(The News Journal published the following story by Mary Allen on its website on September 19.)
WILMINGTON, Del. — The floodwaters that submerged parts of northern New Castle County this week have eradicated a slice of Delaware history.
The Wilmington & Western Railroad, which has carried hundreds of thousands of passengers through the Red Clay valley since 1966, sustained damage that has stalled the tourist attraction. Executive Director David Ludlow made a rough estimate Thursday that it could cost the nonprofit more than $5 million to get the rail cars moving again.
Six timber trestles west of Faulkland Road along the 10.2-mile track were obliterated, Ludlow said. Portions of the track also were compromised while they were under water and the creek current scoured their foundation, said Carole Sohlman, executive assistant.
The damage comes four years after the railroad invested $2.5 million for repairs from 1999’s Hurricane Floyd. Two trestles rebuilt in steel after that storm were not damaged.
“We are in much worse shape than we were in Floyd, and this wasn’t a hurricane,” Ludlow said. “It doesn’t even have a name.”
Railroad officials were waiting Thursday to see whether Hurricane Isabel added to the damage before fully assessing the situation and deciding how to proceed.
Whether railroad officials would try to rebuild “remains to be seen,” Ludlow said. That probably would require financial support from combinations of the community, government, businesses and foundations, he said.
Delaware Tourism Director Janet Wurtzel said Thursday she would talk with railroad officials after Isabel has moved through the area. “We’re very concerned, and it’s very upsetting,” she said.
The railroad welcomed about 30,000 passengers a year on everything from murder mystery train trips to birthday parties to fall foliage tours, Sohlman said. Five paid employees manage the railroad with the help of roughly 90 volunteers, who do everything from running the trains to maintaining the track and selling gift-shop souvenirs.
“It has progressed from a lovely weekend project for train buffs into a real scenic attraction,” said former state Sen. Margaret Manning, who worked to rebuild the Greenbank Mill across the creek from the Greenbank station that is home to the railroad.
The railroad’s two steam locomotives, five coach cars and three cabooses were housed in Marshallton during the flooding and were not damaged, Sohlman said. One of the locomotives has been undergoing restoration with plans for a spring 2004 celebration.
Instead, several of the trestles’ support structures have collapsed and washed 15 to 20 feet downstream from where they stood. Ludlow said that lack of support can cause the tracks to sag, which leads other parts of the normally straight tracks to break.
Sen. Charlie Copeland, R-West Farm, was supposed to ride the railroad at events planned Thursday and Sunday night. The railroad parallels the Red Clay Creek in portions of his district. He had not yet talked with railroad officials Thursday and wondered whether the tight economy would even allow the state to help.
Priority must go first to helping flooded Glenville residents and making necessary infrastructure repairs, he said.
Tom Marshall, who sits on the board of the railroad’s parent organization Historic Red Clay Valley Inc., said he made about 100 train trips in his former days as an engineer and conductor. He was among the group of people who got the attraction going in the 1960s and guided the line’s purchase in 1982.
“I’d like to see the line rebuilt,” he said Friday, adding it may be unrealistic. “I just don’t know where we’d get the funds to do it.”