Hike #1118; Delaware and Hudson Pt 1

Hike #1118; Delaware and Hudson Pt. 1

4/7/18 Dickson City to Carbondale with Matthew Davis, Russ Nelson, Ewa Magdalena Wdzięczak, James Quinn, Justin Gurbisz, Michele Valerio, Daniel Trump, John Pershouse, Anne ?, Craig Craig, Pete G. Wilcox, Kellie Kegan, Adam Budney, Jim Mathews (Mr. Buckett), Eric Pace, David Campbell (Captain Soup), and ?.

This next hike would be the first in another big series Matt had been proposing for many years.
Matt’s concept was to take the journey following a single piece of coal.

We gots coal

When we first met back in early 2007, we bonded over how out families were both involved in some way in the industry, and how he would like to take that journey made by a single piece of coal from where it was mined and processed right to it’s ports to New York City. I loved the concept, and we were already doing some of it anyway through walking the old rail lines as well as the Morris Canal as series.
Matt told me about his grandfather working in the coal mines, and that he was the only of his friends as a child to have all of his fingers (kids would lose their fingers a lot working the breaks on the mine cars).
My great great grandfather, and his father before him were lumberjacks, and his biggest business was selling railroad ties and mine props. My three times great grandfather even bought land in Port Colden on the Morris Canal to harvest lumber to make canal boats.
It was Matt’s idea to do the Delaware and Hudson as a series. It’s a particularly fascinating route because it incorporates both early gravity railroads as well as canal.

Interest in the coal region started after Philip Ginder discovered it on a hunting trip, and it didn’t catch on for a bit. Industry was attempted on it but failed about 1812.

Historic image

Historic image of “Valley Junction” on the Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad, southern/western terminus in the town of Olyphant, named for a D&H employee.

Heading to the Olyphant power plant

The Delaware and Hudson Canal was chartered in 1823 by brothers William and Maurice Wurts, and they hired Benjamin Wright, who engineered the Erie Canal, and his assistant Jonathan B. Jervis to plan and survey the route.
The route opened in 1828 between Kingston New York and Honesdale PA.
The Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad was a subsidiary of D&H Canal chartered in 1826, to connect the western terminus of the canal at Honesdale to the coal town of Carbondale. Operations began in 1829, making it the second oldest railroad, behind the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk.

Olyphant power plant

The D&H Gravity was a four foot three inch narrow gauge railway that was expanded on after initially only connecting Honesdale and Carbondale via one track.
It utilized inclined planes powered by stationary steam engines, similar in ways to a ski lift, and cars would then roll by gravity to the next plane on toward the terminus. The original route was used for a test run of the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive used in America, in 1829. Unloaded cars were towed back five at a time by horses.

Olyphant Power Plant

Improvements continued with the addition of a “light” or “unloaded” track in 1844. A separate right of way with inclined planes, some powered by water, and a grade that could be handled by unloaded cars made a loop back to Carbondale.
Expansion came in 1848, with more right of way, loaded and unloaded tracks, being developed to the south toward Archbald. Expansion continued through 1858 with the opening of more mines in Olyphant. The line originally used strap rails, metal on wood, and hemp ropes.

Olyphant power plant

The strap rail was replaced with more common T rails, and the hemp rope replaced with cable from the Roebling company.
Improvements continued through 1866, and the inclined planes, which on the southern expansion were all given letter designations, were all renumbered consecutively to Honesdale.
Also in the 1860s, the D&H began the shift to a more conventional locomotive railroad. Additionally, passenger service officially started in 1860, even though the focus was on the transport of coal.

Olyphant power plant

The Delaware and Hudson Canal was abandoned in 1899, and with it went the remainder of the gravity railroad. By that time, D&H had pretty much established itself as a locomotive railroad with a great deal of expansion. The slow old canal could not keep up with the supply and demand the railroad could.
Some of the old loaded track became part of the new Delaware and Hudson Railroad, but much of the old gravity line was abandoned, and today is much forgotten by anyone except local enthusiasts.

Olyphant power plant ruins

Matt and I went back and forth with how to plan this route, and we did one preemptive hike a few months back on the Pennsylvania Coal Company Gravity Railroad, which operated between the canal a bit east of Honesdale, at Hawley, and the mines of Scranton area. We did one hike tracing that route, and hadn’t returned to it since. We plan to revisit and complete that route when the weather is most appropriate (we do have to take swimming into consideration). Matt had great ideas for the series, and I had a few to add.

Olyphant power plant ruins

Matt was doing most of the planning and scaling for this, and so I looked at what he was doing and made some plans to compliment what he had already done. I had explored some of this right of way with Jillane a few years back, just because it was convenient and interesting to where we were. The industrial archaeology aspect of this hike made it a whole lot more fun for me. It might have made it frustrating to some of the others, but folks like some of us hardcore railroad history fanatics, this was awesome.

Olyphant power plant ruins and sign!

Matt had gone over maps of the entire route, from various alignments and eras, and sent me something with them all stuck together. I have a KMZ file on my Google Earth.

Matt on his soap box/power plant

I simply opened up the images that showed where the rail line was, and then took cell phone photos of them on my computer screen to be able to pull them up and compare.
I picked up Matt and Justin I think it was in Washington, and we headed up in my van.
Matt suggested that the meeting point be the Giant Supermarket in Dickson City, which was really close to the southern terminus of the D&H Gravity operations.

Historic postcard, Eddy Creek Breaker

The Eddy Creek Breaker was the terminus at the eats end, where one of the inclined planes existed. That was Plane #23, or before that known as “Plane G”.

Steamtown NHS collection photo of Eddy Creek Breaker

From the grocery store, we could walk in back and out to where the Olyphant Breaker was, which was apparently the later site of the Olyphant power plant.

Olyphant power plant

Some people were running behind, which worked out well since we had to deal with a few other issues at the start. Matt and I misunderstood exactly how we were running it.

Olyphant power plant ruins

I had figured we were doing a loop using both the loaded and unloaded tracks of the railroad, but Matt showed me that we couldn’t quite go as far as I was thinking if we did that. We decided the night before that instead of running a car shuttle or doing the hike in the backwards direction, it made most sense to just meet at the main meet point and then shuttle a couple of vehicles to the end point so that there would be enough cars there when we finished. It wouldn’t have taken long, but one of the newcomers needed to spot one at around seven or so miles, and we weren’t prepared to do that.

Steamtown NHS image at Eddy Creek Breaker

It ended up taking over an hour longer than we anticipated it would because of the shuttling around and having to use the back streets rather than the fast freeway.

Old narrow gauge bridge

Still, we managed to get my van and Captain Soup’s car to the end point, the park and ride on Meredeth Street, and then headed back to our start point.
When we finally got walking, we made our way past the supermarket, out back, and directly into the woods. Matt and knew exactly where he was going.
We soon were among the concrete rubble remains of the Olyphant power plant. There was some sort of grade, maybe a siding to reach the power plant, still in back that we walked briefly.

Narrow gauge bridge

We also walked over the later D&H main line which is still in service today.

We climbed up some of the concrete ruins to have a look around. It looks like it was just imploded on itself using machinery. There were a couple little spots we could still get in.

Narrow gauge bridge

One of the coolest parts was that there was still a big piece of concrete that read “Olyphant Power Plant” still on it. I believe the date was 1917. We continued through the ruins from here and reached the edge of the Lackawanna River atop a slope. I started walking up stream atop a slope that might have been another grade, but I’m not sure, heading kind of east. It turned out I was going the wrong way, and Matt steered me back in the correct direction. The plan was to see the old narrow gauge rail bridge first.

Narrow gauge bridge

The bridge referred to was one to get small cars across the Lackawanna River, presumably from breaker to power plant or something. I’m not really sure the details or the alignments of all of this. There are so many generations of the coal industry located in any one location for this that I can’t begin to keep track.
We climbed steeply down a slope to the right, to the edge of the river, then had a reasonably good path heading up stream.

Wonderland Bridges

The path took us to the narrow gauge bridge, and we climbed to the top to have a look. Justin went out on the thing. It was really in bad shape, with the metal all warped.

Wonderland bridge

I had been to this point on hikes twice before, but never continued with the series we were working on. I honestly didn’t know much about the area until getting on line later.
Once we’d had a good look, we were on our way along the grade above the Lackawanna River again, heading to the east. Even if we crossed the river at the old narrow gauge bridge, it wasn’t likely we could trace the gravity line up hill at the plane site because of houses being built over much of it. We’d heave to go to the east.

At Olyphant end

The next point of interest were “The Wonderland Bridges”. I’m not sure where this term comes from. They were the later Delaware and Hudson standard gauge railroad line’s construction from 1904 and 1906. Each carried two tracks. Matt would probably know more than me with regard to why two were build so identically.
Some of the group went and crossed the active bridge because the abandoned one was in such deplorable shape. Many of the ties were gone, but not as bad as the narrow gauge.

Wonderland bridge

We might have crossed the narrow gauge bridge, but just about all of the ties had been removed from it, making travel pretty treacherous.
The Wonderland bridge abandonment at least still had rails on one section of it.
Justin decided to go for a climb up the one of them, using the bolts for grip. My hands started sweating watching him go up the thing. Once he was a ways up, there was a disturbance in the edge of the truss that made climbing further tougher, so he came back down.

Wonderland bridges

Once we were on the other side, we were all looking at our maps. Matt was using the regular map style things, and I was using my cell phone shots of my KMZ google file.

Wonderland bridges

We determined that we had to leave the D&H tracks, and turn right to get up hill for the old gravity line.
We turned to the right for a bit onto Valley Avenue, Rt 347. We turned to the left when we got to Spruce Street we turned to the left.
We headed up hill, and I thought the first cross street might have been the gravity line because there were disturbances in the hills, but it was higher.

"Hansel" image, 1880s

We made our way up hill, and the road at the top was Gravity Avenue. This was the original route of the railroad.
There was a guy walking down the street, who was befuddled to see all of these people walking along. When he asked what we were doing, we engaged in a good discussion about the railroad. He pointed down the road at the former crest of the inclined plane we were referring to, and told us something about when they were kids, they were “riding the gravity” in their cars. He wasn’t old enough to have experienced the actual rail line, but it goes to show that the terminology associated with it lives on. In fact, there is no one left alive that would actually remember the gravity line at this point. They’d have to be over 120 years old!
We turned to the left to follow the route along the road heading to the east. There were some nice views into the Lackawanna Valley to the north between the houses as we walked.

Tracing the gravity

The route remained rather easy to follow on the road heading to the east, but that wouldn’t last. It headed off across the intersection with Park Street adjacent to the Olyphant police department. We were able to keep walking straight, but all of the land over there had been obliterated. There was no sign of where the railroad was, just a grassy graded slope most of the way ahead here.
We headed down hill a bit to the area of an apartment building, and then a fenced in area to the north. We had to circumnavigate the fence and appear on the other side in the open field.

Tracing the gravity

Eric went around on the road, and then came back to us via an ATV trail that headed back up.

View from the gravity line

This big open area was reportedly the historic location of the Grassy Island Breaker. This reportedly dated back to 1865. It was a nice walk along the slope heading to the east, and soon was ATV paths which went up and down hill, out toward the western end of Upper North Valley Ave. We followed it to that road and continued to the east a bit.
Somewhere in this area the line turned to the north to cross the Lackawanna River.

The gravity line

I knew the location for the crossing was at the Blakely Borough Recreation Complex, but we needed to figure out a way of getting down there.
I knew there was a pedestrian bridge roughly where the gravity line crossed, but we’d have to go around the developed areas as not to be in people’s back yards.
The aerial images I was using looked similar to Condella Park to the west, and I initially started leading everyone there. We needed to go down this way anyway, but it was back further than I was intending to.

View from the gravity line

We turned left onto Sanko Drive, to Valley Avenue, and turned to the left. We continued only a short distance to the intersection with Northpoint Drive, and turned to the right, but only briefly. A path led down hill from here and then over the still active former D&H tracks, then into the south side of Condella Park.
The Lackawanna River Heritage Trail skirted the southern end of the park here, and went into the woods to the right.

Searchin

At the time, I still thought this was the park that the gravity line went through, so we instead headed to the west side of the park, then north. There was a paved pathway at the far end that I thought was built on the gravity line, so we walked to the north on it a bit.
‘When we got to where there was a little more shade, and I was able to study the aerial images a bit better, I was able to say that it was definitely NOT the gravity line, and we needed to continue to the east.

Condella Park

It was a good thing we went this way anyway, because it was much prettier walking to the north, soon along the south shore of the Lackawanna River. The trail continued to the east.
While we walked, I saw a building through the trees across the river, which I thought might have been a station or freight house for the New York, Ontario, and Western's Scranton Branch. It had that sort of shape for it. This area on the opposite side was Peckville, and the Peckville O&W station still stands to the east, so I’m not sure.

A station or something?

We continued walking along a very pleasant section of the river, which had exercises stations along it. This looks like it used to be a railraod bed, but it wasn’t. It was just some sort of flood protection berm built in later years. The O&W line was just on the opposite side.
We continued walking on the pleasant path to the east until we got to the foot bridge that carries the Lackawanna Heritage Trail across.

Walking the trail

It was near this point that the Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad used to cross over the river. I had never seen remnants of the bridge, nor did I really bother to look for them.

D&H Gravity bridge abutment

Newcomer to Metrotrails Adam Budney is very familiar with the railroad history of the entire area, and said he knew exactly where the remains of the bridge were.

North abutment site

We followed him up hill, away from the bridge to the right, and up to the active former D&H Railroad tracks. On the opposite side, there was the abutment to the gravity railroad trestle.
I was amazed to see it in such fine shape. The north abutment to the bridge was gone, but there is a giant mound where it would have been. It must have been obliterated with the subsequent expansion of the standard Delaware and Hudson line.

D&H gravity abutment

Below, along the side along Lackawanna River, there is a remnant of an abutment for the gravity railroad in plain sight, among the Rhododendron trees.
When we were above, I noted that there was also another abutment, just the base of one, a bit to the east. Both the loaded and unloaded tracks of the gravity line used to cross the Lackawanna River at about the same location right next to each other. The loaded track was probably the one with the less prominent abutments, and the big one appears to be the unloaded track.

Bridge abutment?

Plane #22, previously known as “Plane F” was a short plane on the unloaded track that carried the line up hill across the river. The loaded track must have continued on a higher trestle above the area and on to the north, because it too went up Plane #24 to the north (note that the numbers of the planes go up from unloaded to loaded track at the terminus. At this point, we had visited already plane 23). On the north side of the river within the park, there was some stacked block that almost looked like a bridge abutment, but probably wasn’t.
The O&W Scranton Branch was also along the river here, and the gravity crossed it.

Unloaded track Plane #22 historic image.

We had a look around, and then decided to continue on ahead. We tried to walk the loaded track historic route based on what my map said, but there were fences in the way.

Former city hall

We ended up having to cut to the right and walk more of the active recreation park, adjacent to the ball fields to the east. It was a good thing no one came with their dog, because dogs are not allowed in this park at all, yet another one in the ongoing list of parks that are banning them.
A lady walked with Matt and I as we led the way to the east. She was interested in what we were going, and we thought we almost had a recruit. She was somewhat interested in why people would travel to this “boring” area to hike.

Former gravity rr route

We were able to cut out of the park and end up on Keystone Avenue, which we had to walk to the north. We couldn’t get anywhere back into the park to trace the gravity line directly.
We made a left on Main Street, Peckville, and I watched for where the gravity railroad used to cross. Along the way, we passed the former town hall building, which probably doubled as a fire house because it had a large bay door along the left side.

Gravity Street, the former railroad

This next section of the gravity line I knew pretty well from attempting to trace it with Jillane a few years ago, I think 2013. Gravity Street to the right is built over it, and we could see out where it should have been back to where the bridge was to the south.
We turned right on Gravity for a short distance, and then turned left again on Keystone. Gravity Street is a dead end, and we’d have to cut across someone’s yard to follow it through.

Wildcat Creek and the old gravity lines

We turned right on Rose Street one block away, and then walked that to the end where there is a foot bridge over the Wildcat Creek, which is withheld in a concrete flume throughout this town for flood control. The unloaded track of the gravity railroad sort of followed this route roughly, heading to the east. The loaded track crossed over top of it at a higher level at the base of Plane #24, which was also known as Plane E. We paused for a moment while I pointed out where it all used to be, and one abutment still in place.

Bridge site at the base of Plane #24

We walked along the north side of Wildcat Creek to the former bridge site, which had the same kinds of blocks for the abutments as the previous bridges we had seen.
The area ahead was a little tough because we had to get up hill, but the gravity line went right into someone’s back yard, and only one little spot could be climbed where we would come out at Virginia Avenue without being in the next back yard.

Gravity RR abutment

I saw the best spot, because a street sign came into view, and started climbing up through the weeds. Not everyone wanted to do that, and then went through people’s yards anyway.

The north abutment of the gravity railroad bridge at Wildcat Creek

Once everyone was up the hill, I had to try to figure out the best way to go. The gravity railroad’s plane ahead parallels the west side of a cemetery, which does not have an access from above. We’d have to go left or right to get to the next bit of the railroad.
I decided we’d be best off keeping to the west because when I was last at this point, there was new development going on, and the access I’d used with Jillane that time may no longer be open. We could simply head up hill and follow a power line from above back to the site.

Plane #24

The bridge abutment end was clearly evident in the people’s back yard as we walked by on Virginia Avenue. We continued just a bit further, and former Plane #24 was as obvious.

Historic photo of Plane #24, aka Plane E.

The gravity railroad apparently was on a high fill from the Lackawanna River all the way out to Plane #24, and most of the fill was removed when the streets were laid out over it.

Plane #24

We walked to the left on Virginia Ave past the plane site, and then made the first right up Delaware Street, which was parallel with the route.

Power line access walking

At the top, we turned left on Union Street a short bit, then turned right on Ontario Street. We couldn’t go straight through the woods to stay on the gravity line because a house was built over it.
As we walked the road up hill, we soon crossed the long forgotten Riverside Branch of the O&W Railroad, which went through people’s yards. This line closely parallels the gravity railroad in the section ahead, but we still couldn't access here.

Power line walk

While Matt had his map, and I had my KMZ aerial imager, Russ was further complimenting our work by using his own open street map files on his phone, and he was able to identify this one faster than both Matt and I.
We continued up hill from here to the end of Ontario Street (probably named after the O&W line), and continued out onto the power line clearing. I had to pee so terribly badly by the time we got there that I thought I was going to explode. I dashed ahead to the nearest woods with reasonable coverage.

Rail grade crossing

Once everyone had caught up, we started heading down the power line, which offered a rather interesting view down into the valley, so I was glad we took it.

D&H Gravity line

As we descended, we came to the first old rail grade. As it turned out, there were actually three right at about the same point! The O&W line had a junction roughly where the power line is, or just to the west of it according to the maps on my KMZ file, with one heading northeast to I believe it was the Raymond Breaker. The second grade down the hill would have been the D&H Gravity, which was clear to the west, and a bit overgrown to the east.

I started trying to walk the gravity route into the woods to the left, but it was kind of tough. Everyone followed me, but we soon walked down hill through the woods to walk the closely parallel O&W Railroad Riverside Branch.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it at the time, but we definitely should have backtracked through the woods to the crest of the Plane #25. There probably would have been some cool ruins. I guess I was too anxious to move on ahead and see more. We continued to the east a bit, on the O&W.

Russ standing on the gravity line pointing east

The old gravity line remained closer to new development to the north of the O&W. We could often see the line, but only in a few places could we actually get up on it, just to have a look. It made more sense to stay on the O&W Riverside Branch.
Even the Riverside Branch would prove to be a problem to stay on, because some of that was developed over at the very edge due to a somewhat new housing development.

O&W Riverside Branch

When Jillane and I hiked some of these branches in the past, these developments were still under construction, and I figured we’d never get on any of this again. Fortunately, only a little bit of it was encroached upon. We turned to the right when the rail bed started getting really obliterated, and followed a bit of a path to the south. We were parallel with a little stream, and then crossed over to access a utility clearing, which to a degree followed the unloaded track of the D&H Gravity just to the west. We continued on the route east.

Power line excursion

We didn’t have to walk all that far before getting to the O&W grade again. It wasn’t in that terrible shape compared to the previous time there. Some of the fill was a bit wrecked, especially heading into the nearby back yard, but from here to the south it was quite fine. We even saw another couple out there walking on it.
We turned to the right to follow the Riverside Branch to the south. The last time I was there I followed the power line from the top, and some guy gave us dirty looks like he didn’t want us there.

O&W Riverside Branch

The area of woods to the northeast of us was where the loaded track of the gravity railroad went, but we could not see really anything of it. It passes through an inaccessible swath of trees on private land between two development roads I understand.
The swath of trees was the historic site of Plane #25 on the line.
The unloaded track went kind of parallel with it to the south a bit. Somewhere in this area was the historic location of the Riverside Breaker, but not exactly sure what we were looking for.

O&W Riverside Branch

We simply followed the O&W line south out to South Main Street in Archbald where we turned to the right. The town was named for the engineer that took over on the D&H gravity line after Johnathan Jervis resigned. He was responsible for the expansion around 1844 which included his namesake town.
The O&W branch continued ahead to a junction with their Scranton Branch, which makes up much of Lackawanna Heritage Trail today in sections both to the north and the south.

Historic image of the O&W at the junction with the Riverside Branch

We did a group shot just before leaving the O&W grade, and followed the street looking for suitable places we might stop for a lunch break.

The group on the Riverside Branch

The unloaded track just to the east went onto Plane #21, also known as Plane C, and crossed the Lackawanna River. The loaded track was just parallel by a block or two with Main Street.

Historic image of the workings in Archbald, from Minisink Historical Society

It was starting like we wouldn’t find anywhere good to eat. We passed a Quinn’s Market, which I should have gotten a photo of James with. We just weren’t passing anything along the lines of what we were looking for until we were almost out of town.

Historic Archbald image with the foot bridge that served from 1880s until 1942

I pointed out along the way where the O&W Scranton Branch used to be on the opposite side of the Lackawanna River, and as we were looking, someone found our lunch spot.

O&W bridge site

Barrett’s Pub along the main street has been a favorite eatery on past hikes through this area. This would be the third time the Metrotrails group had visited this place.
We were seated at the exact same spot we were on the previous two trips to the place, but this time our group was larger than the previous two times. We had tables way out into the middle of the bar stacked together, but they were happy to have us.

In Barrett's Pub

This was one of the best lunch stops we’d had in a very long time, and that’s saying a lot because we have some pretty good stops on these hikes!

The gravity line seen above homes in Archbald

I had a special chicken sandwich of the day type of thing, which was good, but after seeing what other people got I wished I’d gotten something else.
While we were waiting, we were treated, to all of our surprise, to an entire pie of pizza for an appetizer! The waitress was wonderful and so welcoming, and we ended up with this excellent pizza. I ended up having other little things from everyone else too, so I was by no means still hungry. Actually too stuffed.

HEAVY!

While we were waiting, their generosity continued when our waitress brought out tee shirts of their bar, and had trivia questions to ask the group to name who wins the shirts.
One of the questions was asking who in the group knows more about railroads. That was a tough one with this group! First, we had Russ and Ewa, who are both administrators for the abandoned rails facebook page. Next, we have Pete Wilcox, who’s been looking into local rail history to a great degree, and covering much of the obscure stuff alone on his bicycle. Also, we had Adam, our newcomer, who is quite prodigious of the history of the lines in the area. Dan Trump too has good knowledge of the area railroads, so it was definitely a very conscious group in that regard! I think we let that question go!
Other questions included who had traveled the farthest one way for the hike. I may be wrong, but I think Captain Soup won that one. I don’t even remember what the rest of the trivia questions were.

Supposedly Plane #26

When it came time for us to leave, we got other stuff comped for us as well. This was just a fantastic place to eat, and we’ll recommend it to everyone for certain.

Plane #26 bridge site today

We headed north on Main Street to a right turn on Gilmartin Street. From there, we had to turn left on Lackawanna Heritage Trail, which follows the old O&W Scranton Branch.

Plane 26

The gravity line’s loaded track was still on the opposite side of the Lackawanna River, higher up on the slope. It crossed over a bit further to the north, at the base of Plane $26. I watched closely as we walked to make sure I could find the site of it.
While we walked Craig gave me something spectacular, right before we turned on the plane.
It was an IPA called “Molotov Heavy” by Evil Twin Brewing. I had never had this thing before, but I wouldn’t soon forget this 17.2% ABV yummy brew.

Plane #26

The drink apparently comes from Copenhagen, Denmark. I will have to look it up for sure.

Plane 26

After a little walking, I saw where the plane would have gone up to the right. Some of the grade was quite recognizable. When I saw that, the remains of the abutment on the far side of Lackawanna River also was apparent.
I had already walked most of this plane before, from up at the later D&H tracks just above. We had hiked down this and plane 27, then hiked the light track right of way back into Archbald on the previous trip. This time, we’d go all the way from the bottom to the top and continue on the route.

Door on the plane

There is an historic photo reportedly of Plane 26, but it also seems to have an overhead bridge on top of it, or maybe it was another bridge behind it. If that was the case, I thought it might have been plane 22 further to the west, since both loaded and unloaded tracks crossed close together, but looking closely it is probably 26. |
I’m just not sure what the infrastructure is, but it’s very interesting.

Plane 26

We started walking up hill through the former plane, then crossed the active D&H tracks, and continued up hill on the plane. Everything was about how I remembered it on the way up, including a weird door secured to a tree for no particular reason.
We continued to the top of 26, and then those of us most interested in the line paused to start looking around for ruins of the infrastructure. Others continued up ahead on Plane 27.

Plane 26

This plane was not like the ones we had seen on the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk, or even the Pennsylvania Coal Company gravity line. There was very little in terms of remnants to see at the top. Based on what I’d seen elsewhere, I saw what might have been a reservoir site. I didn not immediately see what might have been the power house site, until after seeing some of the historic photos which meant that it might have been a cut we found.

Historic image of Plane 26

At the very top of the slope was what appeared to be an underpass of sorts. We found what we thought to be wreckage of the abutments, just at the crest of the plane.

Perhaps a power house site?

I wonder if maybe the site we came across might have been either the power house or older infrastructure. Planes 26 and 27 were the original Planes B and A in the 1848 terminus.

Box culvert

There was some kind of foundation below the grade to the northwest of us, and a house appears in the historic photo. I wonder if it was a plane tender’s house of sorts. The railroad would have kept such a tenant on site.
We headed down from the grade to check out an old stone box culvert below the right of way also. I wondered if it might have something to do with the function of the plane, but at this point I can’t be sure. Pete managed to crawl into it a bit, and I guess it went in a good ways.

Roebling Cable

We climbed back up to the plane, and continued to walk. We then came across an old piece of plane cable, which I had seen the previous time I was up there.

Plane 27

Someone said something about it maybe being Roebling cable, but I wasn't sure if they had manufactured any of this stuff. Of course, they did, we now know. This was the cable that replaced the original hemp ropes that were used for the job.
Some springs flowed down through the plane grade as we ascended a bit at the start of Plane 27. This one went through a bit of a cut, then onto a shelf like the previous one, and then reached an even more dramatic cut.

On the plane

An ATV path went around to the left, but the rail grade continued up through quite an impressive cut. Russ and I stopped to admire the depth of the thing about mid way.
After the cut, the rail bed disappeared for a time into a power line clearing. The rest of the group that had gone ahead were waiting for us there.
I had walked this section once before on a hike a few years back with Matt and others.

Plane 27 cut

On that one, we wandered down along the edge of Moosic Mountain, through to Aylesworth Lake, and crossed the gravity railroad route a few times rather than actually tracing it directly.

Plane 27 cut

It was almost a sort of after through to try to walk down the planes we walked this time, toward the end of the trip.

Plane 27 cut

On that one, we had gone to the nearest underpass below Route 6, which was Hudson Street to the north. Again, we were not really trying to follow the gravity line closely at the time.
We regrouped at the power line, and I could just make out where the grade came across it and wasn't completely obliterated.
We went up hill slightly and picked up the access road that goes to the north back to Hudson Street, and then I soon saw the old rail grade to the right of it, partially cut away.

Plane 27 cut

There were chain link fences blocking the way to get over toward Rt 6, but they were low enough in some areas for us to just step over top of them.
We made our way out toward the edge of Rt 6, where there was a grassy slope. We wouldn't have to cross all lanes of traffic at once because there was a median. Seeing the road in the morning during the drive, I figured it wouldn't be that unsafe to try to dash across.

Cut to the left

It wasn't really that busy when we got there, and crossing would be easy. We dashed across and made our way into the woods on the other side. The only problem was the fences. There were more of those chain link fences on the opposite side, and they were higher. I didn't want us to be seen crossing in that area, but we couldn't just get right over them easily. I walked along the edge of them until it got lower, as it did on the other side, and we all were able to get across.

Where the railroad crossed the power line

The railroad bed on this side was much more obliterated. It was probably used for highway construction, or Aylesworth Lake construction, or both, so it was much altered.
It at first had debris on it, looking like it was to block vehicles from moving through. It was wider than previous sections. For this reason I questioned whether we were on the right route, but then it got narrower and passed through some little cuts, and I knew.

Gravity line near Rt 6

While walking this section, Russ showed in his open street map I think it was that the gravity line had been put on the map, so we could fall back on him to keep us exactly on where it used to be as we continued to the north.

On the gravity line below Aylesworth Lake

The grade seemed to disappear just ahead, and there was a giant rock cut south of the larger cut that served as a spillway for Aylesworth Creek Lake.
The lake here was created as a flood control measure jointly between the towns of Archbald and Mayfield. We climbed down into the rocky cut that seemed to obliterate the rail grade, and followed it east for a bit. We then climbed back up into a cleared and disturbed area that had been used as a dump.

The gravity line

There were all sorts of old appliances and such laying around. We carefully walked through and came out along a clear woods road where we could regroup again.

Cut near Aylesworth Lake

From the intersection of woods roads, the gravity line followed the clear and prominent one for only a few moments. When that road turned down hill to the left, where everyone seemed inclined to go, the rail bed continued straight into a weedier, but still passable route.
We continued walking along as the rail bed took us further onto the western edge of the Moosic Mountain. We passed through lovely Rhododendron understory, and soon reached a former crossing site of the Aylesworth Creek.

Junk yard stuff on the rail bed

There were no remnants of a bridge whatsoever that we could find; it must have been a simple wooden structure.
In some of the areas ahead, the rail bed got really wet and required everyone to either walk along the sides, or through like I did.
We continued ahead a little bit more, and came to the most obscure section of the right of way on the entire Moosic Mountain section.

Where the rail bed leaves a road

The rail bed disappeared into a thicket of Rhododendrons, but there was an ATV path, which I think is designated Old Mining Road #3, which went down hill from it. It joins up with the right of way just ahead, but I still wanted to stay as closely as I could to being right on it.
I started bullying through the mess, and I forget who but someone was crazy enough to try to follow me. I didn't get that far when I realized there was really nothing at all left of the shelf the rail line would have been on.

The rail bed

It was either plowed into the mountain or rock slides had obscured it.
I bushwhacked from whatever was left of the grade down hill to the left to pick up the mining road #3. We watched the hillside to the right for clues of the old rail bed coming back in, and I think were were able to make something out before it joined.
It got to be a bit more pleasant and easy for a while from here, following along the edge of a shelf on the mountain, with rocks higher above us.

Old bridge site

There was a nice little cascade to the left, and we stated passing through some pleasant Hemlock forest.
We started heading into another wetland, and the path started going around to the left. It was obvious the rail bed went right on through. I think this was a beaver inundation. I decided to just walk across it and wait for everyone else on the other side as they tried to get around it. I didn't want everyone going all that far ahead at this point in case we came upon some sort of survivalist's camp.

Flooded rail bed

The last time we walked through this site, we crossed the D&H Gravity line while following a power line clearing ahead.

The rail bed

here were a whole lot of people partying back in these woods that we didn't want to have to have a discussion with. They were all hanging out on the rail grade drinking and carrying on with loud music.
If it weren't enough that they were hanging out, I also had spotted a Confederate flag.
Once everyone was together, Matt and I briefed them on where we were walking to, in case we came across anyone.

Little waterfall

Once we started walking and got to the camp site, I was surprised to see no one there. We could hear some ATVs so I thought for sure someone would show up, but no one did.

The rail bed

There were tables and a fire pit, with a little bit of junk laying around, and then an American flag on display which was much nicer to see.
We walked on and crossed the power line area, then continued ahead on a much easier route. Old Mining Road #3 has overtaken the old railroad grade from here almost to our end point.The entire last section of the hike through this expanse of lands was really laid back and fun.

The rail bed

Craig related to us the story of a date he'd had that where he was referred to as a "heartless robot", and Justin made some comment about how he should have said "heartless SEX ROBOT", in some hilarious context that I could not contain myself or even breathe, and collapsed into a heap of worthlessness.

Camp area

There was some sort of sign on the final stretch that read that we were "on camera" with some misspelling. I figure they're mostly trying to keep ATV riders out, but fortunately we didn't run into anyone anyway. We weren't really off of the public land to the north for very long anyway.

Mining Rd #3, the rail bed

Just as we reached near the end, we walked off to the right, where there was an overlook toward the Carbondale area. We got done with the hike far sooner than I'd anticipated we would, but pretty much did the entire route as I had scaled it off on the maps, save for a few side trips that went a bit further like at the power line, and to the Condella Park near the beginning.

View toward Carbondale

The access road took us out directly across Rt 6 from Meredeth Street. We easily crossed on the overpass to reach the park and ride area.

The gravity line

The gravity railroad crossed over directly, and the unloaded track was just parallel with the loaded, and down slope from where we were. I believe it was parallel with us right from the power line crossing at the encampment, but that it moved off at about that point.
Ahead, both loaded and unloaded tracks go onto private watershed land or something that we're not able to walk. They split just beyond, and the loaded track takes us down into Carbondale on a route that is more easily walked.

Aylesworth Creek

The next section hike we'll do will cover the the portion in through Carbondale, and to Shepherd's Crook, a sharp turn on the earliest portion of the line between Carbondale and Honesdale. I think much of the group is keen on attending that one after the fun and interest in this one.
With only two vehicles to get us back, we would test the capacity limit of both my mini van and Captain Soup's car. We managed to cram eleven hikers into the mini van, and could smell the breaks burning up on the slope as we made our way back down into Dickson City!
It was such a fun time, it seemed like no one really wanted to go home.

Carpool

Fortunately, there is so much more to come, in this and every other series we continue with.

HAM