Wilmington and Western Railroad

The Wilmington and Western Railroad (reporting mark WWRC) is a freight and heritage railroad in northern Delaware, operating over a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) branch between Wilmington and Hockessin. The line has both steam and diesel locomotives in operation, pulling a wide variety of excursion trains up and down the 10.2-mile (16.4 km) line. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

History

The Delaware and Chester County Railroad was incorporated in February 1867 to build from Wilmington in the direction of Parkesburg or Atglen, Pennsylvania,^[1] and was renamed the Wilmington and Western Railroad in March 1869,^[2] opening the line to Landenberg in 1872.^[3] A foreclosure sale in April 1877 produced the Delaware Western Railroad, which was incorporated in June 1877 and merged into the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, a B&O subsidiary, in February 1883.^[2]

The B&O cut back the line to Southwood in the early 1940s and to Hockessin in the late 1950s. Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. began operating steam tourist trains on weekends in 1966, reusing the old W&W name, and in August 1982 the W&W bought the branch from the B&O.^[3]

In 1999, the rains of Hurricane Floyd caused considerable damage to the railroad. Two trestles were entirely destroyed by the flooding of Red Clay Creek, which also caused track washouts and damaged several other trestles. The two destroyed bridges were replaced by steel trestles, but the other timber trestles were simply repaired.

In 2003, Tropical Storm Henri struck the valley and produced an even more catastrophic flood. While the two steel bridges (and an iron trestle at Ashland) survived the flood, the remaining bridges were swept away or irreparably damaged. Despite the damage caused by these storms, the Wilmington and Western continued to operate on the remaining track, and replaced all of the destroyed bridges with steel trestles. The line officially reopened into Hockessin on June 30, 2007.

Locomotives

Steam

• 4-4-0 American #98 was built by the American Locomotive Company of Schenectady, NY in January 1909 (construction #45921). Operational
• 0-6-0 Switcher #58 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia in October 1907 (construction #31899). Operational
• 2-6-0 Mogul #92 was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston, Ontario in 1910. Stored

Diesel

• SW-1 #114 was built in 1940 by the Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) of General Motors for the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
• SW-1 #8408 was built in 1940 by the Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) of General Motors and served the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in freight service on the Landenberg Branch until 1982.
• SW900 #915 was built in January 1956 by the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors for the River Terminal Railway and was numbered 97. It was later acquired by Republic Steel and numbered 915. It was leased to the WWRC in the fall of 2008 for 3 months. Then late in 2008, the WWRC decided to purchase 915.

Diesel motor car

• Doodlebug #4662 aka "The Paul Revere" was built by Pullman Standard for the Pennsylvania Railroad and outshopped on April 29, 1929.

See also

• List of heritage railways
• List of Delaware railroads

References

External links

• Wilmington & Western Railroad
• Wilmington & Western Railroad Photos