(The following story by Melissa Tyrrell appeared on The News Journal website on January 4.)
WILMINGTON, Del. — Jared Doan, 3, ran up and down the platform wearing his engineer hat and chirping, “It’s coming! It’s coming, Daddy!”
Historic passenger car “Paul Revere” chugged forward in curtains of Christmas lights at the Wilmington & Western Railroad’s Greenbank Park station for one last time Wednesday before a three-month winter hiatus.
Steve Doan took his son and father there for a nighttime holiday ride.
“After ‘Polar Express,’ he loves anything to do with trains,” Steve said of Jared.
When the train comes round the valley again after the hiatus, crews will be well into the first two phases of rebuilding the 132-year-old line. Flooding in 2003 washed away several historic trestles used by the popular attraction, visited each year by families from across the region.
By the time Jared is 5, the little boy from Bear may be able to ride the rail’s full 10.2-mile course from Hockessin to near Prices Corner.
The Wilmington & Western lost six bridges from Yorklyn to Milltown when rains from tropical storm Henri caused Red Clay Creek to flood. The bridges were washed away and rails were mangled like twist ties.
Historic Red Clay Valley Inc. – the nonprofit league of volunteers that runs the railroad – spent the past 15 months raising funds and designing a rebuild of the line.
Executive Director David Ludlow said RCC contractors from Paterson, N.J., will be working on the railroad starting this month. The $600,000 bid for that project was accepted in early December.
“We’re excited to finally kick off,” Ludlow said.
By late spring, Ludlow said he hopes to have found a contractor to start rebuilding the bridges in a way that melds historic design with technology to withstand the increasing flow of the Red Clay.
Timber will be replaced by steel and reinforced cement, but the look from afar will seem rustic, Ludlow said. The price on that project will be much higher – possibly up to $6 million. The railroad’s operation budget is normally about $300,000.
“That will be the hard part,” Ludlow said. Work will start at the first bridge near Delaware National Country Club and work northwestward. Train rides will expand as each bridge is completed. Ludlow hopes trains will take folks to Hockessin by 2006.
Bad timing
The state and county came through with financial help to save the railroad. In October 2003, the state Department of Transportation offered $2 million if volunteers could raise $200,000, which they did. In June 2004, the county presented the railroad with $300,000. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pledged some reimbursement.
The funds were sorely needed. The railroad had just completed a $2.5 million replacement of two trestles and repairs of others after flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
And just when they thought they were done, the railroad took another hit from the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne this past September.
Ludlow had assumed nothing worse could happen, but Hyde Run, a tributary of the Red Clay, flooded and tore out 1,000 feet of track near Brandywine Springs.
“That was very depressing,” he said. Volunteers pulled together and cleaned and patched that stretch in 10 days.
Although the county is planning its own flood mitigation projects, Ludlow said designers have had to plan for increased flooding. By using steel, the rail’s bridges can span larger distances with fewer supporting structures, which slow the river’s flow. Crews also will install relief pipes along the tracks to allow equalizing of water in storms.
“It’s stormwater management on a smaller scale,” Ludlow said. “No one can afford to keep putting good money after good money to make repairs.”
Riders kept up support
One way the railroad earned money for repairs this year was to keep on running. Over the past year, the railroad has offered holiday and weekend treks on an abbreviated two-mile course from Brandywine Springs to the CSX rail junction near Prices Corner. The railroad also drew visitors when it launched Engine 98, a restored 90-year-old steam locomotive that had been in the works before the flooding.
Ridership stayed strong, showing residents wanted to support the landmark. “They may not be able to dig deep for the capital campaign, but they’re still visiting us,” Ludlow said.
Jack and Mary Jane Coleman brought daughter Lilly, 6, for a ride on the last night and were surprised how fun it was.
“It’s wonderful,” Mary Jane said. “Knowing the area, you get a totally different perspective of the scenery.”
Mike O’Shaughnessy saw the lights from Newport-Gap Pike that night and asked his boys if they wanted to stop and watch for a while. Kevin, 11, and Brian, 8, train junkies like their dad, agreed. O’Shaughnessy said he had felt sick to his stomach when he had seen pictures of the damaged tracks last year.
“It’s living history,” he said as the boys admired Paul Revere. “There’s a togetherness. It’s low-key, low-impact and intimate. Everyone in the family can do it.”
“And it has big whistles and bells,” said Kevin.