Hike #912; Johnson Trolley Line and More

 Hike #912; Johnson Trolley Line and More

1/30/16 Johnson Trolley Line with Teun Ott, Jennifer Berndt, Neil Washington, Jim K, ?, Carla, Dave Goldberg, ?, Yan ?, David Li, and Corey Kuus

Group shot at TJ's Pizza, Lawrenceville

Our next hike would be a point to point between Trenton and Princeton, another that’s been haunting me for years that I’d never gotten around to: the Johnson Trolley Line.
Some of the old right of way is now a trail, while other parts would be some exploring and back road walking, the right decision with the snow still on the ground.

Historic view of Johnson Trolley Line

Trolleys have always been interesting to me, but never to the extent that other railroads are until more recently.
Trolleys were always a sort of transportation anomaly to me. They were like the eight track tapes of the transportation world. Rather short lived, a slight variation on other forms, and just something a few certain people obsess over. The original roads were about the pioneers, the canals were an engineering marvel, and the standard railroads were the sensible culmination of transportation history before cars. Somewhere between the turn of the century and the Great Depression were the trolley lines, cheap electric passenger buggies on rails connecting urban centers.

Historic trolley lines of Mercer County

I first discovered the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Traction Company’s Johnson Trolley line on a hike in November of 2007, a loop we started out of Pennington to Lawrenceville and back.

Johnson Trolley Line in Lawrenceville on my hike, Nov 2007.

I had not expected to find a rail trail at all on that date, because most of my old railroad maps don’t show anything of the trolley lines. On USGS maps, which I also used, the old ones would show a dashed line through the regular public roads through which they passed, and off road sections similar to standard railroads.
When I saw it, my friend “Amish Paul” Hassler explained to me that it was a rail trail, and a rather long one that went down toward Trenton. I looked into it a bit, but then forgot all about it for a little while until I hiked by again.
Then, in January 2014 I did another Princeton hike and happened upon another piece of the line by accident. I didn’t even realize another trolley came to this part of town, because there was the line that went through what is now Princeton Battlefield State Park and Institute Woods.
I figured this was the same line, but it was not. It was the earlier, and slower line. The Johnson Trolley Line was referred to as “the fast line”, because it sometimes hit over forty miles per hour.

Tree cat in Trenton

The line stretched from West Hanover Street in Trenton to Witherspoon Street in Princeton. It was built in 1901 and continued to operate trolleys until November of 1940. At that time, the section from Lawrenceville to Princeton was removed, but the section from there back to Trenton was retained and reused as a freight line until 1974.
We met in the morning at McCaffrey’s Market in Princeton and then shuttled in three cars to the start in Trenton. I met Carla in Lawrenceville along the way and picked her up, as that was her cut out point. She announced to us that she was pregnant near the start, and that she couldn’t do the entire thing!
Where we started out, feral cats were running around everywhere. We saw three almost from the get go, so I had to follow them around and try to pet them. None of them were very forthcoming with their affection.

Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal

This was a little weird for me in terms of hikes; we had just about half of the group were newcomers. We do average at least one new person per every hike, but this time there was a group of 13, with half new. People come into the hikes not knowing what to expect, and it can easily be positive or negative based on how prepared they are. Overall everyone was really cool!
This was also sort of a different hike because there was just so much road walking involved. There was still a good amount of snow cover, so it was a good thing I posted this one, since it’d be easier, but it still sort of sucks doing so much road walking in one trip.

Willow Street was the old trolley route

I didn’t know at first where the trolley line started on West Hanover. I had to consult historic USGS maps after looking over aerial images to see where it should have been. I found what I believed to be the route, heading right up the middle of Willow Street. There were no signs of the trolley, and when we got there there was also nowhere to park that was not either official state use only or metered. We ended up finding on street parking by some miracle just about two blocks down Hanover from where the trolley would have terminated. Rather than walk right up the middle of Hanover, we got on the towpath of the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal and followed that north a bit.

Historic photo on trolley line, possibly this one

Passing by these rail crossings, it was particularly sad that Shane Blische wasn’t able to join us. He was pretty tired after having given a presentation on the Bel Del Railroad in Little Falls the night before, which I also attended and found it very good and informative.

Bel Del Railroad crossing D&R Feeder Canal

We followed the canal only to Willow Street, then turned to follow the historic trolley route. This wouldn’t be easy, and I still couldn’t figure out exactly where the thing went. We could see where the old Bel Del Railroad crossed the canal just to the east as we walked by.

Bel Del Railroad bed in Trenton

The Bel Del was a major rail line that connected Trenton with Belvidere, and then later to Manunka Chunk on the Lackawanna Railroad. It’s been the subject of many of our hikes, and this was a section mostly further away from the canal in Trenton. People tend to forget the railroad history and only promote the canal, even though the present day trail is more associated with the railroad bed than it is the canal towpath. We continued over the old Bel Del grade heading north through Trenton.
When we got to Pennington Street, I was at a loss. No clue where the thing turned. So we went straight on New Willow Street, then left on Humboldt Street to Calhoun Street and turned right. I think Calhoun must have been the route here.

The trolley line would have been under this awning

We walked down the street, and the citizens of this part of town all looked at us like we must have been lunatics.
I must have particularly looked like a lunatic, wearing my bright orange shirt with the butterfly collar, beige blazer, and blue navy bell bottoms. Some of the hikers were probably not certain I was the leader either, except for the fact that I was standing by the signed Metrotrails car.
We walked Calhoun Street to the northeast until we reached Wayne Avenue. The trolley line would have been parallel with Calhoun in this area, but it was well into an industrial property, and was inaccessible. We turned left on Wayne Ave, then right on Roosevelt Street.

Former trolley line

People stared at us as we walked by. There were some rough looking homes in the area, but it was still chilly enough that no one who would cause us any problem was coming out.
We could see where the trolley line would have been to the left, now an access road to some industries. This would also have been the area I think where the later freight line would have tied into the rest of the regular rail system. The contours of maps seem to show that, and I saw one that showed a junction with another line in Trenton.
We turned left on Ingham Avenue briefly, and reached Hammitt Street. I had a laugh at that, just because we think ham is funny within the group. More so me than anyone else.

HAMMITT!!!

The industrial road to the south of Hammitt Street was obviously the trolley line, and it seemed to line up with an awning on another old industrial building there on Hammitt. We tried walking this road north for a bit, and then into an industrial site, but we had no good way through without being seen by workers to trace the old rail bed. We ended up having to back track a bit, then turn right, or west on Ingham for a bit longer. We noted turning back that many of the old industrial buildings were completely abandoned and boarded up. They’d have been so easy to just go inside. I wanted to see them, but couldn’t go with the whole group following me.

Abandoned industry

I thought if Justin or Lerch were with us, they’d have certainly been in some of these places and caught up with us later.
We made our way down Ingham, and then I spotted some rail still in the pavement and leading into another industrial building garage. The rail had been cut off and sawed in such a way as not to pop tires where they were cut off. This would have been an attachment from the post-1940 freight alignments. We continued past the industries from Parkway Ave to Homestead Ave where we turned to the right for about two blocks, to Stokes Avenue. Here, there were chain link fences and ruins of an industrial building that had just been demolished.

Old industrial rail spur in Trenton

We turned left on Stokes Avenue, and the trolley right of way was apparent as a line of trees beyond where the industrial building had been. It was closely parallel with us, so walking the road was just fine for the time being.
We remained on Stokes till almost the end, then there was no way through. There was a car lot on the other side of big fences, residences and industries to the left of us, and a sanitation place to the right. We turned back to see if there was a way between some of the businesses to possibly make our way over to the railroad bed. As we walked, I saw a guy walking into the building that was closest to the sanitation place, where lots of guys were busy working.
The guy was the only one working at his place, and he spoke as if he was the owner. He was very friendly and interested in what we were doing.

Old Johnson Trolley Line in northern Trenton

When I told him we were hiking to Princeton, he seemed impressed.
He told us he didn’t think anyone at the sanitation place would even care if we traipsed on through. The aerial images showed there was a Home Depot just the other side of the old rail bed, and if we could get there we’d be fine. I asked the man if he would mind if we walked his property around the concrete pad he had on the north side, abutting the sanitation place, and he was totally cool with it. We thanked him and we moved on to a break in the chain link fence behind his place, into the woods.
Once there, there was a small waterway flowing through a cut. This was the old rail bed. We easily crossed over, then climbed a slope on the other side as to avoid getting wet in the rail bed. We could look down easily on the right of way as we headed north a bit.

Old bridge on the former Johnson Trolley Line, Trenton

Soon, there was a creek coming in from the right, the West Branch of the Shabekunk Creek. The name is certainly a Native American one in origin, and reminded me of the Shabbecong, which is one block from where I live in Washington NJ.
Below us, I was surprised then to see a through style girder bridge which carried the rail line over that creek, still intact and in pretty good shape. It was likely a replacement of an earlier one, but it did have stone abutments rather than concrete.
We couldn’t get on the right of way to the north, because the bridge was gated going into the car lot we had seen from the road. We instead climbed over the knoll and crossed the creek ourselves to the east, where we emerged in the parking lot of the Home Depot. There was a cool fallen tree who’s branches have begun growing vertically like a regular tree, making crossing easy for just about everyone.
Once on the other side, we took a break and some of the group went to Hope Depot to use the restrooms. We took a little break and were on our way to Olden Avenue from here, parallel with the rail bed which was now in the car lot.

Rails still in place in Olden Ave, Trenton north.

When we reached where the line would have crossed Olden Avenue, I was very surprised to not only see rails, but to see the entire crossing still intact. It makes me wonder if this section was kept in service even after the 1974 abandonment to Lawrenceville.

Evidence of rails under 5th Street.

There were also a bit of rail remnants into the car lot on the south side of the road, though the extent of them could not be known because there was so much snow piled up.
We crossed over Olden Ave carefully, by stepping into the suicide lane and crossing in two sections. One nice person stopped to let us cross, and the guy behind her honked to show his disapproval. We continued from there directly if 5th Street, where the trolley line used to run.
5th Street still had cracks in it directly on top of where the rails are apparently still buried in the pavement. This went on as we continued to the north, and in fact it may have been double tracked through this area because a second set of cracks appeared on the northbound lane.

Johnson Trolley Line north of Trenton

We continued walking 5th to the north until we got to Spruce Street. Then we turned slightly right and into another industrial site. The Johnson Trolley Line trail began off the left side of this lot after a short time. We turned and began following the right of way north soon through pleasant woods.
The snow wasn’t too bad to trudge through. We had had good melt off during the past couple of days, and so it wasn’t much to the point where our shoes took on a lot of snow. The worst part was that it was both snow and ice, and was very slippery. It seems a miracle I did not fall down at all on this hike.
Drexel Woods was to the right, a public land, but I am not sure about any trails in there. We remained on the rail bed north and skirted a church property to the left. There were boulders placed in the rail bed to keep vehicles from passing through, but there were still tire tracks along the entire route from Spruce to the church. North of there, there were not.

We crossed over Shabakunk Creek, and took a break on the nicely decked former rail bridge over it, before moving on. We then emerged into a development where the trail became plowed, parallel with Johnson Avenue. Johnson Ave was on the left of us, but a two block long road to the right was foolishly named “Short Johnson Ave”. I don’t know who ever though that was a good name for a road. I also don’t know how that street sign has not been stolen.

Johnson Trolley Line approaching Eggert Crossing

We had a nice and pleasant walk along the paved section of trail to Eggert Crossing Road, most likely named for the crossing of the old rail line. There was the first of several historic markers on the former Johnson Trolley Line at this crossing. It noted the years it was active, as well as the fact that Woodrow Wilson, while Governor of New Jersey, would ride this trolley line and distribute pennies to children on the way. Wilson’s influence at Princeton University, and the fact that this was the fast line from Trenton, certainly lends credibility to the story.
We continued across Eggert Crossing Road, beyond which the trail was no longer plowed in any way. There were only a few footprints to help us walk through.

Cut on the old trolley line

We passed through more woods and crossed I think another branch of Shabbakunk Creek, in Loveless Nature Preserve, then ascended slightly toward Rider University.
The trail became slightly plowed down again for a bit, then continued through a cut on the Rider property. This rail bed was utilized as part of another trail system that was being used by Rider University. Certainly this is an area that will need further attention. Probably a ton of trails I can’t see with all of the snow on the ground. We continued past a power line where another trail was routed, and then passed through a cut.

Johnson Trolley Line north of Denow Road

When we got to the road crossing in the Rider University Campus, we had to turn right. The rail bed was overgrown ahead, and beyond it was Interstate 95. The trail continues again on the other side of the highway, but it’s necessary to walk around to get to it. There was a plan to connect it with a pedestrian bridge, but the cost was prohibitive and it never happened. So, we turned right and followed the road out through the campus, and to Rt 206. This was a crappy road walk section on the highway, but we made due, and turned left on the other side onto more campus building grounds. We cut across grass, then through access roads, and then skirted a retention pond to cut a corner out to Denow Road.
When we got to the road, we re-grouped. Two of the new guys kept to themselves a lot, and I’m not sure how much they liked the hike, it might not have been what they were expecting. Everyone else seemed to be doing pretty well.
Carla opted to walk the highway back to Lawrenceville and her car, but I was also missing Dave Goldberg and his girlfriend. Teun said he was the last before them, and that he could see them as he made the corner, so I figured they were okay. We didn’t go far ahead, so eventually I got a hold of Dave via text message, and we would meet back up in Lawrenceville at TJ’s Pizza.

Neat pedestrian bridge in Lawrenceville over a brook on Johnson Trolley Line

We followed Denow Road only a short bit, and Johnson Trolley Line Trail resumed on the right. It was happy to see it totally plowed as a driveway at this point. We followed it along for a while, and then it became unplowed. We still pushed onward over Rt 546, Green, and Titus Avenues.

Lawrence Hopewell Trail joins the trolley bed

There was one cool foot bridge that crossed a sort of concreted in creek confluence where we re-grouped, then continued out to Phillips Ave in Lawrenceville. We turned right here to get to TJ’s Pizza.
Dave and his girlfriend were there, as well as Carla. We then sat down for a nice little meal. I was feeling hungry, so ordered three slices. It was actually better than I’d remembered it being. It was also less expensive than I was expecting. I got a mushroom slice, a grandma slice, and an irresistible bruschetta slice piled higher than I’ve ever seen such a slice done before. It was excellent.

Most bruschetta on a slice EVER

I felt totally stuffed after eating my three pieces, and the bruschetta slice was absolutely amazing. I got a good group shot of everyone on the porch of the place before we finished our food.
After eating, I had a new plan for the next bit of the hike. We had covered good ground, however trying to remain on the historic trolley route would be pretty much all road walking, no trails, and a lot of out of the way stuff that we just wouldn’t enjoy or want to do. Instead, I figured we could follow the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, which I had done before, to the Pole Farm to the north, then follow back roads to get to the next bit of the trolley line. It wold improve the hike a lot.

Lawrence Hopewell Trail in Village Park

Carla took Yan back to her car, as she wasn’t feeling well, and Dave and his girlfriend called Uber to get a ride back to Trenton. He could have done it, but had just had surgery and really needed to take it a little easier.
The rest of us continued on, back to the trolley right of way which we backtracked a block, then turned right to go north on the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail. The first bit of that is easy on roads, then it passes through Village Park on paved pathways. It was a good easy section for us because it was all paved and plowed! We had a very pleasant walk through Village Park, then made our way over a foot bridge across Shipetauken Creek, then crossed Keefe Road.

Former Pole Farm

The next tract we entered was the former Pole Farm, Mercer Meadows Preserve. This area was something I never thought that much on until this trip. I figured it was just a farmland open space property that Mercer County had somehow acquired. I’d hiked Lawrence Hopewell Trail through a couple of times, and it was undeveloped grassy lanes.

Historic Pole Farm view

This time, things were different, the park had been developed, the trail improved like the rest. We followed the crushed stone surface into the park, across fields, and to an intersection. Good new signs with arrows pointed the way for the official trail route to the right, then left again to an area with some poles standing, made to a pavilion, and several arched pieces of I-beams with picnic benches. There were interpretive signs that told the story of the site gathered all around. It turns out the property was formerly an AT&T property known as Pole Farm, which opened in 1929.
Until the 1950s, there were no under water trans-Atlantic cables, and so this was a very important spot to get in touch with anyone in Europe. One of the historic markers read in bold letters “Hello, London!”

Historic Pole Farm

Prior to the fifties, callers would go through a series of operators and signals were sent through radio waves. It was once one of the most important points for world communication.
By 1975, AT&T was pulling out, and they removed almost everything they had at the Pole Farm. They leased the land to farmers, and then tried to sell it. A group of concerned citizens convinced Mercer County to purchase the property, and it has remained preserved land ever since. We took a little break and read some of the signs at the viewing area, which also has a restroom.
From here, we continued north on Lawrence-Hopewell Trail a bit longer. When we got to the connector trail that leads to the intersection of Cold Soil Road and Van Kirk Road, we turned right.

Trolley bed at Van Kirk Road

The trail was easy to follow because so much of the snow had thawed out. The trail that led to the intersection was much tougher to walk though. When we got there, we continued east on Van Kirk Road. This would lead us to the next little bit of the old Johnson Trolley Line.
On the south side of the road, the fill the tracks sat on was apparent, though overgrown, skirting the edge of an orchard property on the east side. On the north side of the road, the trolley line was now a driveway heading toward Shipetauken Woods Preserve, but we couldn’t get there from here. We had to continue straight down Van Kirk Road.

Johnson Trolley line from Van Kirk Road looking north

As we just got past the old trolley crossing, there was a lady walking down her long driveway to get to her mail box. She had gotten there just about the time we went by, and we said hello. She assumed we were looking for Shipetauken Woods, and started giving us directions to get to that point. I told her about what we were doing, and she seemed quite interested in the concept. She told us that she walked it, but it was because she knew the owners of the sections adjacent to her house.
She took the time to tell us a brief story about the land owners next door, but I can’t currently remember the name. The lady told me the couple are in their nineties now, but that when they were “courting”, the lady used to ride the trolley to meet her future husband there.

Johnson Trolley Line just into the woods to the left

I thanked her for the story and we moved on our way. We continued down Van Kirk to the end, then turned left on Carter Road. We continued on this to a right turn on Carson Road until we reached Carson Road Woods Preserve, which is more of a field preserve than woods. We had hiked through this in the past on Lawrence Hopewell trail’s east leg, but this time we would follow the fields on the west side, to the north. The old trolley line skirts the north side of these public lands in the fields. This was a really tough section to walk, probably the toughest we’d face for the day, because the snow drifts were so bad, accumulated on the west side of the fields. The only good break we had was a bunch of bamboo near the middle section. At the north side of the field, we turned east and skirted the former trolley line.

Trolley bed from Belleview Rd

We came out on Belleview Terrace, and it was pretty obvious where the trolley crossed, into private land on the north side. We had to turn right here, away from the Lawrence Hopewell Trail that went left, because I thought we’d get on more of the trolley line on the north side of the development, but it wouldn’t work out.
We followed Belleview to the east, then turned left onto Vista Drive, then left again on Benedek Road. The Google Earth maps had sort of showed that the trolley line on the north side of this road was a trail out to the next road, but when we got there, it was not a trail at all, just a private driveway that was obviously built on the line.

It was disappointing that we couldn’t get on the right of way, but we were almost to Princeton and had to move along. We continued on Benedek, then turned right on Mya Drive to Rosedale Road and turned right. This had a narrow shoulder at first, but it got better when we crossed Province Line Road and entered Princeton, settled in 1683. Province Line Road once made up the boundary between the two separate colonies of East and West New Jersey. We also left the Lawrence Hopewell Trail which continued across Rosedale Road to enter “ETS” or Education Testing Services where the SATs are graded.

Historic Princeton USGS map. Note both earlier trolley line and Johnson Trolley Line both shown, coming close together near Lawrenceville

Based on USGS topos from the days when the trolley lines were in service, I was able to located where exactly it should have been, so I would know where to look. As we walked Rosedale Road into Princeton, there was a line of trees on the right side of the road. It continued to get closer; this was the trolley line.
The trolley once crossed Rosedale Road at an angle, and in the development on the north side, a line of trees had been planted right in the low fill of the right of way. It well delineated where it used to be.

Former trolley line headed to the sunset

Just east of the crossing, a road known as Brookstone Drive is partially on the right of way, but that wouldn’t take us where we needed to go. We would have to cross the Stony Brook, and the trolley bridge has long been missing there. Fortunately, this part I was familiar with from the hike we did at this location almost two years prior.

Former Johnson Trolley Line crossing of Stony Brook

We continued on Rosedale Road, which had a really nice paved pathway following the north side, and crossed over the Stony Brook on it. Then, on the other side, the Stony Brook Trail crosses the road.
This was just a narrow foot path that connects a couple of properties including the Thun School to the south, and the Johnson School to the north. We followed the trail on a high slope above the creek which afforded us a good view of the former bridge site.

Former Johnson Trolley Line bridge site

We continued on the trail where it got close to the access road to Johnson School, in a section I had never followed. It crossed two little foot bridges and made it’s way up a slope to the old rail right of way, right at the former bridge site’s east end.

Johnson Trolley Line Stony Brook bridge site

Once we were all on the former east end of the bridge, we turned and continued on the rail right of way toward town. The route of the trolley is noted on a 1926 map of Princeton. It headed to Witherspoon Street, then traveled down that street toward the University. The earlier trolley line terminated on the west side of the college just a few blocks away. We would have to walk roads for much of the route to Witherspoon Street after we reached Elm Road.

Princeton Map, 1926

The right of way gained elevation slightly from the bridge heading east, and thankfully it was plowed only a short distance to the east, where a pathway connects to the school. Still, with the plowing there was a lower layer of ice that made it very slippery. We managed to walk it without falling all the way to Elm Road, then turned left briefly.

Johnson Trolley Line in Princeton

We turned right on Westerly Road, and passed where apparently there was once a church, with it’s sign still there but a new house just built. The house was lined with a lot of weird houses. One of them had four windows, only second story, and narrow. It looked like a garage door at the second story that nothing short of a Dukes of Hazzard jump would make it into. None of the rest of it had windows.
The trolley line went behind all of the house on the right side of Westerly. We could see some remnant of grade as we continued, but then turned left on Pardoe Road, to a right on Mountain Ave. We followed a paved parallel pathway to Mountain Ave to Community Park North, and crossed to Community Park South at a crosswalk. We then took one final trudge through snow to shortcut to the former trolley line, in a slight fill on the south side of Community Park South.

Trolley bed at Community Park South

When we got to where the trolley bed should have been, it was indeed a paved trail along the south side of the park, but it didn’t go for long. We followed it out to Witherspoon Street, which I thought was the end of the trolley line, but I found out based on the maps that it actually went down Witherspoon Street. I am not concerned with doing this because we walked that street on a previous hike, so I’d already done it.
We simply turned left on Witherspoon, then turned right on Guyot Ave. A middle section of this is now pedestrian only, on a narrow path next to a small creek, so it was the obvious way for us to go to get back toward McCaffreys. We had to go a couple blocks to the north to Valley Road to get across to the store lot, but it went by pretty quickly once we passed Witherspoon.
Of everyone new in the group, it felt like Neil is probably the one who will enjoy it the most, and probably more so when we do more of the more exciting, madcap stuff. Dave will love it for the railroad history when he’s well again. Two of the guys were keeping to themselves and whispering to each other a lot, and I’m not sure if they enjoyed it or hated it at this point, but you just never know. It’s so hard to say.
It wasn’t the most incredibly exciting hike, again more of a relaxing thing and somewhat historically stimulating, but overall a good time for me. I’ve now got another historic rail route I can scratch off my list, even if not everyone can share in my excitement.

Not everything can be perfect. In fact, it’s far from it. It just comes down to what you make it. I set out to have a good day, and I did. Hopefully everyone had a good enough time to come back and explore some more with us. It’s important to always go into things with an open mind. When we go into things with too much expectation, anticipation, hopes, ambitions, we only set ourselves up for disappointment.

This hike wasn’t a disappointment for me, except for the thought that someone else might not have enjoyed it. And that I will have to let go of.

Parsnips