Delaware Coast Line Railway

Hey everybody its been quite a while since I've posted. I live less than half a mile away from the DCLR line into Lewes. I am a huge fan of this shortline and I visit their line frequntly. I also know where all their equipment is I tend to keep track of it. As for the closure of the line it's not true to the best of my knowledge...infact the DCLR made a trip on monday 1/14/08 into town to the SPI plant, also they were there the week before I believe on Thursday. They still use the line every week at least once. On occassion durring the summer they have made 2 trips although very rare it has happened. Some more news they have their newest B23-7 (#4054) at the shop in Georgetown. The day I went I happened to have dead batteries in the cammera...(duh shoulda checked before I left)...Also the Milton line has yet to see service...There is an LPG facility right off of route 30 but no rails or sidings have been routed into the facility. I have seen empty tank cars almost in town Milton (which is farther down the line than the LPG facility) but they never saw service they were returned to N&S within a few weeks. I also have pictures showing these empty tank cars along with pics of them next to a small wooden bridge just outside of MIlton I'll post those later along with any other update pics I have. The only good news coming from those empty rail cars is the fact that the rails from Ellendale to Milton saw a locomotive. the last one on those rails was years ago when they were used for storage. There were a few empty grain cars about 2 years ago but they had to be towed out without a locomotive due to bad rail quality which has since been fixed...to a point. This is much of what I can remember from my last posts if you have any questions just post em and I'll answer them. also I'll have those other pics up shortly.

Heres Those Pics I promised...


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... prings.jpg (WAR)
This is the DCLR returning from Lewes when it crossed the grade close to Coolsprings pulling two full tanks and the good old #1000 caboose.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... nkCars.jpg (WAR)
These are the tanks cars that were set off a mile or so past the LPG facility on route 30. They were seperated so they werent sitting on the old piece of history bridge.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... nksTop.jpg (WAR)
This is the other side of the bridge from atop the empties from the previous picture. If you look closely you can see just how close they are to in town Milton Maybe 200 yards if that. The road in the background is route 5.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... erTag2.jpg (WAR)
Here's a shot of the ID plaque on the side of thee 44 Tonner which to this day is still set off in Ellendale and during the winter it can be seen when heading towards route113 off to the right of the grade crossing in Ellendale.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... Tonner.jpg (WAR)
Here's the other plaque on the 44 Tonner.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... rRS-18.jpg (WAR)
This is a pic of the RS-18 set off right in front of the old 44 Tonner. The RS-18 was set off while the tank cars above were set off in Milton Im assuming this is the locomotive responsible for moving those tanks.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... eRails.jpg (WAR)
This pic is important in two ways...It shows the old RS-1 set off coupled to the old dinner train which is in the Georgetown industrial park. Also it shows an ex-ARMY flatcar loaded with rails...Shortly before this it had a full load of brand new ties which i believe went to repairs on either the Ellendale to Milton line and or the Georgetown to Lewes line.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... rTrain.jpg (WAR)
This is a shot of most of the dinner train. although it is in the brush you can get the general idea. In the pic before you can see the front of the dinner train coupled to the RS-1, and directly behind it is the generator car which provided power to the rest of the train. I had the privilege of riding the dinner train. My Mom And Grandmother both worked for the restaraunt that catered the dinner excursion. My mom also was responsable for cleaning the kitchen car and the dinning cars when the train was set for the weekend. I helped many of the times to clean. This is also where I saw the lunch train.

These are the pics I have for now. If I can find them I will post the pics of the old 0-6-0T Vulcan Steam Locomotive that use to be used for the dinner train. After that locomotive was retired the T-6 pulled it for a time. Also I have pics of the inside of the dinner train cars and also the lunch train that used to be pulled. ASAIC I will post those pics thanks for looking and again if there are any questions you would like me to answer let me know.

BTW...Heres a crude but hopefully effective map of the the shop track in the industrial park. It shows the shops and the two sidings close to the shops. The siding at the top is where the RS-1 and the dinner train are.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/ ... CLRMap.jpg

Great pictures!!!! Please, if possible, post more, especially of the T-6 and the RS-18. I'm fond of the Lewes area for checking out the DCL when I'm down at Bethany Beach on vacation or for a long weekend.

Here's your latest DCL Lewes report:
On Monday 2/18, SPI Pharma at the end of the line had three tanks (2 HOKX, 1 GATX) and a covered hopper (ACFX). A DCL hi-rail dump truck/crane was on the tracks nearby with a load of ties to distribute.

Old Dominion, thanks for the Lewes DCL update. Keep 'em coming.

What would they get (or ship) in a covered hopper? Furthermore, what do they get (or ship) in tankcars? As I recall, when I checked SPI out after getting off the ferry, the tankcars were always HOKX, which, if I'm not mistaken, belong to Hooker Chemicals. Does Hooker have some sort of contract with SPI to provide tankcars? Thanks.

"Spartan Phalanx"
What would they get (or ship) in a covered hopper? Furthermore, what do they get (or ship) in tankcars? As I recall, when I checked SPI out after getting off the ferry, the tankcars were always HOKX, which, if I'm not mistaken, belong to Hooker Chemicals. Does Hooker have some sort of contract with SPI to provide tankcars? Thanks.

The two most common commodities shipped to points on the Delmarva peninsula are corn (coverd hoppers) and propane (tank cars).

The inbound corn shipments supplement the locally grown corn used as feed by the poultry producing industry. The propane is use by the many people that don't have access to natural gas. Virtually all of the poultry producers heat their chicken houses with propane.

The SPI plant in Lewes produces magnesium hydroxide from seawater; that product is a solid that probably leaves the plant in the covered hoppers. This document refers to inbound caustic chemicals to the plant which would explain the tank cars.

I'm new on here, but thought I could give updates pretty easily if anyone so cares to ask. I'm on the Town Council for Ellendale and live next to the railroad tracks (it's our woods the tracks cut through). Still no service on the line from Ellendale to Milton, in fact there haven't even been any cars on it in a while. On the NS line there is a commercial property for sale on the north side of town that is touting it's rail access, so perhaps a new stop on the line coming in the future.

The Ellendale Town Council has gone to the state and DelDOT in an attempt to turn the Ellendale-Milton line into a greenway trail, hopefully a part of the Atlantic-to-Pacific American Discovery Trail. Here is a link to the town's Comprehensive Plan http://stateplanning.delaware.gov/comp_ ... 122004.pdf. If you look you will see the town's plan for the Railroad Square District as well as expressing their desire for the trail. Also, if you look on page 8 (incorrectly labeled page 9 on the report as there is no page 5) there is a picture of the old train station in town as well as the two sets of tracks that ran North/South and a brief rail history.

Also, here is the link to DelDOT's final report on turning the Georgetown-Lewes line into a mixed walking/bike trail http://www.deldot.gov/information/proje ... INAL_1.pdf. [/url]

Please keep us updated on DCL's operations, and on developments with it's future considering these plans to scrap the DCL's lines in favor of trails. Thanks.

Thanks for all the posts on DCL service.

This past weekend we spent Easter witth our relatives who live in Ocean City Pines. This was the first trip for me to the Delaware Shore (we stayed on our own in Bethany) in a very long time (as in the mid-90's), and the level of (over) development in Southern Delaware was beyond a shock.

That said, this is not the time for the State of De. to consider railtrailing the ROW, far from it, it strikes me that given the rampant development
they need to look at this ROW as a people mover.

That said, IF and I do mean IF the tracks were upgraded for passenger service, where could it run to ???, as in what cities and urban areas could this ROW be connected to ??

The type of mass development that we saw reminded me of the area I moved from (Ocean County, NJ) to escape, and happily here on the North Fork of Long Island (yes, Long Island) we have a rural safety net with land use restrictions galore, and we can thank the Wineries and Vineyards for keeping farmland profitable. I guess you can we are also lucky to have passenger rail service (LIRR), and frequent private bus service (Hampton Jitney).

Has there been any studies of transit needs for Southern Delaware ??

Ken

PS Happily I did find one of my old haunts still alive (albiet greatly enlarged), Bargain Bills in Laurel.

peconicstation wrote:they need to look at this ROW as a people mover.

That said, IF and I do mean IF the tracks were upgraded for passenger service, where could it run to ???, as in what cities and urban areas could this ROW be connected to ??

The type of mass development that we saw reminded me of the area I moved from (Ocean County, NJ) to escape, and happily here on the North Fork of Long Island (yes, Long Island) we have a rural safety net with land use restrictions galore, and we can thank the Wineries and Vineyards for keeping farmland profitable. I guess you can we are also lucky to have passenger rail service (LIRR), and frequent private bus service (Hampton Jitney).

Has there been any studies of transit needs for Southern Delaware ??

I mentioned this very subject you're talking about four years ago in a post I made here. Look at post #7 on this thread.

There's way too much truck traffic in the area now, thus, all the more reason to keep the DCL running to and from Lewes, and may be they could try to add a few more customers. There must be a need for a lumber/building materials trans-load facility, as well as a propane distributor. Many houses in the area are heated by propane. The State should really offer some incentives to use DCL rail service.

It would be nice to see more use of the existing rail infrastructure, I am all about getting more vehicles off the road. (not to mention more photo ops...) But seeing as the state of Delaware is trying to cut a couple hundred million from the budget, I don't seeing it happening anytime soon. Besides that, roads will always come first. Road maintenance and construction that's being delayed now will have to be paid for later, oh ya and a new bridge over the Indian River inlet...and so on.