We visit the Maryland & Delaware Railroad Federalsburg Job on January 15, 2025 to see 1203 in action, rocking and rolling down the jointed rail and shifting and kicking cars in Seaford.
The Maryland and Delaware Railroad has operated on former PRR/Penn Central lines on the Delmarva Peninsula for nearly 50 years, but an STB docket filed by Carload Express in October 2024 shocked the rail community, with a petition to purchase and operate MDDEs three remaining lines (with the exception of part of the Snow Hill Line) under its Delmarva Central Railroad. DCR, which resumed operations of the Delmarva and Indian River Secondaries from Norfolk Southern in 2016, as well as later resuming the remnants of the Bay Coast Railroad and Delaware Coast Line, received approval of the petition from the STB in early January, 2025 with an effective take over date no later than January 31, 2025.
While operations have not really changed much at the time of uploading this video, it's presumed Carload express will bring in their locomotives to take over the immensely aged fleet of units MDDE, including 3 unusual ALCO/EMD RS-3m locomotive, a 1950 ALCO road switcher *rebuilt with an EMD 567B block in 1979—only 1203 remaining operational in 2025.
1203, built as DLW RS-3 914 in 1952, is the last operating DeWitt RS-3m in freight service (not to be confused with Arcade & Attica RS-3u 114, also dubbed RS-3M for being rebuilt by Morrison-Knudson with an ALCO 12-251C prime mover). There are a few other examples of RS-3m locomotives surviving at a variety of railway museums.
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