Hike #1136; Simpson to Prompton State Park

Hike #1136; Simpson to Prompton State Park (D&H Part 4)

6/23/18 Simpson to Prompton State Park with Matthew Davis, Russ Nelson, Ewa Wdzieczak-Smering, Daniel Trump, Jennifer Tull, Anne ?, Timothy Kovich, James Quinn, Captain Soup (David Campbell), Diane Reider, Traci Vicaro, Kevin P. Gora, and Justin Gurbisz

The O&W

Our next trek would be the third in the series on the Delaware and Hudson, and another piece of the gravity railroad built in 1829 to bring coal from the Lackawanna River Valley to the Delaware and Hudson Canal at Honesdale.
When we last left off, we reached the series of inclined planes which carried five ton coal cars over the Mossic Mountain using stationary steam engines. We had walked from Carbondale area up to that point on the loaded track, and then returned on the light track that was added to the system around 1866.

O&W line

Matt and I discussed what to do for this one in order to get back to where we left off, and it seemed like it would be a good idea to overlap the last hike and visit some waterfalls that Matt had mentioned as a potential side trip on the previous one. We could follow the light track right of way from that point back to where we left off on the loaded track and continue east.
We planned for the hike to end in Prompton State Park, a side trip at the end.

O&W

There are good trails along the edge of the reservoir there that would make for a good route to parking, and we could use the parking for the model airplane flying at the north side of the park as the meeting point.
Matt, Justin, and I carpooled up in my van by way of a longer route that would showcase some of the stuff from the upcoming hikes in this series, and turned up to Prompton. We ran a little late, but not too bad.

O&W

From there, we shuttled to the town of Simpson and parked along the O&W Rail Trail parking, former Scranton Branch of the New York, Ontario, and Western.

I had walked this section once before as part of a 30 mile loop we'd done a few years ago. The plan would be to follow the O&W line north to Panther Creek, and then follow the creek up stream to the end of Shepherd's Crook, a long roundabout route first used by the light track of the gravity ralroad, and then reused by the locomotive railroad in 1899 when the gravity was abandoned.
We started walking north on the O&W, which was pleasant and easy. The group got pretty spread out until we got to the Panther Creek crossing. At that point, we'd have to start going off trail up the ravine.

Falls

The route up was not exactly what I was expecting. The little cascades along the way were far more slippery than I had been expecting. Every bit of them were covered with mosses and such. It wasn't too bad at first because there were no deadly falls to take, but as we continued to climb, it got tougher. I was just walking up the center of the stream, and those following me to do that probably had it easier than those trying to stay to the side. As the chasm got deeper and the slopes on either side rockier, it was a chore to climb.

Steep

It kept getting steeper and the waterfalls got larger until the largest one came in view at the top. Just below the very top was a purged old masonry dam. I didn't know it right away, but this dam was at the very end of the switchback built in 1899 when the locomotive railroad took over much of the right of way of the light gravity line.

Old dam ruins

Matt suggested that it was perhaps a watering station for the locomotives boilers, which is a logical suggestion considering the long and steep ascent when coming up from Carbondale area.

Panther Creek Falls

There was a really tough spot near the upper end of the dam, where I had to crawl on my hands and knees around the masonry to to get out to the top. Dan took a fall at the top of it that scared the crap out of me, because a fall back could easily spell death. A slide over the lower falls would not end well.

We all continued out to the old ralroad grade's end and continued to the former north end of Shepherd's Crook. This time, Russ watched closely where the loop of the old gravity railroad should have been, and he determined that it had been mined away. I originally thought that some of the mapping I had been following was incorrect, but now I think Russ is probably right.

Historic image at Shepherd's Crook

At the point where the gravity railroad had it's hard turn, I turned to the left to follow that again through the deep rock cut. Much of the group followed the 1899 locomotive track right of way from here.

Shepherd's Crook today

I had to climb off of the thing when there was one washout spot, and then I got to where another historic photo of the crook had been taken. I wanted to try to match up another one, and I think I got it about dead on again, though it wasn't as interesting as the one I'd gotten the previous time.
We continued south on the right of way heading toward the loaded track crossing and water company property, and I noticed along the way that there appeared to be two rights of way. The 1899 locomotive track appeared to be separate from the earlier gravity track in more places than we realized previously, and Russ tended to agree with me on it. When I got to looking at my KMZ file Google Earth overlay later on, it seems to support this theory.

D&H Marker

Also on this section, Matt said that Mike Guzzi mentioned there were concrete posts that read "D&H" on them, and that only one remained. Ewa and Russ ended up finding several of them with their keen eyes. They have such an amazing eye for it; I didn't find a single one, but they spotted probably seven or so between the two of them.
James met up with us where #7 Road crosses the right of way. He parked off to the side, and we hurried across to follow the rail grade into the woods, toward the loaded track at Plane #6 at the foot, but the head of plane 5. There was once a runaround track that connected the loaded to the unloaded tracks on the southeast side of the crossing.

Plane 6

We walked up the plane of the loaded track heading east, and there was a bit of a cut to the left of us. At one point I wasn't sure which spot was the plane, but it turned out we were on the correct route. When we got to what should have been the head of Plane 6, there was just about no masonry remants at all. This continues to surprise me, because the Pennsylvania Coal Company Gravity Line has a lot of ruins. It makes me wonder if they decided to try to reuse these stones for something else. I'm not sure.

Plane 7

Planes 2 through 8 were all pretty much consecutive. 2 was a short one we didn't visit, 3 was one we walked up from the light track after Carbondale, 4 was at the location of the Racket Brook Breaker, and 5 went up to near where we turned on the gravity line this time. We followed Plane 6 to the top, and we came to where it went over the #7 Road. There was a gate in the road there where it went onto water company lands, and we could see the right of way, but we kept to the right of it to keep out of sight. We got to #7 Road, closed to traffic at this point, and went to the right on it heading up hill parallel with the #7 plane. After a little while, the road and the plane became one, and it was obvious we were on the grade.
We reached the top of #7 plane, and #8 is a little further, near the crest of the Moosic Mountain. It's kind of confusing in this area, because one would assume that the loaded track would just coast down the Moosic Mountain's east side by gravity, but it was just too steep. The breaking mechanisms in the five ton ore cars were not good enough to make the descent (which is why something like Shepherd’s Crook was created), and so the cars had to be lowed by way of the remaining planes.

Reservoir

The #8 Plane has an old song or something about it that the work day began when the bell tolls on the #8 Plane.
Maybe because of this, and because it was at about the highest point used by the gravity line, this might have been a sort of control center for the gravity line.
As we continued on the #7 Road, I saw it coming up to a house area. We probably would have been fine walking by ahead, but I was concerned that we might have a problem. Rather than walk by the only house along the way up there,

Light gravity track right of way

I decided we would try to circumnavigate this area. There was a path that went ot the south just a bit further back, and I decided we could try to follow that.
The old woods road went into the lands to the south of the rail beds, and got to be a little overgrown. We passed an abandoned car along the way, but not really any signs of people. We came to the intersection of another old woods road, and then turned to the left, heading down hill to the #7 Reservoir. When I got to the dam, I jumped right in. We had had quite a workout already, and I was happy to cool off.

Old 1829 right of way

From here, the plan was to turn right and follow the woods road along the outflow of this to reach the old Honesdale Branch and the earlier light track of the gravity line again. It didn't take long before we got to a grade, but the problem was Dan's Open Street Map app was showing that were were still too far north for it. Russ intervened saying that it could be slightly off, and that what we were standing on certainly looked like the railroad bed. Someone argued that the open street maps are typically pretty accurate, but then Russ said "Well it could be a little off...I put it in there". It turned out the track on the Open Street Map was added by Russ himself!
As we walked a little further, it turned out everyone was right. Another rail right of way was soon reached by way of the rail bed we followed. I suggested that this was the later locomotive railroad again, the Honesdale Branch, and that what we had been following was the right of way of the light track, which sometimes differ as mentioned before. I checked it later, and this was in fact the case. We continud across the Honesdale Branch on the light track right of way, and the two of them came back together after a short bit. We also entered a bit of state forest land along the way, so it was publicly accessible.

This was probably more the 1899 Honesdale Branch

The right of way went somewhat near some homes to the south, but for the most part remained pretty secluded. It went out onto a power line for a brief time, and then continued into a cut as we neared Rt 6. The light track and the Honesdale Branch deviate at many little points, and we saw a lot of stuff that could be evidence of it, but just can't be sure.
Route 6 in this area is actually built on the original 1829 route of the loaded track, abandoned in 1844. We got out to 6, climbed up and over, and then went down into the right of way on the other side. The cut was substantial enough that it was probably the Honesdale Branch.

Following mostly the light track and Honesdale Branch here

Additionally, the 1844 loaded track right of way comes down and joins in this area, at the base of what was Plane 9. From the Rt 6 crossing, in the section parallel with it and out to the jail property ahead, we were walking a confusing section that had separate rights of way for the 1829 loaded track, the 1844 loaded track, the 1866 light track, and the 1899 Honesdale Branch. It seemed like we went north and south quite a bit in this tight little section of woods. The grade closest to Rt 6, I noticed, was partially eroded out, but obviously a man made thing. We've sort of informally been following the 1844 loaded track as a rule for this series. It makes the most sense because it was in use the longest and saw the D&H through it's heyday when the canal was also in service. That time period also makes sense because it aligns with the re-alignments of the D&H Canal as well. So many re-alignments really speak to the importance of this transportation route.

Historic image of D&H Gravity Plane 20

We emerged next to a farm property on a road by the jail, which connects the Carbondale Road with Rt 6. This was the top of side by side Plane 10 on the loaded track and 20 on the light track. They ran side by side down the hill, and Planes 11 and 19 started after a very brief level below. This was once a famous park location on the gravity line.

Farview Station

The later locomotive railroad built in 1899 continued to the south, and went quite a long distance around the current jail property. It's amazing the distance it went to eliminate the need for the planes.
The area of today’s jail was a popular tourist destination during the days of the railroad. When passengers began using the gravity line, the D&H constructed Farview Station here. It had great views of the surrounding area, and served as a little picnic park for day trippers out of Scranton.

The tower at the Farview park

We crossed the road at the top of the jail property and headed down hill through the grass adjacent to where the planes for loaded and unloaded track were. We then emerged on West Carbondale Road. When we were coming off of the grass, apparently a jail guard went up to Dan and said we had to stay off the grass. We didn't realize we couldn't walk across that, but obviously we couldn't walk across the jail property, so we had to go to the left down Carbondale Road.

Planes 12 and 18

From the road, we could see some of the graded slopes of the planes to our right, as well as some nice views to the north of us over farm lands.
We were able to get back on the former gravity tracks, loaded and light next to each other, at Gravity Planes Road just east of the jail property. We walked the road past a garage, and then made our stop for lunch the Gravity Inn.
This was a great little stop with great food, and the owner came out to talk to us. He told us that the original part of the building was part of an engine house associated with one of the planes.
Waymart can be a confusing area for the planes. With the two tracks, loadd and unloaded side by side, the numbers can really goof us up if we’re not thinking about it.

Gravity Inn

Plane 9 was the top one on the loaded track, parallel with Plane 20 on the light track. We reached the heads of these planes when we were still in the woods, and were already on the descent from the top when we reached the jail property.
Almost side by side, the #10 plane on the loaded track, and the #19 on the light begin. At about this point, the original 1829-1844 D&H Gravity Railroad bed returns to the later alignment, and they continue together much more closely heading to the east.

Planes 10 and 19

Plane 19 on the light track was about the length of both planes 10 and 11 on the loaded track, and they continued side by side for the entire way up and down.

Plane 11

We had a very long lunch break, but it was really a great time. When we left, we had to go back to Carbondale Road because the planes were over private land. The inn was at the level spot with Plane 12 on the loaded track and 18 on the light track to the east, and Plane 11 and 19 behind us. We turned right on that, then right again when we got to Myrtle Street, and we met a friendly cat at someone's house there. We saw where the planes were, now developed over, and continud to Center Street. We should have gone left on Merwin Street, because the planes are now public down from there to the old Waymart Depot.

Planes 12 and 18

The depot was moved from it's original location 150 feet to the south, to here, right along the planes, and they actually have an old passenger car from the planes there.

Today, planes 12 and 18

The station was built in 1857 and sold to the Waymart evolved shortly after the development of the railroad, and the community was until 1840 known as "Weigh Mart", because the coal cars and farm market goods were weighed here.

Planes 12 and 18

At the base of planes 11 and 19, the gravity railroads turned and passed by what is now the Gravity Inn. Planes 12 and 18 run parallel, but the light track’s plane 18 was a bit longer, and the top of it would have been right about where the Gravity Inn is today.

Base of the planes today

There was a replica of a D&H passenger car and a section of rails in place next to the restored station. It would have been nice to have an accurate then and now thing for it, but it’s probably impossible to get where the station was originally situated due to back yards.

The D&H Station in Waymart at original location

The station is now situated on South Street. The tracks used to cross through a yard, and we noted that there was stone laid along the little tributary across the way as well as a driveway that might utilize old railroad abutments there. We turned right on South Street.

Waymart Station

We turned left on Center Street and headed down hill, kind of still thinking we were parallel with planes, but we were not. I’m not sure all what was here, but this section had some stone laid along it, so the railroad was probably up on a slight fill.

Duplicate car

South Street turned to the right where we could make out the grade kind of in the back yards. We headed to the right and turned left on Route 296 out to Carbondale Road.

Planes 12 and 18

The loaded and light tracks crossed this intersection just slightly to the left, not through the center. The Waymart depot was supposedly in this area on the north side. The loaded and light tracks start to diverge here a bit. The loaded continues a bit north more, while the light is just out behind the houses off Honesdale Road. This area might have been where the “high works” in historic pictures of Waymart would have been.

This is said to be "high works" in Waymart...

Before the East Street intersection, the 1899 Honesdale Branch, where it avoids the planes in the roundabout route south of the jail, returns to the older rights of way. However, here it switches from following the light track right of way to the loaded track. This meant that the route we were following most directly should become much more obvious.
We ended up walking Honesdale Road from Waymart headed to the east. The loaded track was to the north of the road and actually went out closer to Rt 6, but it wasn't really convenient for us to follow at that point, so we just kept on Carbondale Road. The light track was off to the left of the road as we went out of town, just behind homes, then crossed the road at a point where we could see the grade.

Plane 17

The light track heads toward Plane 17 outside of Waymart. This section of the light track is now some of the oldest portion of that. The section from Waymart to Honesdale was built in the 1840s, but was not connected to the light track in Carbondale until 1866.

Plane 17

We continued to follow Honesdale Road as to remain close to the loaded track.
Honesdale Road passed through some nice farm lands ahead, and as we neared the Happy Trails Stables on the left, the loaded track right of way came right up to the road. It followed it on the north side directly, so we were able to be on it at times next ot the farm lands. The grading wasn't particularly obvious, and maybe the road was developed over some of it, it's hard to say.

Keene Lake

We remained parallel with the loaded right of way on Keen Lake Road, really the same road with changed names. We got to where we could see Keen Lake to the right, and the loaded track remained close until we got to Keen Lake Camping and Cottage Resort.

In the camp...

The gravity line is now incorporated into it's camp roads, and so we cut through a few sites when it was convenient and walked through on the old line. It was nice to see that they even had a sign denoting that this was the original 1829 gravity line, and there was a street sign naming it Gravity Lane.
We reached the end of some of the camping resort property, and had to go back out to Keen Lake Road, where we went left and crossed an inlet to the lake. To the left, I was surprised to see a beautiful stone arch bridge still in place from the line over the inlet.

Old D&H bridge

We continued across the inlet, and the right of way is used on the other side of the road as another camp area access road. We followed it up and over another handsome stone arch bridge at the outlet of the lake, Van Auken Creek. We couldn't just follow the gravity line beyond this point because it went onto private land, so I went to cross the dam. This involved climbing down a spillway area that was dry, back up to a higher one, and then crossing
a frighting little board over the upper one. Most of the group opted not to follow me on this one, and all went back and around while some of us waited ahead along Keen Lake Road.

Another bridge

The handsome stone arches probably don’t date back to the gravity railroad, or if they do, they date back to the later years of it’s operation. In all likelihood, they are part of the 1899 upgrades for locomotives.

Ties in place

Historic photos of the gravity railroad seem to show the same sites we had walked by, but with older bridges in place rather than what we had seen. They are easily identified using the islands and peninsulas of Keen Lake.

D&H Gravity at Keen Lake by the dam.

Aerial images suggest that there may have at one time been a spur to the east side of the lake from the loaded track. The light track continued on the south side of the lake, and came close to the loaded track again once on the other side.

Historic image of the gravity line at Keene Lake

The loaded track is now part of a private road called Yander Drive beyond where it leaves the camp ground property.

The gravity line at Keene Lake

We walked the road for a little bit from here, and turned right on O'Connell Road, which went to where the gravity line crossed. We couldn't go direct across, but were able to go left on Elk Forest Drive. This was shown as a reglar through public road on the google maps, but it was actually more of a driveway. At the last house, which was well off the grade, the drivable road turned down, and we went straight on the right of way through woods. I was nervous for how this would turn out, because it was obviously not the public road we had seen on the map. It emerged at a private farm area, and we were able to just walk out of it onto Galik Road and turn left. The right of way continues ahead to the former site of a station known as Steene Station. The previous one, Keene Station, was just after the first culvert back at the lake.

Plane 16 passing under the loaded track at Steene

We turned right on Rt 6, and in a short while stopped at Cavage's Country Farm Market for snacks and drinks. I think I got a chocolate milk or something, but we all also got ice cream. For only a couple of dollars, we really got a lot. I had a huge two scoops on my small cone, and Jenny Tull had to specifically order a "baby cone" because it was just so much. Matt told them he couldn't take that much for so little and gave them like three dollars more.

The loaded track

We chatted for a bit there, and then continued on along Rt 6 east.
The loaded track was pretty much inaccessible to the south this time. We might have been able to see it if we'd walked down to it and then came back, but we weren't doing that this time. We opted instead to stay on 6 heading east, and the light track right of way was parallel with us to the north, through yard sand such. While we walked, Matt taunted Captain Soup, which had been a thing pretty much all day. He had given him a beer a while back, but then tried to get him to do ridiculous things for another one as we got closer to the end of the hike.

The captain and his sign

Several of us were making silly suggestions to Captain Soup about what he might do such as walk the next mile with his shirt off, hold my hand for a while, or give me a kiss on the cheek. I believe his response was that he was less gay than he was an alcoholic. Hilarity continued for many miles, and I was actually surprised he didn’t bite on any of the suggestions at all. Matt eventually decided to let up on him when he figured it was too much. I am typically not so kind.
When it looked like the development was over on the north side of the highway, Matt and I went up to try to walk the light track.

Old bridge site

This was a really cool, still well graded section with some nice masonry culvert or bridge remnants in place. One spot was badly washed out, but it soon was recognizable again. We were able to follow it well to the edge of farm fields where it got somewhat obliterated. We bushwhacked a bit and found one more remnant of it before having to descend back to Rt 6.
The others were well ahead of us by this point. We had to walk along 6 a brief bit, and then turned to the right on Creek Drive, Route 170 and followed it to the north. We got a call to make sure we were okay, and all continued on.

Unloaded track bridge site

We made our way to the entrance to Prompton State Park at a facility near their main dam. When we got there, we could see the group splitting ahead. We caught up with Russ and Ewa as well as Justin, Kevin, and Traci, and Russ and Ewa, maybe others, opted to follow the road back. The trail I guess had slightly more elevation, but I found it to be negligible. Matt and I went off trail across the grass and then through the parking lot. At the north end of it, the West Shore Trail, red blazed I think it was, went into the woods and continued north.
I had hoped that the thing would have continued closer to the waterfront, because I probably would have gotten in, but it didn’t.
We went slightly up and down, and over some old stone rows along the way. There were old woods road remnants and such. Overall, this section was pretty relaxing, and I powered on through it. Justin and I arrived at about the same time. Russ and Ewa made pretty good time on the road, and Kevin and Traci didn’t take all that long. James hadn’t been feeling as well lately overall, so he made it back last, but was okay after stopping.

West Shore Trail

This had been yet another very successful and interesting foray into the Delaware and Hudson world. We had a good amount of relaxing walking, some side stuff like the waterfalls and the O&W in the area, as well as Prompton State Park, and a lot of historic sites we were surprised to see.
There were a lot of points I wanted to see that we couldn’t quite get close to, but I can add them to the start of the next trip, and we can caravan do them with vehicles just to see them before we actually start the hike off.

If we can continue the entire series in this vein, they will all continue to be outstanding.

ham