Delaware Railroad

The Delaware Railroad Company (DRC) was a railroad company that operated in the US state of Delaware from the mid-1850s until 1976, during which time it was the largest in the state. Its original main line began in Bear, Delaware and extended south through Dover and Seaford before reaching Delmar on the border of Maryland in 1859 and it was the only route for train traffic between the peninsula and areas to the north. It eventually built and acquired a network traversing almost the entire state north to south, and with branches going to the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware Bay/Atlantic Ocean. Although operated independently, in 1857 it was leased by and under the financial control of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B), which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1881. Through additional construction, purchases and mergers it built a network that extended to Centerville, Chestertown, Cambridge and Oxford in Maryland and Smyrna in Delaware. It was also a critical part of the connection via the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N) to Norfolk, Virginia; via the Smyrna and Delaware Bay Railroad (S&DB) to Woodland Beach, DE and Nicholson Station, MD, and via the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Railroad (DMVR) to Lewes and Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and Franklin City, Virginia. It remained a part of the PRR system, and its successor Penn Central, until 1976 when Penn Central went bankrupt, at which point it was absorbed into Conrail.