Wish this was still here today. I could cross the bay and have an enjoyable ride to O.C. The Ocean City Railroad The Baltimore & Eastern operated several light-density branch lines east of Chesapeake Bay. This section ran from McDaniel through Easton, Hurlock, Salisbury and Berlin to Ocean City, MD. The section from Salisbury to Ocean City was built by the Wicomico and Pocomoke Railroad between 1868 and 1876. The section between McDaniel and Salisbury was built by the Baltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad and was opened for business in 1890, which apparently bought the W&P also. The B&ES was sold at foreclosure to the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Altantic Railway, which was controlled by the Pennsylvania RR, in 1894. The BC&A operated steamship lines as well as the railroad, forming a bridge between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic. The BC&A was purchased for $1 million by the Pennsylvania RR in 1942, and was apparently operated as a autonomous subsidiary, the Baltimore & Eastern. The old line was also called the Ocean City Railroad. The tracks went to the docks on the intercoastal waterway. In 1978, the tracks were still there and had trees as big as 1 foot growing in the center. The ROW is hard to find -- the forest has taken it back. But the tracks are there if you look off US-50. The line was abandoned in sections from the 1950s to the 1980s. The section between Hurlock and Preston is still operated by the Maryland & Delaware Railroad. The line crossed the PRR line from Queen Anne to Oxford at Easton, the PRR line from Federalsburg to Cambridge at Hurlock, the PRR main line down the Delmarva at Salisbury, and the PRR branch to Snow Hill, MD, and Franklin City, VA, at Berlin. A draw bridge located near Royal Oak, about halfway between McDaniel and Easton, on the west end of the line, was known as the Royal Oak Movable Bridge, as indicated in early Penn Central timetables. The rails, formerly of the BC&A, were removed from this area in 1972; the bridge remained for a while longer. You can see this bridge in the picture provided; it is no longer there today. The line went from McDaniel on the Chesapeake Bay to St. Michaels, Royal, Easton, Tanyard, Bethlehem, Preston, Elwood, Hurlock, Rhodesdale, Reids Grove, Vienna, Mardela Springs, Hebron, Salisbury, Walstons, Parsonsburg, Pittsville, Willards, Whaleyville, Saint Martin, Berlin, Diricksons, Sinepuxent, West Ocean City and into Ocean City by way of a bridge.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 13:13:48 +0000
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