Virginia & Maryland

Company History: A railroad down the Delmarva Peninsula - from Wilmington, Delaware to Cape Charles, Virginia - was completed by Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk in 1884. This line, coupled with car ferry service across the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, VA, offered a bypass to the congestion and restrictive freight clearances of Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC. In the late 1960s the line suffered due to Penn Central's neglect. On April 1st, 1977, the Virginia & Maryland Railroad took over operations from Conrail, operating the line between Pocomoke City, MD, and Cape Charles, and extensive track renovation was undertaken. At the end of October 1981, the Eastern Shore Railroad took over from the VAMD.

Successor/Parent History: The ESHR launched in 1981 to take over the operation of a railroad and carfloat operation owned by the state. The previous operator was the Virginia & Maryland Railroad. It ran 64 miles from Pokomoke City, Maryland to Cape Charles, Virginia where railcars were loaded onto carfloats for a 26 mile trip across Chesapeake Bay to Little Creek, Virginia in the greater Norfolk area. This is a former Pennsylvania Railroad route. They had two carfloats with a total capacity of 40 cars. In addition to local customers, ESHR handled overhead traffic between Conrail in the north and Norfolk & Western, Southern, Seaboard Coast Line, and Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt in the south. The locomotive fleet consisted of a pair of rebuilt GP7’s and a pair of rebuilt GP9’s. The company was sold in 2005 and became the Bay Coast Railroad.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.