Delaware Coast Line Railway

That's nice that you can call DCL and inquire as to when they might make the run out to Lewes, and what motive power might be used. That's one of the things about lower Delaware that has brought my family back every July since the mid-Seventies from New York and Maryland. Everything, and everyone, is just nice and accomodating. DCL is an example of that niceness.

That the plant no longer uses railservice isn't a rumor, it's what the plant manager said in the article I put with my last post. Not that the Cape Gazette isn't a Pulitzer quality paper, but I think they either misquoted the plant manager or he is pulling the wool over the local residents' eyes (presuming no one can see the tank cars behind the evergreens at the plant.)

I usually see tank cars siting at the plant dozens of times and then a don't see them. I always get the feeling that i miss the trains all the time and do not notice it.

Anything new come up lately about DCL service to SPI or Barcroft or whatever it's now called in Lewes?

On Saturday I went over to the Delmarva peninsula, drove through Georgetown, and followed the DCL right-of-way to the end of the line at SPI Pharma. A car or two was there. No change, same as always. The little depot in Lewes once used by the Queen Anne RR dinner train operation is looking scruffy, with broken windows and peeling paint.

i remember when my grandparents took me on the old excursion train pulled by the old Vulcan 0-6-0 steam locomotive back in the early 90s. I was about 4 years old. I keep hearing that the DCL abandoned the Lewes branch. Is it True??

No, the DCL has not abandoned the branch. It still serves one industry, SPI Pharma, at the end of the line. When I rode an excursion on the line in November 2004, the crew said that was the ONLY customer on the entire route. If DCL abandoned it, a notice would have turned up on the STB website. Also, I don't think the DCL has the authority to abandon the line. If I'm not mistaken, the line is owned by the state and the DCL is a contract operator, not the owner.

I'll be going down to lower Delaware on vacation in a few weeks. I hope to catch the DCL switching SPI in Lewes. Any recent trends that might point to the best day/time to see them there?

Both Georgetown and Ellendale lines are owned by the State of Delaware and contracted to DCLR.

Georgetown Line: SPI is the main customer, with service twice a week (usually Tuesdays were good catch days). They also unload grain,
seasonally, on the main behind the DelDOT yard at Gravel Hill, DE.
Ellendale Line: dormant. Used for car storage.
Indian River: Adjacent to the power plant in Dagsboro is a stone yard the DCLR swithces. They usually keep two units there and operate when stone trains arrive for unloading. This is not the new H-K stone yard.

Power is sometimes found at Gravel Hill, but the enginehouse is located on the east side of the airport industrial park. You may also find a loco at Ellendale, either on the branch just beyond the NS switch, or slightly up and across the NS line, in a siding. Power: 2 RS36, 19 T6, 23 RS1, 44 44tonner, 106 GP7, 182 RS18, 4024 & 4054 B23-7

PVRX:
Thanks for the most-excellent DCL update. Keep them coming, if you get a chance. Take care. GO DCL!!!!!!!!!!

I had just got back from a weeks stay at Lewes and on wednesday morning August 22, around 9:50 a.m. I heard a horn being blown at Nassau and then again at five points. Then i heard the horn again around noon. I then thought that a train was running that morning.

I hope to get down to Bethany Beach for a long weekend in October. If we take the Ferry from Cape May to Lewes, I'll be able to check out SPI Pharma, but I doubt any DCL movements. Still, it'll be good to see the DCL trackage and tankcars/covered hoppers spotted at SPI Pharma. I hope DCL has a good autumn and winter, weather-wise and traffic-wise.

Anything new on the DCL?

My cousin (non-railfan/ helped demo the Iraqi National Railway north of Basra along with the British Army's Royal Engineers while serving as a U.S. Marine with 1 MARDIV in March/April/May 2003) was down at Bethany Beach for a long weekend just before Christmas. He checked out SPI in Lewes for me while his wife shopped tax-free at the outlets on Coastal Highway outside Rehoboth for Christmas. He said HOKX tankcars were spotted there.

There's been a few tank cars spotted on the Harbeson siding for a couple of weeks. There was also a HiRail that appeared to be working on a switch there as well earlier last week.