New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Railroad Company

When New Castle's prosperity was threatened by the building of a canal connecting the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay, merchants and other businessmen constructed a railroad New Castle Crier to cover the route from New Castle to the Chesapeake. Known as the New Castle-Frenchtown Railroad, it opened in 1828, which was also the same year as the canal. But, the small railroad wasn't enough to maintain New Castle's dominance. By 1840, a train line was established between Baltimore and Philadelphia, bypassing the much smaller and less significant New Castle.

The New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road was the first railroad in Delaware and one of the first in the U.S., opening in 1831. About half of the route was abandoned in 1859; the rest became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's route into the Delmarva Peninsula and is still used by Norfolk Southern. The abandoned segment from Porter, Delaware to Frenchtown, Maryland, the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad Right-of-Way, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.^[1]

History

The New-Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike Company was chartered in Delaware on January 24, 1809 and in Maryland on January 6, 1810. It opened in 1815 and 1816, providing a turnpike from New Castle, Delaware on the Delaware Bay west-southwest to Old Frenchtown Wharf, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. The easternmost section, east of Clark's Corner (under 3 miles), had been built in 1812 by the New Castle Turnpike Company, chartered January 30, 1811.^[2]

Chapter 207 of the 1827 Session Laws of Maryland, passed March 14, 1828, authorized the company to replace the turnpike with a railroad, and change its name to the New-Castle and French Town Turnpike and Rail Road Company. Similar laws did the same for the two companies in Delaware, renaming the New Castle Turnpike Company to the New Castle Turnpike and Railroad Company. The companies merged on March 31, 1830 to form the New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road Company (no dash in New Castle), and the new railroad opened in 1831, using horses for about a year before switching to steam locomotives.^[3]

The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, opened in 1829, was a major competitor to the railroad.

On March 15, 1839 the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad bought the NC&F, using it as an alternate route.^[4]

The New Castle and Wilmington Rail Road was connected to the New Castle end in 1852, and by 1856 the Delaware Railroad had opened, splitting from the New Castle and Frenchtown at Rodney Village, about halfway between the two ends. In 1859 the railroad was abandoned west of Rodney; most of the right-of-way is still cleared.

On March 28, 1877, the New Castle and Frenchtown was merged into the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. In 1891 the PW&B sold the old New Castle and Frenchtown line, as well as the New Castle and Wilmington, to the Delaware Railroad, which was leased to the PW&B.

The east half of the old alignment has since passed into Penn Central, Conrail, and now Norfolk Southern, which uses it to reach the Delmarva Peninsula.

References

External links

• Historic American Engineering Record - New Castle & Frenchtown Railroad
• Historic American Buildings Survey - New Castle-Frenchtown Railroad Ticket Office, Washington Avenue Crossing (oldest remaining railroad ticket office in the U.S.)