Rail to trail conversion in Chestertown

http://thekentcountynews.com/articles/2 ... 172747.txt Note: the KCN website is free to all users this summer. After Labor Day, it goes back to being a pay site.

Anyway, IIRC these tracks were of PRR heritage.

motor

When I was last in Chestertown a couple of years ago, the track was clearly out of service the last few miles into Chestertown, but there was a (closed) railroad-theme restaurant or bar at the end of track, with several old commuter coaches (looked like ex-EL or CNJ cars) outside. Does anyone know anything about that?

It's a shame to see rail on the Eastern Shore slowly dying. MDDE has taken up the last mile or so of track into Centreville as well.

NellieBly wrote:When I was last in Chestertown a couple of years ago, the track was clearly out of service the last few miles into Chestertown, but there was a (closed) railroad-theme restaurant or bar at the end of track, with several old commuter coaches (looked like ex-EL or CNJ cars) outside. Does anyone know anything about that?

It's a shame to see rail on the Eastern Shore slowly dying. MDDE has taken up the last mile or so of track into Centreville as well.

The coaches and caboose are still there on the siding. Howver, the main next to it has been pulled up and is gone. The 100# rail was given to the MDDE and will be stored for later use. Way back when (early 1900s?), there was hope that the line would go all the way to Rock Hall, but the funding was never secured for it. The MD & DE RR's track ends at Mary Morris Road in Worton.

As far as the rail in Centreville goes, the state pulled that up, not the railroad. There was a push about 3+ years ago to smooth out Route 304. In true government form, it was half heartedly done. The rail and ties were donated (I think) to the Queen Anne Railroad Historical Society.

As far as rail on the Eastern Shore dying, I wouldn't say that. There are fewer train perhaps, but there is plenty of work being done by NS and the MD & DE. Even the DCL has a couple of new customers. Bay Coast RR had the barge repaired, but I have zero idea how many times that has run since being put back in service.

RockGp40 wrote:

NellieBly wrote:As far as the rail in Centreville goes, the state pulled that up, not the railroad. There was a push about 3+ years ago to smooth out Route 304. In true government form, it was half heartedly done. The rail and ties were donated (I think) to the Queen Anne Railroad Historical Society.

I've tried several times to reach the QARR Hist Soc Soc but to no avail.

Queen Anne County still has a rail-to-trail on it's Master Plan maps from Centreville roughly to the runaround/end-o-the-line. There's no immediate plans to implement this but its there on paper long term. A second conceptual rail-to-trail extends on paper from Millstream Park along the old spur to Queenstown. I've been tracing the remains of that grade on the ground and via Google Earth but County surveyors report they got very clear and evident grade via their planning imaging systems.

NellieBly wrote:When I was last in Chestertown a couple of years ago, the track was clearly out of service the last few miles into Chestertown, but there was a (closed) railroad-theme restaurant or bar at the end of track, with several old commuter coaches (looked like ex-EL or CNJ cars) outside. Does anyone know anything about that?

The building is called Stepne Station (the Stepne Manor farm is on the other side of it) and mainly devoted to a conference center, but according to the other shingles, it also has a doctor's office and a consulting firm among its tenants. No mention of any restaurant or bar.

Here are links...

http://www.brittlandestates.com/corpora ... ation.html

http://www.krm-dev.com/?section=buildings&id=26

motor

There was a Curves gym there too for a while...don't ask how I know