a once-a-day Philadelphia–Cape Charles train.[12][2][13] In 1958, passenger rail south of Delmar ended and after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1964 all ferry service from Kiptopeke ended.[14][2]
Ferry service
The original ferry crossing was 36 miles.[15] Both passenger and freight ferries existed. Up to 30 freight cars could be loaded on flat barges pulled by a tugboat for the trip. The original passenger ferries, Cape Charles & Old Point Comfort, side-wheeler paddle steamers, could hold an entire train on their two tracks. In 1889 the New York the first propeller driven ship, 200 feet long, 31 feet beam was built for the run to Norfolk, and in 1890 the Pennsylvania, a larger vessel (260 feet long, 36 feet beam) was added. In 1907 the Maryland was built with the same dimensions, and the last ship was the Virginia Lee.[16]
Because the NYP&N had trouble getting other railroads to interchange with it, it orchestrated the creation of the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad in 1898, to serve as a "neutral" terminal switching company and interchange rail cars between the various competing railroads near the Elizabeth River.[2]
In 1926 the NYP&N built the Little Creek Extension and acquired tracking rights over Norfolk Southern Railroad from the Little Creek inlet, which cut the crossing distance to 26 miles.[6]
In 1953, the railroad cancelled rail ferry service from Cape Charles and instead used a ferry running between Kiptopeke and Little River.[12]
Demise
In 1956, the PRR and Norfolk Southern tried to get the planned Chesapeake Bay Tunnel to include railroad tracks but were unsuccessful and when the tunnel opened it dealt a serious blow to rail demand on the peninsula.[17]
In 1968 the railroad moved with all of the other PRR properties to the Penn Central, where the NYP&N ceased as an entity. The Penn Central declared bankruptcy just two years later.
Penn Central abandoned the Cape Charles-Kiptopeke branch, which was down to two agricultural supply customers, in 1972.[18] The Nature Conservancy purchased the abandoned right-of-way in 1985 and the track was removed.[2]
The rail line became part of Conrail which first made plans to abandon the rail line south of Pocomoke City, but Northampton and Accomack counties intervened and moved operations between a series of short line railroads. The Virginia and Maryland Railroad owned the line and operated freight service on it between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia from 1977 to 1981. In 1981 the Eastern Shore Railroad took over operations and, to keep the line running, Northampton and Accomack counties bought the line in 1986. In 2006, Cassatt Management, LLC. took over the ESHR and changed the name to the Bay Coast Railroad.[2] It ceased operations on May 18, 2018 and the Delmarva Central Railroad took over operations. It merged the line from Pocomoke City to Hallwood, Virginia into its Delmarva Subdivision and abandoned the line between Hallwood and Cape Charles.[19][20] Service on the Norfolk side was taken over by the Buckingham Branch Railroad.[21]
Legacy
Railroad
The railroad from Pocomoke City to Hammond is an active rail line owned by Canonie Atlantic Company, which is in turn owned by the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission (A-NTDC). Delmarva Central Railroad operates it.
Rail Trails
Abandoned right-of-way in Parksley, VA. Possible future route of the Eastern Shore Rail to Trail
The Surface Transportation Board approved the abandonment of the Hallwood-Cape Charles section on 31 October 2019 and in 2021 the state began removing the track.[22] In 2020, VDOT produced a feasibility study for converting the railroad into a shared use path.[23] VDOT plans to start work on two segments of the trail, totaling 3.5 miles in length, in Spring 2025 and complete it in Summer 2026.[24]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge has converted most of the right-of-way between Cape Charles and Kiptopeke into the Southern Tip Bike & Hike Trail and plans to build more. The Nature Conservancy donated part of the easement and land for the trail and the Service constructed 5-miles of trail, in two phases, in 2011 and 2019. The trail extends from the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge north to Capeville Road in Capeville, Virginia.[25] Future phases are planned to extend the trail all the way to Cape Charles and may or may not use the right-of-way.[26] Along this right-of-way, several bridges and culverts from the railroad remain.[26]
Buildings
The former Salisbury Union StationReplica of the Bloxom railroad stationThe former Hopeton, Virginia stationThe former Belle Haven depot, now in nearby Exmore
Bloxom railroad station - the Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center built a replica of this station, including roof supports salvaged from the original building, next to their museum.
Hopeton Train Station - The former Hopeton, Virginia station was donated to Parksley in 1988, moved there and restored as part of the Eastern Shore Railway museum.[27]
Cape Junction Depot - used to stand at Cape Junction where the Cape Railroad connected to the NYP&N line, was moved to a nearby farm.[7]
Townsend Railroad Depot - was moved from it`s original location.[7]
The Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center collection consists of thousands of photographs, documents and objects, many of which relate to the railroad.[30] The pilot house from the barge Captain Edward Richardson, which used to ferry railcars across the Chesapeake, is located on the grounds next door.[31]
The Cape Charles Railroad yard was cleared for development and all of its contents sold, donated or scrapped.[32]
The owner of the Capeville Station intentionally burned it down in 2018 after the they were issued a dangerous structure notice from Northampton County, but the locked safe was salvaged for the Cape Charles Museum.[7]
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