DCL Ellendale - Milton Branch

Anybody know the status of Delaware Coast Line's Ellendale to Milton Branch? Is it operational, or on caretaker status? Thanks.

Drove the length of it yesterday (10/8). Although it's not overgrown, there are tufts of grass between the tracks at a variety of points (hmm, it was that way when it was used.) No equipment anywhere other than at the interchange in Ellendale: NS is doing some grade crossing replacement and has stored some track equipment on the interchange. No sign of a customer anywhere unless the DelDOT facility midline started receiving gravel again (I wouldn't count on it.)
For the eternally optimistic: as big as Dogfish Head in Milton is growing, the tracks to the old cannery, now brewery are gone so no rail shipments unless they use a transload for the barley.

John

Dogfish Head has a good, but expensive product line. I doubt they brew enough to make rail a more cost-effective way of receiving and shipping.

Dogfish Head is running three shifts, five days a week and adding Saturday production this fall. They're in the process of adding several 100-thousand gallons of fermentation tanks. While they would never ship product by rail, they might get to the point where it might become worth it to transload the pallet loads of bagged barley. (Bulk barley in covered hoppers would be a mess to transload.) Since there's no place to transload boxcar traffic on the peninsula, and I doubt NS is interested, I wonder if DCL would get involved. I'm sure the industrial park in Georgetown would be interested in another client.

Good news. I hope this addition brewing capacity brings the price of the product line down. Up here in New York Dogfish Head averages $10.99 - $11.99 for a SIX-PACK....

The new siding at the propane facility just outside of milton is getting closer to completion. The small towers they use to unload tank cars are in place. Its located where the row crosses Rt. 30. There was tie work done along the line about a month ago, you can see where the ballast has been disturbed and ties installed.

Hmm, the farther away from the brewery, the more the price goes up. It was the same with Yuengling: before they grew, they deliberately kept it dirt cheap in the county its brewed to keep the locals who supported them since 1829 happy. Even at $10-12 a six, it's still cheaper than buying the same in a bar.
Btw, I remember seeing a one-car freight on the line in the early '90s with a UPFE reefer for Draper King Cole. Did Draper end rail service before they closed or was it up to the end?

It'll be nice to see DCL get some more traffic, and thus more opportunities to see the T-6 and RS-36 in action.

Here's a recent pic from just outside of Milton at Baker Petroleum.

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=2302323

The 182 looks great in this picture & the other recent ones. When was she shopped? Just new paint, or did she get mechanical & electrical work done too?

Hey 'Vark, that former LEF&C boxcar in the picture with the RS-18 looks like the same one in the picture of the T-6 you posted a link to in the other DCL topic. Is it a boxcar DCL bought to use to have a buffer on hand for propane tankcar moves? Thanks. Keep those pictures coming!

I visited Dogfishhead Brewery in November or December this past year (2011). While diving to Milton I observed an engine (no identification) and one or two cars moving into Milton on the rail line. I was quite surprised since a year earlier I thought that line was abandoned. But obviously in the Fall of 2011 this line remained in service.

Charlie B.

What are the customers DCL now has on this branch, and what kind of cars do they get? Thanks.

I heard that Dogfish Head got the OK from Milton to expand the brewery. Any possibility now they might use rail, and isn't their facility near the branch?

East of the grade crossing of Route 30, including the crossing itself (covered over), the railroad is abandoned. There is a fenced pen just west of the crossing with an engine and MOW box car. Bumpers on the track end, west of the crossing.

Norman