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Rehoboth Beach with a train in the early 1920s

March 31, 2018

We have railroads on the mind this week. Crews have been pulling up the crossing equipment related to the tracks between Cool Spring and Lewes. The state is decommissioning that line since the bridge across the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal failed thus rendering the route useless for trains that used to make their way to the SPI Pharma facility near the entrance to Cape Henlopen State Park. That decommissioning is just the latest removal of tracks serving the coastal area.

This postcard, mailed in 1923, shows downtown Rehoboth Beach looking west from the Boardwalk. A locomotive sits at the train station where the tracks of the Junction and Breakwater line ended. The line came up the middle of the median in Rehoboth Avenue. Train service ended decades ago and the tracks were removed. That line was eventually converted into the popular Junction and Breakwater Trail between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

  • Delaware Cape Region History in Photographs, published every Tuesday in the Cape Gazette, features historical photos from Delaware's Cape Region - particularly - and from throughout Sussex County and Delaware generally.

    Readers are invited to submit photos of historic interest. They can be mailed to the Cape Gazette at PO Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958, or via email to newsroom@capegazette.com.

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