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Mar 8, 1856: Kent County Railroad chartered.

Jul 14, 1865: Smyrna & Delaware Bay Railroad chartered. (Always, as far as we know, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kent County RR.)

Apr 1870: Kent County Railroad builds from Massey's to Kennedyville.

Feb 20, 1872: Line extended from Kennedyville to Chestertown.

Aug 1, 1872: Line built from a point slightly north of Chestertown to Parsons, via Vickers. (Both of these hamlets are now forgotten: Vickers was on the banks of the East Fork of the Chester River, where it runs as a small creek to the WNW of Chestertown, and Parsons was about three-quarters of a mile west of Fairlee along Rt. 20, as best I can discern.)

Oct 1873: New line built from Worton to Parsons, and the old line from Chestertown to Parsons abandoned (it formed sort of an awkward dogleg)

1873: New line built from Massey's to Bombay Hook (Woodland Beach)

Feb 15, 1877: Kent County RR sold at foreclosure.

May 12, 1883: Kent County RR reorganized as the Baltimore & Delaware Bay RR, under control of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which operated it.

May 1889: Baltimore & Delaware Bay/Smyrna & Delaware Bay resume independent operation, although the Central Railroad of New Jersey still owns a controlling interest.

1895: Service between Smyrna and Bombay Hook (Woodland Beach) is no longer operated.

1897: Service between Worton and Nicholson is no longer operated.

Jun 25, 1902: PRR buys the Baltimore & Delaware Bay from the CNJ and leases it to the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore to operated.

Jul 1, 1902: The entire line east of Massey's is abandoned.

Jul 5, 1902: John T. Dyer (the owner of a number of stone quarries in the Reading area) buys the Smyrna & Delaware Bay at a sheriff's sale. (He presumably sold it for scrap.)

Oct 2, 1902: The Baltimore & Delaware Bay transfers all its property to the Delaware Railroad, which takes over from the P.W.&B., and becomes a paper company.

1903: The entire line east of Massey is removed except for short sections at Clayton and Massey retained for storage sidings. Freight cars are stored from time to time on the Clayton portion into the 1970's.

1910: The line from Worton to Nicholson is abandoned.

1914: The rail is removed from Worton to Nicholson.

August 1, 1977:  The Maryland & Delaware Railroad was incorporated and designated by Maryland and Delaware authorities to operate various ex-Penn Central (former Pennsylvania Railroad) branch lines not included in Conrail

October 1, 1977:  The Maryland & Delaware Railroad starts service between Massey and Chesterton, the only remaining portion of the Kent County Railroad.

Special thanks to Chris Hoess for the majority of this information.

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