A Piece of Railroad History Returning Friday

Pennsylvania sign board as shown on Barge 605 is coming home. (Photo: Eastern Shore Railway Museum)

By BILL NEVILLE
Cape Charles Historical Society

July 17, 2014

Friday, July 18, at the Town Harbor the symbolic return of a piece of Cape Charles railroad history will occur. An early 1900s yacht will enter the harbor displaying on deck a 20-foot-long name board with the word “Pennsylvania.”

These boards were attached to the side of the pilot houses on the old Pennsylvania Railroad barges that have been a part of the harbor scene in Cape Charles since the 1880s.

The name board will be crossing the bay on the yacht Mar-Sue following the early route of the barges from Port Norfolk on the Elizabeth River to the harbor in Cape Charles. The event was made possible when Cape Charles Historical Society member and railroad enthusiast Jim Curtin of Chesapeake offered this piece of history, which has been in his possession for decades, to the society last March.

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Once Jim’s offer was accepted, it became a matter of getting it from Chesapeake to Cape Charles.

Another member of the Cape Charles Historical Society, Butch Baxter, also from Chesapeake, offered to use his 1915 yacht Mar-Sue to bring the historic name board across. Butch is participating in a Nansemond River Power Squadron cruise to Cape Charles this weekend, so the timing was right.

If all goes according to schedule, the Mar-Sue should be arriving in the harbor in the early afternoon Friday.