Eastern Shore Va History Blog & Services

Ever wondered about the rail line running south of Cape Charles?

Let us first establish some geographical points that will be used in this article. Cape Charles is the actual cape at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. Cape Charles, the town will be referred to as the town of Cape Charles. Kiptopeke is where the John S. Wise estate was located at the time period this article is concerned with, which would run from where the toll gate of the CBBT, north past Wise Point Road which runs along side the Sunset Beach Resort.

The Cape Charles Railroad was incorporated in the state of Virginia on March 24, 1906. It was a subsidiary of the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad (N.Y.P.&N.) and was set up that way to avoid legal complications. The purpose of the Cape Charles Railroad was to build a spur of about 12 miles down to the cape, Cape Charles. 

Work on the spur started in 1910 at Cape Junction, which was east of the town of Cape Charles and on property far behind the Milestone Lodge, formerly the Rittenhouse Lodge.

The Cape Junction Depot building still stands, but has been moved to a nearby farm.

The first section was completed by December 1, 1910, which was the track through the areas of Plantation, Capeville and down to Townsend. Then in November 1911, the track down to Kiptopeke was laid and was completed on March 8, 1912.

Note on this map how the Cape Charles Railroad curves out of the east of the town of Cape Charles and down past Plantation to Kiptopeke.

The towns and villages of Plantation, Capeville, Townsend, Cedar Grove and Kiptopeke we’re thriving farm communities with some very large and successful farms which needed points of access to the rail system for transportation and shipping produce. Some of the top producers were the Dixon, Hallett, Long & Latimer farms.

In 1912, the rates on potatoes and cabbage per standard barrel in carload to Cape Charles:

To Cape Charles from:

Willow Grove   5 cents 

Plantation        7 cents

Hunt’s Siding   7 cents

Capeville          7 cents

Townsend        9 cents

Kiptopeke      11 cents

In 1915, the area that the Cape Charles Railroad served produced 520,000 barrels of potatoes.

In 1917, the parent company, N.Y.P.&N. acquired the Cape Charles Railroad.

After the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merged to become Penn Central Railroad, the Cape Junction to Kiptopeke Branch was abandoned in 1972.

The Townsend Railroad Depot building has also been moved from it`s original location.

The old Railroad stations along the Eastern Shore track beds are disappearing. The Capeville station was a controlled burn by the property owner after a dangerous structure notice was issued from Northampton County. It was gone before anyone realized what had happened. There is a sad and shocking photo of the railroad safe turned upside down in the burned rubble in an article in the December 23, 2018 Cape Charles Mirror.

The rail bed now serves as the bicycle trail from Eastern Shore National Wildlife Reserve to Capeville Dr. 

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The Cape Charles Historical Society, which operates the Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center has gone to great lengths and expense to save the railroad history of Cape Charles and surrounding area. If you want to help preserve the history of the area, I suggest you donate at capecharlesmuseum.org and get involved with local decision making.

If you would like to help fund my research at sundayhistorical.com, please donate at "Help Our Cause" on my blog page.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Laura Smith