Delaware Railroading and Railfanning In "The First State"

Delaware railroading is home to one of the nation’s first railroads and while today it has nearly the fewest rail miles of any state its rails are critically important to the Northeast. When it comes to Delaware and its railroads, big things come in small packages. Few states offer such a wide variety of railroading as the First State. Whether you are interested in high-speed rail, bucolic steam locomotives, or coastal railroading, Delaware offers all three!

Delaware railroading has its beginnings dating all of the way back to 1832 when the little, and mostly forgotten, New Castle & Frenchtown Railroad opened that year as a better transportation alternative between the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River. Although the railroad was mostly abandoned in 1856 part of the route continues to carry on today under the Norfolk Southern banner.

Although Delaware has never held many miles of railroad it has been home to several classic railroad companies. These include the Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsylvania Railroad (and later Penn Central), and Reading Railroad. In terms of Delaware’s route miles throughout the years please refer to the table below.

While the B&O’s main line to New York City stretched through Delaware it was the Pennsylvania Railroad that owned most of the state’ trackage, sprawling all over the state with a main line that stretched south from Wilmington, Delaware to Cape Charles, Maryland.

The Pennsylvania Railroad had its beginnings in 1846, chartered by the State of Pennsylvania to connect Philadelphia with Pittsburgh. Completed eight years later and opened in 1854 the direct main line followed the Juanita and Susquehanna Rivers through southern Pennsylvania to reach Pittsburgh via Harrisburg and Altoona (Altoona would later be the railroad’s most famous shop complex complete with everything from car shops and machine shops to foundries).

The Pennsy is remembered for many things, far too many to even mention here. However, two of the railroad’s most lasting achievements was its grand monument to New York City, Pennsylvania Station and its legendary passenger train, the Broadway Limited.

The Pennsylvania Railroad also had the most extensive electric operations of any private carrier in the country, most of which is still operated today by Amtrak and regional commuter systems. Beginning in 1915 the Pennsylvania Railroad began to electrify portions of its eastern main lines where commuter and passenger operations were the heaviest and by the late 1930s electrification had reached south to Washington, D.C., west to Harrisburg, and north to New York City. In all, most of the PRR’s system east of Harrisburg was electrified by the late 1930s.

Today, the remains of the PRR are still very present in Delaware. Not only does our country’s fastest passenger train, the Acela Express, operate at speeds of 135 mph along the NEC through Wilmington but also the city is home to three large PRR buildings; Amtrak’s current Wilmington Station, the railroad’s former Wilmington office building, and its former freight station, today owned and used by Internet banking company INGDirect. Wilmington is also home to Amtrak’s Wilmington Maintenance Facility (an original PRR facility), Bear Maintenance Facility, Consolidated National Operations Center, and High-Speed Rail Training Facility.

Along with the current operations of CSX and Norfolk Southern, Delaware is also home to the remains of the Conrail system, Conrail Shared Assets (a jointly run railroad between NS and CSX) and shortlines, Delaware Coast Line and the Maryland & Delaware Railroad.

Lastly, Delaware railroading also includes two tourist railroads, the West Chester Railroad and steam powered Wilmington & Western Railroad. In all Delaware railroading offers a little of everything for a train lover, whether your railroading interest(s) might be railfanning, tourist railroads, or simply sightseeing.