The Eastern Shore Railway was opened in 1884 by the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad.  The railway ran for some 60 miles in an almost straight line southwards from the Virginia border on the Eastern Shore until reaching the outskirts of Cape Charles, when the line took a 90 degree turn westwards to the centre of the town and the port.

At the port of Cape Charles freight wagons were shunted onto special barges and towed by tugs across 26 miles of the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk.  Passengers completed their journey by luxury steamer.  Regular daily passenger services were operated from New York and Philadelphia to Cape Charles and Norfolk, with considerable goods traffic also on the line.  As a result of this traffic, the town of Cape Charles prospered and grew during the early 20th century until the second world war.   Traffic continued much as previously in the late 1940s but as the 1950s progressed, as with all railways, both passenger and goods custom was being lost to road transport.  The last passenger train ran from Cape Charles northwards on 11th January 1958.

Goods traffic continued in declining numbers through to the 1980s.  It seems never to have closed officially, but no signs of trains running on the still-exiting, but rusty-looking, single line through Virginia's Eastern Shores were seen during visits in June and July 2009.  A new company, the Bay Coast Railroad has been formed, and under the name Bay Creek Railway, advertises on their website the running of tourist passenger and dining trains along the line from Cape Charles northwards.  Although I have visited Cape Charles on numerous occasions over the past few years, I have never seen any trains moving on the tracks, but I remain hopeful that I will.

Mike Smith, August 2009.

These photographs of the remains of the Cape Charles rail depot and various rolling stock residing there were taken in June 2009.