Shellpot Branch

The Shellpot Branch is a former Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central through-freight railroad owned and operated by Norfolk Southern since its acquisition, along with CSX Transportation, of Conrail in 1999. The branch allows Norfolk Southern, since the opening of a new bridge in 2001, to bypass the city of Wilmington, Delaware and allows access to both the Port of Wilmington and the Delaware Branch to Central Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia's Eastern Shore. Both ends of the branch connect with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and, like all of the PRR's through-freight lines, was electrified until the Conrail era.

The line begins at its northern terminus at the Bell interlocking along the Northeastern Corridor near Claymont, Delaware. This occurs at a "flying junction" where the two outside (western-most) freight tracks "duck" underneath the passenger tracks (the two eastern-most) which are raised on a slight grade. After the tracks level off at the Edgemoor Substation (which is used to power Amtrak and SEPTA trains), the line splits off of the NEC past the DuPont Edgemoor Plant and passes under I-495.

Just after the split, the Edgemoor Branch breaks off from the Shellpot Branch and the line enters the Edgemoor Yard facility. The line parallels I-495 and passes under 12th Street, then crosses over the Christina River on a single-track turntable bridge that was completed in 2001. This bridge replaced a dilapidated two-track structure that forced Conrail, due to budgetary issues, to abandon the bridge and restructure Shellpot Branch operations in the mid-1990s. Past the bridge, the Delmarva Branch splits off at a wye junction, also built in 2001 with the bridge, allowing both eastbound and westbound trains to access the line without having to go through Wilmington (which would only be allowed during overnight hours) and then reversing direction in Newport. The Shellpot Branch ends with the line rejoining the NEC at the line's Ragan interlocking near Newport.