The short line operates trains over two lines under contract to the State of Delaware, Dan Herholt says, and when the contract came up for review in early 2018, another bidder won.
“We wanted to stay,” Herholt says. “We talked to everybody and everyone we could think of to try to help us, but it wasn’t enough.”
Delmarva Central Railroad, owned by Carload Express of Pittsburgh will take over on Jan. 1, 2019.
He said the railroad’s last day will be Dec. 31. He and the railroad’s handful of employees are preparing the line’s remaining five locomotives for sale. Dan Herholt, 56, was sanguine about the change.
“I have other things to do,” he says. “We have other family ventures.”
Last year, the Delaware Coast Line lost about eight miles of track when the swing bridge at Lewes, Del., was shut down. Only one customer was located on the other side of the manually operated bridge, thought to be the last one in service. The State of Delaware decided it was too expensive to repair the bridge, which carried the railroad over the Intracoastal Waterway, for two or three moves per month.
The railroad operates from Georgetown to Cool Spring and between Ellendale and Milford and handled 430 cars in 2017.
Maybe Dan should move to the other side of the Delaware Bay and bid on operating the line from Winslow to Cape May and eject Tony MaCree as the idle operator. Anyone can do more than the Cape May Seashore Line has been doing. They may even cut open the Cape May Point Branch and use it for rail bikes from Cape May to Diamond Beach at the Point. .A Brown weed threader could clear the line in 2 days.