Maryland and Delaware Railroad
Class III short-line railroad in Maryland and Delaware, United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company (reporting mark MDDE) is a Class III short-line railroad, formed in 1977 to operate several branch lines of the former Penn Central Railroad in both Maryland and Delaware, United States. These branches were omitted from the system plan for Conrail in 1976 and would have been discontinued without state subsidies. As an alternative to the higher cost of subsidizing Conrail as the operator of the branch lines, the Maryland and Delaware governments selected the Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company (MDDE) to serve as the designated operator.[1][2]
Overview | |
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Headquarters | Federalsburg, Maryland |
Reporting mark | MDDE |
Locale | Delaware and Eastern Maryland, United States |
Dates of operation | 1977ā |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1ā2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Length | 120 miles |
Other | |
Website | www.mdde.com |
The railroad did not own any of the track it uses until 2000 when it acquired a line between Frankford, Delaware and Snow Hill, Maryland,[3] from the Snow Hill Shippers Association. Today, the railroad operates on 92 miles of track and runs out of a restored station in Federalsburg, Maryland. The new engine house in Massey, MD, was opened in the fall of 2019.[1][4]