Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
railroad · active 1838–1902
Also known as P.W.&B.; P. W. & B. R. R.
The Philadelphia–Baltimore trunk line whose Delaware Division fed Ocean City through Delmar and Salisbury. In 1877 it ran the resort's first advertised excursion trains — weekly from Wilmington at $3.00 round trip — co-built the Excursion House on the beach with the Delaware, Eastern Shore and Wicomico & Pocomoke roads, and organized the promotional press excursion from Baltimore that opened the third season. Delaware editors that summer complained that it was propping up a rival to Rehoboth: it had "been running to Ocean City now for two seasons, but the route is a long, tortuous, dusty one, and besides it has to divide its revenues with two other companies." It was leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad interests and absorbed in 1902.
In the record (11)
1878
The Wilmington excursion fare to Ocean City falls from $3.00 to $2.00 in 1878 — a third off, in the resort's fourth season.
The season's standing advertisement: "EXCURSION TRAIN Will be run to Ocean City, THE 'MARYLAND NEWPORT.' On Thursday, August 8th, 1878. Fare $2. Children half price. Leave Wilmington at 6 a.m. Returning, leave Ocean City at 5 p.m. Arrive in Wilmington at 10.30 p.m. Tickets good to return by regular trains until Monday, August 12th only, when presented to and stamped by the Ticket Agent at Ocean City. First class cars run directly through to the Surf. 6 Hours at the Sea-Shore. Ocean City is not surpassed, if equalled, for its natural attractions, possessing the finest surf-bathing, sailing, fishing, &c., to be found on the coast. Meals at all hours and at reasonable rates at Excursion House. H. F. KENNEY, Superintendent; I. N. Mills, Gen'l Agt. Del. Div.; Geo. A. Dadmun, Gen'l Ticket Agt." The 1877 excursion had been $3.00 for seven hours at the sea-shore; the 1878 ad ran at $2.00 for seven hours in July and six hours from mid-August, and it added something new — the ticket was good to return on any regular train until the following Monday.
A third off the fare and a weekend's worth of validity. Year four is when the day trip started turning into a stay.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1878
The railroads' Excursion House gets a named operator: P. Coyle & Son, feeding day-trippers "at all hours" on the bay side.
The 1878 excursion advertisement carries a line the 1877 one did not: "The name of P. Coyle & Son, as managers of the Railroad Excursion House, is sufficient proof that Excursionists will be well provided for. Meals at all hours, at the lowest rates, and of the best quality and greatest variety." The Excursion House had opened in July 1877 as a shelter built jointly by the lines via Salisbury, aimed at churches, Sunday schools and societies, and explicitly as somewhere families who brought their own dinners could eat them. A year later it was a catering concession with a proprietor's name on it.
Ocean City's first mass-market food business was not on a boardwalk that did not exist yet — it was the railroad's picnic shed, franchised out in year four.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1878
The Atlantic Hotel advertises "two daily trains from Wilmington direct to the beach" — two years after Ocean City had one weekly excursion.
John Tracy's 1878 card for the Atlantic Hotel closes with the line the whole resort depended on: "Two daily trains from Wilmington direct to the beach." In 1877 the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore had run one advertised excursion a week down the Delaware Railroad and the Wicomico & Pocomoke; by the summer of 1878 the hotel could sell daily service, and the excursion ads still promised that "first class cars run directly through to the Surf" — the trains crossed the trestle over Sinepuxent Bay and put passengers out on the sand.
Two trains a day from another state, to a town with four cottages three summers earlier.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Wicomico and Pocomoke RailroadJohn Tracy
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1880 · 1880-07-14
Fifty prominent Marylanders ride a railroad agent's free special to Ocean City in July 1880 — forty miles in an hour, and dinner at Congress Hall.
"An excursion to Ocean City was given to a number of gentlemen from Maryland and Delaware this week by I. N. Mills, Esq., superintendent of the Delaware division of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad. The company was composed of about fifty gentlemen," among them Congressman Stevenson Archer, Judge J. D. Watters, Major Wm. H. Dallam, Col. Otho S. Lee, Hon. Murray Vandiver, Thos. G. Hayes and a working press contingent from the Harford Republican and the Baltimore Herald. The party left Baltimore about eight in the morning and reached Ocean City at 2:30 in the afternoon "after a run of 237 miles from this city"; the Ocean City correspondent of a Wilmington paper reported that "the train which brought the delegation here made the quick time of forty miles in an hour." On arrival the excursionists split among the three hotels — "the Atlantic Hotel, John Tracy, proprietor; Seaside Hotel, S. J. Massey & Co., proprietors; and Congress Hall, Wm. B. R. Selby, proprietor" — dined together at Congress Hall on Thursday, and held a meeting in the parlors of the Seaside afterwards. The same correspondent: "Crowds are daily arriving, and the season promises to be a remunerative one for the capitalists who have invested their money in Ocean City."
I. N. MillsJohn TracyS. J. MasseyCol. Wm. B. R. Selby
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1880 · 1880-09-09
Getting to Ocean City in 1880: "8 HOURS AT THE SEA-SHORE" from Wilmington, or an overnight boat from Baltimore — six dollars round trip either way.
The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore's Thursday excursion out of Wilmington was in its fourth season and had lengthened its stay. The September 1880 advertisement lists the Delaware Division stations and their fares (Middletown $3.61 among them), arrival at Ocean City at 11:00, departure at 5:00 P.M., and the headline that had read 7 HOURS AT THE SEA-SHORE in 1877 now reading "8 HOURS AT THE SEA-SHORE." First-class cars ran "directly through to the surf" — the train went onto the beach. Tickets were good to return by regular train until Monday, September 13, if stamped by the Ocean City ticket agent. H. F. Kenney was still superintendent; Geo. A. Dadmun general ticket agent. A week later the company announced one more: "to run another excursion to Ocean City, the famous watering resort of Maryland, on Thursday next. This will positively be the last opportunity of visiting this resort during the present season" — leaving Wilmington at 6 a.m. and Ocean City at 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, 1880. From Baltimore the choice was rail or water, and a West Virginia visitor writing home in August priced both: "Ocean City is distant about two hundred and four miles from Baltimore, by rail via Wilmington, Del., but probably a little more by boat. The fare from Baltimore, by boat to Crisfield, then by rail, is four dollars, or six dollars for the round trip — meals and state room extra. As a general thing passengers prefer the water route, as they can leave Baltimore at 6 p.m. and arrive here at 11:30 a.m. the following day, enjoying a good night's rest and a cool ride on the bay." The Eastern Shore Steamboat Company's boats left the foot of South Street every evening but Saturday at six — a service Baltimore's German-language daily was still puffing to its readers in August as the way to reach "Ocean-City mit seiner reizenden Umgebung."
Atlantic HotelEastern Shore Steamboat CompanyWicomico and Pocomoke RailroadH. F. Kenney
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1883
Baltimore to Ocean City and back by boat, $4.70; by the railroads' special train, $5.00 good for ten days.
The Teachers' Association circular of May 1883 prints the whole rate card. A round-trip ticket to Ocean City by boat from Baltimore cost $4.70. The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad would sell round trips at $5.00, good ten days, on a special train from Baltimore "leaving Baltimore at such hour in the morning as may be desired by the teachers and arriving at Ocean City early in the afternoon" — but only if two hundred people signed up; otherwise the $5.00 rate applied on the regular train. To reach Baltimore, teachers holding ticket orders could buy excursion tickets at any station on the connecting roads at two cents a mile each way, good July 7–11. From Bel Air, the Aegis quoted the reduced fare to Ocean City and return at $4.50; Garrett County's teachers went by the B. & O.
State Teachers' Association of Maryland
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1889
Five dollars, Washington to Ocean City and back — the Pennsylvania Railroad's Friday excursion ticket, on sale July 12 to August 30.
"Special Excursion Tickets to Ocean City, Md., and Rehoboth via Pennsylvania Railroad. For the benefit of visitors to Ocean City, Md., and Rehoboth the Pennsylvania railroad company will, commencing July 12, place on sale excursion tickets to either of them at [the] rate of $5 for the round trip. These tickets will be sold on Friday of each week only, for use on Peninsula express leaving Baltimore and Potomac railroad station at 1:17 p.m., and valid for return trip until Tuesday following date of sale." The same $5 bought Atlantic City, Cape May or Sea Isle City; August 30 was announced as the last selling Friday of the season. Delaware feeders were cheaper and shorter: the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore ran a special from Harrington to Ocean City on Wednesday, August 7 at $1.00 from Harrington and 50 cents from Showell, and a Wilmington special on August 15 at $2.00 round trip, $1.00 from Milford. The Cape Charles Sunday School excursion of August 14 charged $1 south of Keller on the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk.
A working Washingtonian's weekend at the sea, priced the same as Cape May and reachable without changing trains. That is the whole 1889 argument in one advertisement.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1892 · 1892-08-18
What a day at the beach cost in 1892: 60 cents from Snow Hill, $1.75 from Annapolis by boat and rail, $4.20 from Washington for the weekend.
1892 is the first Ocean City year with a full fare table in print. The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore ran a special to Ocean City on Thursday, August 18: leaving Franklin City 8:30 (75c), Girdletree 8:45 (75c), Snow Hill 9:00 (60c), Wesley 9:07 (50c), Queponco 9:15, arriving Ocean City 10:00 and returning at 5:00 p.m., children five to twelve at half rates. Annapolis's Severn Division No. 8, Uniform Rank K. of P., sold its August 19 excursion by boat and rail — Long Wharf at 7:15 a.m., Ocean City at noon, leave at 6, home at 10:45 — for $1.75 adults and 70 cents for children under thirteen; it carried about three hundred. The Sinepuxent Beach Company's standing advertisement in the Washington Evening Star offered "Saturday excursions, commencing April 30, to Ocean City. Round-trip tickets, $4.20, good until Monday, via B. and O. R.R. Train leaving 3:15 p.m. via Baltimore." The Star pushed the same trip in its news columns: "With the new fast [trains] offered by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad you can reach Ocean City every Saturday evening in five hours and a half"; and "Ocean City is 100 miles nearer this city than any other ocean resort." In December the B&ES sold a round trip from anywhere on its line to Baltimore for $1.00. — 1892 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: Three corrections and one addition. (1) The December dollar excursion was not open to Ocean City. The Democratic Messenger's advertisement of 10 December 1892 reads: "The Baltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad Company will run a 'dollar excursion' from all points (except Ocean City) on its Line to Baltimore December 15th, on the morning express train. Tickets good to return same day or day following at the special low rate of $1.00 for the round trip from all points… A good orchestra will accompany the excursion on the boat, up morning of the 15th and down evening of the 16th." The fact currently says "a round trip from anywhere on its line to Baltimore for $1.00"; "anywhere except Ocean City" is what the notice says. (2) The August 18 PW&B special's full station list, from the advertisement of 13 August: Franklin City 8.30 a.m., Hursley 8.39, Girdletree 8.45, Snow Hill 9.00, Wesley 9.07, Queponco 9.15, arriving Ocean City 10.00, returning 5.00 p.m., children five to twelve at half rates, "good only on special train in each direction." (3) A second, earlier 1892 fare table the campaign does not have, for the Delaware, Maryland & Virginia road to the Atlantic Hotel furniture sale of 24 May: "On the D., M. & V. Road the fare to Ocean City and return is as follows: from Franklin, $1.82; Hersley, $1.20; Girdletree, $1.12; Snow Hill, 94c; Wesley, 85c; Queponco, 73c" — a set of round-trip fares roughly half again the PW&B excursion rate three months later. (4) The furniture-sale advertisement itself gives the hour as "Tuesday, May 24, 1892, At 10.30 o'clock A.M.", not ten o'clock.
Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwaySinepuxent Beach Company
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1893 · 1893-07-12
The Pennsylvania Railroad cancels its Ocean City excursions for the whole 1893 season for want of cars, and a rival road takes the traffic.
The Milford Chronicle printed the letter in full on July 18: dated July 12 and signed by D. C. Walsh, general ticket agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, it answered the season's speculation flatly — "Owing to our transportation department being unable to provide the necessary equipment, no special excursion trains will be run during the current season to the points named," Rehoboth and Ocean City. The Messenger had reported the same shortage on July 8: "owing to scarcity of passenger cars, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company will run no excursions to Rehoboth and Ocean City this season." The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore stepped straight into the gap, announcing a Thursday series beginning July 27 and running it weekly for the rest of the summer. In a year when railroads were failing across the country, the Panic reached the Maryland beach first as a shortage of rolling stock — and the excursion business simply changed hands.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1894 · 1894-08-02
The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore ran two advertised seashore excursions to Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City in August 1894, at $2.00 from Wilmington.
A repeated notice in the Wilmington Evening Journal, the Wilmington Daily Republican and the Middletown Transcript through July and August 1894: 'Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Ocean City, Md., are probably two of the most popular summer resorts in the near South. They are particularly attractive at this season of the year when everything is at its best, both in a social way and in the surf bathing. Good train service and extremely low rates will be given in the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad excursion on Thursday, the 2d of August, which will run to either place,' with a printed table of stations, times and rates beginning 'Wilmington, Del. 6.30 $2.00; New Castle, Del. 6.42 2.00; Kirkwood, Del. 6.57 1.85; Middletown, Del. ...'. A second excursion ran on Thursday 16 August. The 1894 record has the B&ES's own 'cheap family Thursday excursion' from the Maryland side; this is the Delaware side of the same trade, and it comes with a price.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1899
Seventy-five cents from Snow Hill: what a day at Ocean City cost on the Thursday excursions of 1899.
"Every Thursday July 13 to August 31 inclusive, 1899, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad will sell excursion tickets via Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway to Ocean City, Md., and return" at these rates: Franklin City $1.05, Hursley 95 cents, Girdletree 85 cents, Snow Hill 75 cents, Wesley 65 cents, Queponco 50 cents. Children under twelve half rates; the train left Ocean City for home at 6.00 p.m. "Family day at Ocean City means every Thursday. Special low rates from all stations. Bring your lunch basket and enjoy a day at the seashore." Seven years earlier the Snow Hill excursion fare had been 60 cents.
Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway
Source · checked 2026-08-06