Maryland and Delaware Railroad

Maryland And Delaware Railroad

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. 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 operator of the branch lines, the Maryland and Delaware governments selected Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company (MDDE) to serve as the designated operator.

The railroad did not actually own any of the track it uses until 2000 when it acquired a line, between Frankford, Delaware and Snow Hill, Maryland, from the Snow Hill Shippers Association. Today, the railroad operates on more than 120 miles of track and runs out of a restored station in Federalsburg, Maryland.