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Oxford Branch (Pennsylvania Railroad)

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Pennsylvania Railroad
Overview
HeadquartersClayton, DE
LocaleDelmarva Peninsula
Dates of operation1868–1998
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Oxford Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) is a railroad line from Clayton, Delaware through Delaware and Maryland to Oxford, Maryland. It was built in pieces from 1857 to 1871 and served passenger and freight customers in Delaware's Kent County as well as those in Maryland's Caroline, Queen Anne and Talbot counties. It changed hands several times and scaled back operations as need demanded. After a period of unprofitability it was finally abandoned in 1998.

The state of Maryland has railbanked the corridor all the way to Easton, but only three small segments of trail have been built on it.[1]

History

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The Maryland and Delaware Railroad was incorporated in 1854 to build a railroad from Talbot county to connect with the Delaware Railroad at Smyrna Station (later Clayton, DE) which was then planning to build a line from Dover through Clayton to Seaford.[2] Work on the Delaware Railroad line began in 1856, and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PB&W) took over and began to operate the line on January 1, 1857.

Work on the M&D line began in 1857 and the line was graded and bridged as far as Greensboro, Maryland by 1959. 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 31, 1869 and an extension to Oxford was built in 1871.[3]

In 1877, bondholders foreclosed on the railroad and it reorganized as the Delaware and Chesapeake Railroad Company (DCR).[3]

In 1881, the PW&B was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was at the time the nation's largest railroad and in 1882 the PW&B purchased the DCR.[3]

In 1890, the Baltimore & Eastern Shore Railroad built a line that crossed and connected with the DCR at Easton, MD.

In 1902, the PRR merged the DCR into its Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.

As was true elsewhere, competition from automobiles cut into DCR patronage. Passenger service between Clayton and Oxford ended in August, 1949. Freight service between Easton and Oxford ended in 1857 and the line was abandoned in 1959.[3]

Facing financial difficulties in the 1960s, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its rival New York Central in 1968 forming the Penn Central which itself filed for what was, at that time, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history in 1970.

When Penn Central Railroad stopped operating in 1976, the Oxford Branch was one of three in Delmarva that were omitted from the system plan for Conrail. To prevent them from being discontinued, the Maryland and Delaware governments selected the Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company (MDDE) - a newly formed railroad, not a successor to the company that built the Oxford Branch - to serve as the designated operator starting in 1977.[4][5]

The line operated at a loss for years, with declining and use and in 1982 it was estimated that it needed $1 million in repairs. Freight operations ended on February 22, 1983 and the Maryland Department of Transportation abandoned the line that same year.[6][3]

In the mid-80's the Chesapeake Railroad (CHRR) formed to resume service with excursion, dinner trains and some freight between Clayton and Queen Anne and from Queen Anne to Denton on the old Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic rail line.[6][7][8][9] In 1989, they used State Railroad Administration money to clear part of the line.[10] They signed an agreement with MTA to do so in 1993, received permission from the ICC the next year and started running both freight and excursion trains in 1995.[11][3][12] but the railroad struggled, never travelled farther south than Queen Anne, running fewer than 30 cars a year in the time it operated and stopped running in late 1996.[13] In 1998 the state terminated the CHRR's operating agreement and a few days later a final run was made to clear equipment from the track.[7] The rolling stock was either scrapped or restored for display.[7][14]

Demolition and Disposition

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In 2005, MTA filed intent to terminate service on the line and requested a certificate of interim trail use.[8] The next year it filed to abandon the use of the right-of-way for railroad transportation and to covert it to a recreational trail.[15] MTA attempted to enter into trail use agreements with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, but it was rejected by the Surface Transportation Board in 2013.[16]

Delaware's June 2006 Rail-to-Trail & Rail-with-Trail Facility Master Plan recommended converting the railroad right-of-way to a rail trail. [17]

In March 2010, the bridge over Queen Anne Highway (MD-404) in Queen Anne, MD was removed to allow the highway to be widened.[7]

Remnants

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Easton Railroad Station in 2005

Maryland started planning, and trying, to turn the full ROW into a rail trail, called the Upper Chesapeake Rail Trail, in 2005, but the project has stalled.[18] In the interim several pieces have been turned into short trails and some advocates have been taking the lead. In 2024 a group called "Talbot Thrive" proposed turning the ROW from Oxford to Easton into the Oyster Trail and the section from Easton to Tuckahoe State Park into the Frederick Douglass Rail Trail.[19]

The former railyard in Clayton is now a BioDiesel plant and it retained about 2000 feet of track from the Clayton to Easton Line to serve as a siding.[14]

The PRR Depot in Hartly, DE is still standing and is used as a private home.

The Marydel Train station was moved out of town and allowed to fall into such disrepair that the town was unable to bring it back in 2006.[20]

The Goldsboro, MD railroad station (built circa 1920) was moved to Henderson, MD in 1980, but then hauled back to Goldsboro in 1996 where it sits in Railroad Park and awaits restoration.[21]

Oxford Branch overpass over Maryland State Route 303 (Tappers Corner Road)

Approximately 2000 feet of the right-of-way in Ridgeley, MD was turned into a rail trail in 2009.[22][23] The adjacent train station, which was built in 1892, was preserved in 2013 and now serves as a museum.[24][25] It closed to passenger service in 1949 but continued to be used for freight until 1976. It was then used by several businesses, and even served as town hall in the 1990s.[26]

The portion of the right-of-way through Easton, including the bridge over North Fork Tanyard Branch, was converted to a rail trail in 1998 and the train station (built circa 1906) next to it, on Pennsylvania Avenue, currently hosts the town's Parks and Recreation Department.[27][28]

Around 2019,[29] the railroad bridge over Tuckahoe Creek in Queen Anne, MD and a short section of the railroad ROW in Tuckahoe State Park were turned into a potion of Anna's Trail and also serves as part of the American Discovery Trail.[30][31]

The Trappe Railroad Station (at times called Oxford) still exists in Oxford at the corner of Oxford Road and Almshouse Road and is used as a real estate company's office. The prior house used as the ticket station is also extent, just across the street.[32]

Along the right-of-way, disused tracks, bridges, overpasses, mileposts and embankments still remain.[3] The overpasses at Tappers Corner Road and Old Queen Anne's Highway, as well as bridges over Oldtown Branch, Forge Branch (Ford and Jarrel Branch), Peachblossom Creek and Trippe Creek are among the remnants.

References

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  1. ^ "Maryland State Rail Plan" (PDF). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  2. ^ "AN ACT to incorporate the Maryland and Delaware Rail Road Company". Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Maryland & Delaware Railroad Corridor, (Delaware and Chesapeake Railroad) Architectural Survey File" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  4. ^ "History" Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine. Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company (February 2, 2010). Retrieved 2010-06-04
  5. ^ "Facts & Stats: Freight Rail". State of Maryland. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on June 16, 2010. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
  6. ^ a b Jensen, Peter (28 December 1986). "Man with a plan wants to reopen old railroad:". The Baltimore Sun.
  7. ^ a b c d "The Chesapeake RR In Clayton, DE". Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  8. ^ a b "DECISION AND CERTIFICATE OF INTERIM TRAIL USE OR ABANDONMENT Finance Docket No. 32609" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  9. ^ "CSX engineer wins permission to reopen historic Easton-Clayton railroad line". The Baltimore Sun. 23 March 1989.
  10. ^ "Shore plan for tiny railroad chugs on". The Baltimore Sun. 13 December 1989.
  11. ^ "SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD DECISION Finance Docket No. 32609" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  12. ^ "State Permits Railroad to Run on Unused Rails". The Baltimore Sun. 2 October 1993.
  13. ^ Garland, Greg (18 October 1998). "Md. funds industry's rail line". The Baltimore Sun.
  14. ^ a b "Clayton, DE to Easton and Oxford, MD". Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  15. ^ "Maryland Transit v. Surface Transportation Board, No. 11-1412 (4th Cir. 2012)". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  16. ^ "CHESAPEAKE RAILROAD COMPANY-CERTIFICATE OF INTERIM TRAIL USE AND TERMINATION OF MODIFIED RAIL CERTIFICATE" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  17. ^ "Delaware Rail-to-Trail & Rail-with-Trail Facility Master Plan" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  18. ^ "Ehrlich announces more funds". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  19. ^ "The Frederick Douglass Rail Trail". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  20. ^ Owens, Clay (May 5, 2006). "Marydel plans to move train station into town are derailed".
  21. ^ "It's Not the End of the Line for Old Goldsboro Railroad Station". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  22. ^ "Rails to Trails Advisory Committee". Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  23. ^ Divilio, Daniel (28 January 2009). "Ridgely Rails to Trails stalled on tracks". Times-Record.
  24. ^ "Train Station tells charming history of the 'Dream City'". 19 June 2024. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  25. ^ "Ridgely Train Station Restoration". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  26. ^ "Ridgely Railroad". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  27. ^ Polk, Chris (24 April 2019). "Town offices move into old railway station". The Star Democrat. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  28. ^ "Easton Rails-to-Trails". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  29. ^ "Fiscal Year 2019 Grant Awards - Maryland Bikeways Program" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  30. ^ "Tuckahoe State Park Map" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  31. ^ "Tuckahoe State Park Pedestrian Bridge & Trail". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  32. ^ "Trappe Train Station – Talbot County, Maryland". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
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