The New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad(reporting markNYP&N) was a railroad that owned and operated rail lines on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia connected by its ferries and barges to Norfolk, Virginia, Old Point Comfort and Portsmouth, Virginia where it owned less than a mile of railroad. It built the line from Pocomoke City, Maryland to Cape Charles, Virginia and an extension from Townsend, Virginia to Kiptopeke. It was always affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), but was taken over by the PRR in 1920. In 1968 it was absorbed into Penn Central.[1] The track between Delmar and Hallwood, Virginia on the main branch and for 1.2 miles south of Kings Creek on the Crisfield Branch is still in use, but the rest is abandoned.
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 unfinished Peninsula Railroad Company of Maryland, the Peninsula Railroad of Virginia, The Eastern Shore Railroad Company (of Virginia) and the New York and Norfolk Railroad Company 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, then by the Eastern Shore Railroad (ESR) and finally by the Worcester and Somerset Railroad (W&S) (which became the Peninsula Railroad Company of Maryland in 1880). 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 ESR was revived and in 1866 - after the disruption of the Civil War - the ESR extended the line to Crisfield, Maryland. The W&S built a branch from a point on the ESR at Kings Creek, called New town Junction (later Peninsular Junction), to Pocomoke City in 1871.[3]
Other companies consolidated into the NYP&N held rights but had built no rail. The Peninsula Railroad Company of Virginia was incorporated on March 12, 1878 and it was given all the rights given to the earlier North and South Railroad Company that had been incorporated on January 24, 1853. The Eastern Shore Railroad Company (of Virginia) was incorporated on April 23, 1867 and the New York and Norfolk Railroad Company was organized in Virginia on March 15, 1872.[4]
The NYP&N was the vision of William Lawrence Scott, an Erie, Pennsylvania coal magnate, who wanted to build a shorter railroad route to the coal wharves of Hampton Roads by utilizing a ferry line across the Chesapeake Bay and a railroad line up the Delmarva Peninsula to the industrial north.[5] His plan was to continue the rail line from Pocomoke City to Cherrystone, VA and use a rail ferry to reach Norfolk and he had the railroad incorporated in Maryland on April 10, 1880 and in Virginia on January 24, 1882.[6] 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.[7] Cassatt surveyed the line on horseback, designed ferries and wharves, and acquired the foundational railroads by purchasing the ESR in 1883 and the two Peninsula Railroads in 1884.
Work on the line south of Pocomoke City, and on a new bridge across the Pocomoke river,[8] began in April of 1884. Operations south to Drummondtown began in August and the railroad make brisk business shipping sweet potatoes.[9] The line to what would become Cape Charles, just south of Cherrystone, was completed on October 25, 1884.[10][2] Along with it came the construction of a telegraph line. Two weeks later the first passenger steamer, the Jane Moseley, left Cape Charles for Norfolk and the first through train ran on November 17, 1884.[11][12] The steamers ran from Cape Charles to both Norfolk and Old Point Comfort. The next year the railroad started using barges, or car floats, to carry railroad cars to Norfolk via Port Norfolk (Portsmouth) where cars transferred to tracks owned by the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad.[12]
In 1886, they expanded steamer service to directly connect Cape Charles to Richmond, Virginia via the James River.[13]
In 1896, the railroad purchased several tracts of land at Pinners Point and other waterfront locations in Portsmouth and later built 0.71 miles of railroad there.[6][14][15] The Southern Railway, Norfolk and Carolina and Atlantic and Danville bought adjacent land and together they built a massive rail transfer facility.[16]
Following an 1898 plan and vote, the company was reorganized without foreclosure or changing its name on January 24, 1899.[6][17] At the same time the company got a boost shipping meat and ammunition south for the Spanish-American War.[18][19]
In 1903, the NYP&N built a second track parallel to the existing one from Princess Anne to King's Creek. [20]
The Cape Charles Railroad, a subsidiary controlled by 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.[21] They opened the line to Townsend by December 1, 1910 and to Kiptopeke on March 8, 1912. This was the furthest south any railroad ever reached on the peninsula.[21] The NYP&N purchased the Cape Charles Railroad's property, works and franchises on November 12, 1917.[6]
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.[22] In 1908 it purchased a controlling share of the NYP&N's stock. In 1921 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][6] 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.[23]
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.[24]
The PRR began to scale back passenger service in 1949 when they closed several stations on the line, including Kiptopeke, Townsend, Capeville, Bayview, Weirwood, Keller, Melfa, Hopeton, Bloxom and Mears.[25] 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.[26][2][27] In 1958, passenger rail south of Delmar ended.[28][2]
Ferry service
The original ferry crossing was 36 miles.[29] 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.[30]
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.[12]
In 1953, the railroad cancelled rail ferry service from Cape Charles and instead used a ferry running between Kiptopeke and Little River.[26] After the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1964 all ferry service from Kiptopeke ended.[31][2]
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.[32]
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.[33]The Nature Conservancy purchased the abandoned right-of-way in 1985 and the track was removed.[2]
The remaining 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.[34][35] Service on the Norfolk side was taken over by the Buckingham Branch Railroad.[36]
Legacy
Railroad
The railroad from Delmar to Hammond is active rail line. The part south of Pocomoke City is owned by Canonie Atlantic Company, which is in turn owned by the Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission (A-NTDC). The line between Delmar and Pocomoke City is owned by Norfolk Southern as part of their Delmarva Subdivision; as is the Crisfield Industrial Track extending 1.2 miles south from Kings Creek. All of this is operated by the Delmarva Central Railroad.
The Surface Transportation Board approved the abandonment of the Hallwood-Cape Charles section on October 31, 2019 and in 2021 the state began removing the track.[37] In 2020, VDOT produced a feasibility study for converting the 49 mile long right-of-way into a shared use path called the Eastern Shore of Virginia Rail Trail.[38] VDOT started work on two segments of the trail, totaling 3.5 miles in length, in May 2025 and plan to complete it in Summer 2026.[39][40]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge and 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.[41] Future phases are planned to extend the trail all the way to Cape Charles and may or may not use the right-of-way.[42] Along this right-of-way, several bridges and culverts from the railroad remain.[42]
The 15.1 mile long line from the end of the Crisfield Industrial Track to Crisfield was sold to the Maryland Department of Transportation as the Crisfield Secondary Branch in 1976. It was reserved in case a line to the deep water port in Crisfield was ever needed again and immediately abandoned. The last train, pulling eight San Luis Central ice reefers of onions for a local plant that produced frozen onion rings at the time, left Crisfield on April 4, 1976.[43] The tracks were soon pulled up, the old freight station torn down and the line within MD 413 was replaced with a landscaped median.[44] The right-of-west between 4th and Daugherty Creek in Crisfield was absorbed by adjacent landowners.
In 2018 the County began to turn the remaining right-of-way from E. Pear street in Crisfield to Westover, MD inta the Terrapin Run Recreational Trail.[45][46][47] About 4.7 miles of the right-of-way from Crisfield to Marion were used to build phase 1 of the trail in 2019-21 and Somerset County started work on the 3.2 mile phase 2b, between the Big Annemessex River and Westover, in 2024 (with completion in 2027).[48] Future phases will connect the two ends of the trail.
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.[49]
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.[21]
Townsend Railroad Depot - was moved from its original location.[21]
The Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center collection consists of thousands of photographs, documents and objects, many of which relate to the railroad.[52] The pilot house from the barge Captain Edward Richardson, which used to ferry railcars across the Chesapeake, is located on the grounds next door.[53]
The Cape Charles Railroad yard was cleared for development and all of its contents sold, donated or scrapped.[54]
The owner of the Capeville Station intentionally burned it down in 2018 after they were issued a dangerous structure notice from Northampton County, but the locked safe was salvaged for the Cape Charles Museum.[21]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
