Hike #984; Jenkintown to Holland

Hike #984; Jenkintown to Holland

11/10/16 Jenkintown to Holland with James Quinn, Shane Blische, and Dan Asnis

Several parts of historic notation and photos provided by Shane Blische.
Our next hike would be an Election Day point to point, with most of the route planned to trace the historic route of the Newtown Branch of the Reading Railroad between Fox Chase and Southampton/Churchville Lake.

Map showing the route of the Newtown Branch

I had a lot of stuff I wanted to see in the area, but the main body of the old Newtown Branch was the main thing I wanted to do. I had hiked on this on three other occasions: the first was with my friend Wyatt Hassler in 2009 for a night hike. The second was a bit later for a regular Sunday hike, a loop around the Neshaminy Creek and the old rail bed out of Newtown PA. The third was a section on the Pennypack Creek. I’d walked it as closely as possible from Newtown south to Churchville Lake, but the rest I’d not seen. I came up with a route that would take us through some interesting areas from Jenkintown to Fox Chase, then trails through Churchville to the end. It ended up running a bit late, so I wouldn’t get to finish it, but it was still pretty interesting.
I picked up Shane and met James and Dan at a strip mall in Holland, part of Southampton PA near where Wyatt used to live. I’d come through here on two of the previous hikes. We then shuttled with James down to the Acme market in Jenkintown, at the Abington border.

Abington Friends Meeting House

There was immediately interesting stuff that I wasn’t expecting to find for this hike. We walked from the parking lot into ball fields with some paths associated with the Abington Friends Meeting House.
The Friends Meeting Houses are all over, associated with the early Quakers of the area. This particular spot came with the donation of 120 acres by John Barnes in 1697. The original meeting house was built between 1698 and 1699, with the first business meeting in 1702. A larger meeting house was built after, followed by the Abington Friends School in 1784, which we walked by soon after passing through the end of the fields.

Alverthorpe entrance

Across from the school building was a large stone wall, with windows in it that had been filled in. It looked quite interesting.
It turned out that this was once the estate of Joshua Francis Fischer, son of a Quaker merchant, who turned this into his estate and named it “Alverthorpe” after his ancestral homeland in England.
The current main building inside is now the Abington Arts Center, known as Alverthorpe Manor. The current building is not Fischer’s original home, but rather one that was constructed by later tenants in 1928. It looked interesting enough, and it was the direction we were headed, so we went in.

Alverthorpe Manor

James was playing Pokemon Go a lot, and so he saw that there were a ton of Pokestops within the art gardens, so that was all the more reason for us to go on in.
We walked around an entrance road and then a walkway around the main building to the left a bit. We then headed down hill and along more paths. There were some sculpture pieces on display above, but we didn’t want to get too close to the building in case that was an admission only place or something. We made our way down hill to where we could see the main 1928 Alverthorpe Manor, and continued across a lawn to where a trail went into the woods.

Old bridge

There was a very old stone bridge parallel with the trail just to the left. I wondered if this was something that dated back to Fischer, or to maybe even earlier to the old farms that occupied the place first. The bridge was collapsing, and it was obviously used as an estate road at one time, but a new bridge for the footpath had been constructed to cross the same tributary.
There was a weird wooden shelter building just off to the right of the trail, built on a weird angle looking into the wetlands around the creek. I’d never seen one this shape before, so we had to go have a look inside. There was a chair in the back, but in the front was a wooden bed, and then a wooden kids desk with chair. Very odd.

Mirror garden

The trail took us into the woods, and there was all sorts of art stuff on display. There were several things off into the woods, and some sort of “spider clam” to the left. As the trail turned to the left, parallel with Jenkintown Road, we came to a really cool mirror garden. Nooks in trees and such were placed with mirrors which created a very odd effect.
The trail took us further on from here, along a fence with signs that read that “Access to Alverthorpe Woods at main gate only”. I could see on the maps that this was a park, and so I wanted to go in and use this to head to the southeast. It was on our way, and looked to be a good route.

Little Abington Meeting House c. 1836

The trail came out along Jenkintown Road in front of an old stone building. This was known as the “Little Abington Meeting House”, completed in 1836.
The reason for the construction of this structure was “The Great Revival”, a religious revival that changed almost all Protestant faith in America. There was a split in the Quakers of Philadelphia area at the time; the City of Philadelphia Quakers followed the more fashionable Orthodox beliefs, while the country folk Quakers favored the “Hicksite”, or more conservative beliefs. The result of this was the construction of this other meeting house

Alverthorpe pond

There was no way to get into the woods preserve, so we just started walking the Jenkintown Road to the south.
While walking, I spotted where there was a spot I could squeeze through at the end of the park land, next to a private house. The black fence around the woods preserve did not quite reach the private fence, and so I got right in and was soon on the paved trail around the perimeter of the woods preserve. James was looking for Pokemon, I’m not sure what Shane was looking at, and I think James taught Dan how to play Pokemon Go as well, so he was looking at his phone. All of them missed me turning at the fence, and soon called me.

Alverthorpe pond

The trail soon came to the edge of the pond in the middle of Alverthorpe Park. We turned to the left where there was a restroom and pavilion to take a break and use the restrooms. James waited and got the same Pokemon twice I think he said, and then we moved on along a trail to the west of the lake. This didn’t work out, and I really wanted to get to this railroad bed, so we headed the other way, the way we came, around the lake and out toward the main entrance. We soon came to a golf course area.
There were people all over in this park. It was very high end feeling, and a guy went by us on a golf cart with a funny look on his face. I wondered if this might be a pay facility we went in.
When I got to the main gate, I realized what it was. This park was only open to Abington residents with a badge. We turned left on Forest Avenue; the land across the street was also preserved but there was no way into it, and even if there was we probably weren’t allowed because it was Abington land.
I can’t stand when people make parks totally exclusive. We’ve done it where I live to a degree, like at Penwell you have to have a fishing license, and near Paulins Kill Viaduct you need a township badge to park there. Still, you can walk through. I feel like the parks closed to people from the outside are elitist asses.
We turned right to Follow Fox Chase Ave to the south. I had hoped to walk through the college property, but that was fenced off, and then beyond was a religious school that was also marked with “no trespassing” signs. I felt kind of slighted going through this entire area. Accordingly, the settlement to the east of us was called “Hollywood”.
We turned right on Cedar Road, because I next wanted to walk through Lawnview Memorial Park a nice cemetery, but it too was totally gated off. No way in from this end. What a let down this was turning out to be.

Interesting name

Fortunately, after a short walk up Shelmire Street to the left, we were able to cut into the cemetery. People were even walking their dogs in there, so it must not be too much a problem to go through.
I always through it was strange to allow for the walking of dogs in a cemetery, because they of course will end up pissing all over graves.
We made our way across a wide open area with no graves, and then the boundary line came where we crossed from Lawnview into Montefiore Cemetery. I was surprised there wasn’t a gate separating these. Montefiore seemed to be a Jewish cemetery, and all of the stones were much closer together.

James says you need this

We were being silly passing through, laughing at all of the graves. I got lots of photos of James smiling inappropriately with suggestively named graves. Some were harmless like the word “Address”, while I got several others of him with “Dick”, “Riser”, “Gross”, and “Weiner”.
We continued through the cemetery heading to the southeast to Church Road, where we turned left briefly, then right on Losey Road. There was a trail across from that called Losey Trail, which I didn’t know was there, otherwise I’d have tried to hike through on that, but I suppose we probably had more fun in the cemetery anyway.

Fox Chase Station

We continued on Losey Road into the town of Fox Chase, where we got to the northern terminus of the former Newtown Branch, now used by SEPTA.
We always joke about SEPTA, saying it stands for “Slowly Eliminating Public Transportation Altogether”. The line was probably still a good one to have, and tracks are still in from Woodmont Station site north to Newtown, but the part in the middle was made a trail. This makes it unlikely that they will ever rebuild it, because it will get all of this public outcry that they don’t want to lose their trail. As far as trails go, this one actually does good a pretty good amount of use.

Looking north from Fox Chase

The abandoned section to the north of Rhawn Street looked pretty overgrown, so we went out and around, and made our way down to it by climbing from the Pine Road overpass.
The tracks were still in all the way from the station site to just before a road known as Shady Lane. From there, it is the Pennypack Trail to Woodmont.
The first section we walked was really cool. The tracks under the bridge looked really interesting, and old signal towers were still in place much along the way.
I knew a good portion of this hike would be on formal trail, and really didn’t know what to expect of the rest of it. I was just excited to do it because it ties into so much else we’ve done.

Historic view at Fox Chase Station

Above is a 1958 view of the old Fox Chase Station, with a view north to the bridge we ended up climbing down.

Historic view at Fox Chase Station

Above is an historic view at the Fox Chase Station, prior to the takeover by Conrail, dated 1973. The cars we saw parked at the station look far more modern and metallic.

Newtown Branch

The line was first built through to Newtown in 1878 as the Philadelphia, Newtown, and New York, Railroad. The line was built to sort of block the “National Railway” which later became the main Reading Railroad line to New York city.
This was not the only line to be built in such a way.
We had done a series to trace the route of the Somerset and Mercer Railroad, which broke off of the Bel Del Railroad below Washington’s Crossing, and connected to other lines in Millstone. Some of that was rather haphazard construction, done fast to block the other line. This similar line was funded by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and it was planned that it would continue north of Newtown and connect with the Somerset and Mercer in NJ, but this never came to fruition.

Old tower

The National Railway’s Delaware and Bound Brook project was built anyway, and the line was taken over by the North Pennsylvania Railroad, which was also built by the National Railway, and so it really became part of the Reading system. It makes for an interesting history, built by the Pennsy, and then became part of the Reading.
In 1876 the Great Frog War of Hopewell took place and D&BB came out as victors destroying Newtown & New York Railroad's chance of ever reaching to New York City.
Service continued through to Newtown, even after Reading Railroad merged into Conrail in 1976 and railroad traffic was reaching a national low. The line had been electrified as far as the Fox Chase Station by 1966, and diesel shuttles continued through the early eighties.

End of the rails north of Fox Chase

SEPTA took over passenger services on the line, and shuttles continued through to Newtown until 1983. Even before that, SEPTA was trying to do away with all non-electrified lines anyway, part of the reason it’s earned the joke moniker “Slowly Eliminating Public Transportation Altogether”.
Although passenger service ended in ‘83, new ties and rails and such were put in place in Newtown through a federal grant, and it looked as though passenger service might be on it’s way back.
Sadly, bickering between the railroad and unions caused unrest and the line remained closed. They finally gave into pressure and turned it into a rail trail.

North of Fox Chase

This is one of those rail lines that I must say should maybe never have been turned into a trail. Right out of Philadelphia, with a good safe route to Newtown and enough citizens, it just seems to make sense to have a rail line.
At the same time, the rail trail is actually very well used, so a trail between the two was a good idea. What would have been better would probably have been an alternate rail with trail plan, utilizing old woods roads and other alternate routes, not always 100% flat, but still following the Pennypack Creek closely parallel with the line.
There is still i nterest in re-establishing rail service, but many neighbors to the line don’t want to see it.

Rail bed in Lorimer Park

It’s proposed that the Pennypack Trail be extended on the line further north on the line, to the Bucks County line, then it would be the Newtown Branch Trail the remainder of the distance to Newtown.
It’s looking like this one will be a political debacle that railroads will probably not win, because so many of the citizens are so dead set against having railroad service.
We followed the line from the bridge overpass carefully through some undergrowth. It wasn’t too bad; obviously people walk the old railroad tracks, as it was not terribly overgrown, and still pretty passable by foot.

Pennypack Trail

We skirted the backs of peoples houses, climbed old signal towers, and took lots of pictures until the rails suddenly ended.
The trail did not start right here, but there was still a faint path that could be followed as we headed to the north on the right of way. We were up on a high fill, and we saw an odd rope swing below us to the right, which didn’t even go into water.
Soon, we came to where we could see the trail straight ahead coming in from the left. The wide, light colored, crushed stone surface looked just a bit too bright for my taste. Still, we continued on along it heading north into Lorimer Park.

Old whistle sign

The Pennypack Trail section started development around 2009. I had not hiked any of the Pennypack Greenway prior to that, but there has always been a path that went from Philadelphia up to Lorimer Park. I suppose people just walked the tracks to get to the next sections to the north prior to that, because a lot of these parks are pretty old.
We continued north through some interesting cuts. The line was closely parallel with the Pennypack Creek, but not always right on the shore or just above it. Some of the cuts and fills were somewhat extensive. The route of this line was clearly more well graded than it’s sister line in NJ, the Somerset and Mercer.

Pennypack Trail on the rail bed

We continued north past more old switch boxes and such, and even an old whistle marker still in place. The line’s remnants seemed somewhat modern even.
We crossed Moredon Road, and we were talking about food. We were all hungry.
The hike already had so much stuff to it even before reaching the railroad line, and we didn’t stop for anything in Fox Chase.
We started going through our phones trying to find pizza places that might deliver to the trail. The one we called were basically being crybabies because they didn’t want to take the order, but the place we finally got to do it was pretty cool. I let them know where we were, and planned to meet them at the trail head at Old Huntingdon Pike.

Pennypack Trail on the rail bed at Old Huntingdon Pike

I had already done the section between Moredon and Old Huntingdon Pike, but not to the north until Churchville Lake. This was the most recent section completed, because I recall the bridge to the north not being done yet not long ago.
We turned to the left and hung out at the cul de sac at the end of the road, which used to go through somehow this way (New Huntingdon Pike is just above. This was where we first picked up Pennypack Trail previously). I checked out an old entrance to something with foundation built into a cliff wall, and some old stone wall stuff while waiting for the pizza to arrive. Apparently we under tipped the poor guy. Only Dan had cash, so we borrowed from him to get it.

Active tracks at Bethayres

The pizza was actually pretty good. We each had two slices of either topping or plain, and I don’t remember what the topping was (I like mushrooms), and then moved on to the north.
We crossed the Pennypack Creek on the re-decked rail bridge, passed beneath Huntingdon Pike, then crossed the Pennypack yet again on another rehabilitated bridge. I think one of them was a prefab pedestrian bridge rather than the rail bridge. I can’t recall for sure. This area was known as Betheyres.
The Newtown Branch crossed another active line here, and so now it’s a trail crossing. Shane got a good then and now shot of the area where these tracks used to cross.

Historic crossing photo

Historic view of a Reading freight train crossing of Pennypack Creek just below the crossing of the New York Division.

Present crossing view

Pennypack Creek crossing below Betheryes Junction today. The trail has been installed over this part in very recent years.

Before the trail at Betheyres

I’m not exactly sure when the trail was put in on this section, but I understand it was quite recently.

Betheyres when still active

Historic view above of Betheyres Junction with a tower in place, now all gone.

Betheyres now

The crossing of the active New York Division is now much like a road crossing with signal and such.

Historic view of Betheyres

Shane kept giving us good history talks, but we did have to keep moving on. I wanted to hear it all, but more on the go because it was going to be late before we finished. I had started at the meetup at ten so that people could vote, but with the time change it would be tougher.Beth

Betheyres now. Photo by Shane.

We headed to the north through a section of woods. The trail was insanely busy here. I couldn’t believe how many were coming through, and we weren’t even in Lorimer Park any more.

Pennypack Trail on the rail bed

We soon came out at an area where there was a car wash to the right, and some other business and I think a post office to the left. Lots more people were everywhere. We turned off to the right a bit and walked through grass rather than on the hard packed trail at this point.
We soon came to Welch Road. Shane recalled there being tracks at this point the last time he was here, because this section was really not ripped up long ago at all. He was pretty upset to see the entire thing turned into a trail. We crossed Welch Road and passed some sort of historic home to the left. The trail continued on the rail bed parallel to Terwood Road.

Before the trail...

The area looks quite a bit different now than it did when the tracks were in place. It’s interesting how close it came to the house we passed parallel with Terwood Road.

Pennypack Trail on former Newtown Branch

There was once a station stop between Betheyres and Bryn Athyn in this area known as Huntingdon Valley.

We were only parallel with the road for a short bit. Soon, we crossed it, in heavy traffic area, and then immediately crossed over the Pennypack Creek once more on a redecked old railroad bridge.
The trail continued north from here on a shelf above the right side of the creek.
The next point of interest we came to is a little community known as Bryn Athyn. This was a station stop on the railroad, and the station is still standing handsomely, and looks quite ready to be used for that purpose again. There were quite a few people walking through this area too.

Historic view of Pennypack crossing south of Bryn Athyn

The area of Bethayres has an interesting history as well as others, but in this case it owes it’s name indirectly to the Reading Railroad.
A local woman named Elizabeth Ayres had a son who worked on the Reading Railroad, and he named the station after his mother. Bethayres and Huntingdon Valley were once separate and had their own post offices.

Historic view of the Pennypack Crossing off of Terwood

For a short time after post offices merged, “Huntingdon Valley-Bethayres” was the longest postal name in the entire United States.

Newtown Branch south of Bryn Athyn crossing the Pennypack

We passed by a business with an old railroad marker out next to a picnic bench to the right. The settlement was nestled in a well wooded little glen unlike the wider feel to the south.

Pennypack Bridge off of Terwod before the trail

The small borough of Bryn Athyn was separated in the early 1900s for religious reasons. The name is said to mean “Hill of Unity”.
Bryn Athyn was also the site of a terrible railroad accident in 1921.
Two Reading Railroad steam locomotives collided head on at one of the blind curves near the station. Red hot coals flew forward from each engine, causing the wooden coaches to catch fire. Twenty seven passengers were killed, many of them burned to death, and some seventy others were badly injured. It’s probably among the nation’s worst railroad accidents. It was also the impetus for a nationwide ban on wooden railroad cars.
When we arrived at the station, Shane got another good then and now photo.

Historic view of Bryn Athyn Station

We of course had to walk all around the station and check it out. It was nice to see that it was still being used as a post office. So many stations doubled as that use, so it’s good that the building is still put to good use.

Present view of Bryn Athyn station

The original Bryn Athyn Station was something that just looked like a simple house. At the time, it probably had a live in care taker or station agent

The original Bryn Athyn Station

It would appear as per historic photNos that the old bridge over the Pennypack Creek is older than the existing Bryn Athyn Station.

Historic Bryn Athyn truss bridge

We made our way from the station at Fetter’s Mill Road to the north. I was starting to get a bit more concerned about time at this point. The section in Bucks County would certainly be more difficult I knew.

Bryn Athyn Station

At a turn, there was a nice old signal tower remnant, high up above the right of way. We then crossed over another redecked old railroad bridge heading to the north over the Pennypack Creek.

Bryn Athyn Station

There were good views of the creek in both directions from that spot. James and I continued on ahead and Dan and Shane were starting to fall behind a bit. We still stopped to take in the views though.

Historic image at Bryn Athyn

I don’t know if any point on the hike looked sadder to have the rails gone than the Bryn Athyn Station. It just looks ready for service any moment, except the tracks are gone.

Historic image at Bryn Athyn

There are other side trails that follow former road routes on the other side of the creek, and lead off to other places, so I can still do an entirely different version of this hike and almost not retrace anything the same.

Newtown Branch just north of Bryn Athyn Station

We continued to the north and crossed the Pennypack Creek yet again. Once on the other side, we figured we had better wait up for Dan and Shane.

Pennypack Trail, former Newtown Branch

Dan actually caught up with us pretty quickly, but Shane was further behind because he had stopped to take several photos of the many different railroad remnants along the way.
When we could see them come into view, we continued on to the north.
The park wasn’t as wide up in this area, it was just the railroad bed mostly. We could see an old historic stone house off to the left across the creek, and a stone retaining wall. Beyond that, the remnants of an old dam across the creek could be seen from the railroad bed. There were also some historic old stone bridges spanning the creek.

Lovely old stone bridge over the Pennypack

There was one crossing at Paper Mill Road, and another at Creek Road. We still hurried beyond this point to reach the former site of Woodmont Station. This is now the northern terminus of the Pennypack Trail. We waited for Shane to catch up with us there.

Newtown Branch tracks start back up at Woodmont

Shane wanted to take a longer break, but we really didn’t have the time to do that. We had to get through the railed section of the line ahead to Churchville or we would not be able to finish the hike as planned. It’d be too hard to navigate through the brush.

Newtown Branch at Woodmont

To my great surprise, the tracks to the north side of Byberry Road at Woodmont Station were not only in place, but completely cleared of vegetation. It made for an extremely easy walking route.

Newtown Branch

Except for some ties laying where a couple sections of rail were ripped up, it was all very easy to walk. We passed beneath active railroad tracks (former Pennsylvania Railroad) as well as beneath the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

County Line Road on Newtown Branch

The tracks were no longer clear from County Line Road, where we left Montgomery County and entered Bucks County.

County Line station historic view

There was once a station stop at or near this crossing named simply “County Line”, with a simple wooden shelter. We saw a switch box but no building remnant.

Historic view at County Line Station

I suppose the line was cut clear because they plan to turn it into an extension to the trail. What we had just walked with the rails was all that remained of the line in Montgomery County. Our next grade crossing was County Line Road, where we entered Bucks County.

JAMES WAY!

When the others were catching up, I crossed and started trying to make my way along the railroad bed further on. It was horrible.
I could not fight through any of the stuff after a short while. I had to bully my way off of the rail bed to the right, behind a commercial park. We made our way out instead behind these business parking lots, and out to a road known as James Way. Fortunately, this road followed parallel with the railroad bed, and so we could follow it the entire way to the east, to the old Southampton Station. It was going to soon be dark, so we’d have to move on rather quickly.

Some of the business park had once had rail service, as I spotted a former railroad spur from the main line. It was surprising to see it considering this section of the line had not been formally used since probably 1983.

The tracks overgrown

The road moved slightly away from the railroad bed for a little while, and then returned to it. Most anyone who goes by probably would never know there are railroad tracks even there. They are so completely overgrown with vegetation, all of the rails are now masked.

One of the last times we'd see so many of these

As we walked, there were campaign signs everywhere. We didn’t know who would win for sure, but the fact remained that pretty much the only campaign posters any of us had ever seen anywhere were “Trump Pence”.
It’s actually been surprising through this entire process how few Clinton posters have been up anywhere.
We were able to start walking the tracks again just as we went by an eatery in Southampton. We soon crossed Street Road on the tracks, just south of the downtown. When Shane and Dan caught up, rather than take the time for then and now photos, I decided to try to follow the tracks on.

Southampton PA

The station was actually in pretty good condition for it’s age, but still needed quite a bit more help.
The station was built in 1892, part of a complex of structures that included a freight station and other out buildings. Unfortunately, none of these survive today, but the passenger station does. It still has seating area, ticket booth and more.
I would have loved to have a better look at it, but the area I was most concerned about was coming up next. There was a section of the old rail line to cross Mill Creek, and I knew we needed to go through that way or otherwise have a long road walk around it, and we might not easily navigate in the dark.

Southampton Station

We made our way along the line heading to the north. The others were still behind taking photos or something. I disappeared into the weeds, and the rail line entered a cut.

Historic Southampton Station view

The sun was starting to set. We had to get through the next section soon.
Once the tracks were in the woods, there was a path on them to a degree, but that soon started to disappear. There were fallen trees over the line, and I tried climbing up to the left of it to see if I could find a better way through. It was no good. Houses with back yards went right up to the rather shallow cut. I had to stay right on the tracks and climb through the mess. We bullied through it as best we could, and eventually ended up in some woods farther from houses.

Historic view of Southampton Station

I considered breaking away from the tracks in this area, and might have if there was an easy way out without having to go through someone’s back yard. It got nasty.

Southampton Station

We continued through even more thick stuff, but there was sort of some semblage of a path. Some kids crossed over the tracks between houses on either side, and I said hello as I walked by. I think the others talked to them, because everyone was pretty far behind me for a bit.
After the last house was close to the tracks, we passed through a section of woods where we were up on sort of a shelf. There appeared to be a park off to the left of us, because I saw a bench. James and I were both at the front, and we managed to stay along the tracks as it went into someone’s back yard.

Historic view of Southampton Station

We soon got to where we had to get back to the weeds, but there was a good path we could see just above them to the left. It definitely was a park, and this trail was parallel with where we needed to be.
Once we got up on it, we backtracked a bit to find the other two, so they could climb to the path sooner and eliminate some bushwhacking. Once on it, we followed it as far as we could parallel with the tracks. When the main path started turning to the left, away from the tracks, another more vague but official looking path continued to go ahead straight, still parallel with the tracks.

Overgrown tracks

We followed this path for a little while, but it too started turning away from the tracks. It was still going sort of the direction we wanted to go, so we continued to follow it. I was hoping that it would take us to some sort of crossing of the Mill Creek.
It did not take us to a crossing. We were heading to the park access to the north, which was too out of the way for us. We had to backtrack and find a way of getting back onto the tracks. We backtracked until I thought I saw what was the clearing and started bushwhacking toward it. It turned out it wasn’t the tracks and we still had further.

Tracks near Holland PA

I ended up back on the path again, and had to bushwhack back even further. Eventually, I found a way of getting back to the tracks.
Everyone followed me down, but it was not a good section to be walking. It was as bad bushwhacking as before and worse, and it was now getting pretty dark.
At one point, there was a fallen tree with a mess of vines on it that was so dense that we had to push on through the mess to get through the other side.
When the tracks went from being a shelf to a fill approaching the Mill Creek, they started to clear off a bit again.

Tunnel of weeds

I waited up in this area for the others to come through. It looked like it might be easy for a little while.
Once everyone was with me, we moved on to the bridge over the Mill Creek.
The bridge was not at all what I was expecting. It was apparently just a culvert or something below, because no decked bridge at all was there. If we weren’t looking, there would be little to show that we were actually crossing a creek. The tracks over top of the creek were somewhat eroded from past floods, with the left side suspended in the air.

Mill Creek washout

Apparently, when the rains were heavy and the Mill Creek is in flood stage, the elevated railroad right of way acts as a dam. It’s the only reason it would have been so badly eroded there.
We continued over the washout, and soon the tracks got very badly overgrown again. It was dark at this point, and even though we got past the part I was mainly worried about, the next part was not looking to be good. I decided that instead of fighting along the rail bed, we’d climb down a slope and cuta cross a very large church property. I fought through first and got out to the parking lot.
It was too dark to just continue on the railroad right of way ahead. We came to Bristol Road, but remaining on the rail bed would be nearly impossible, and it was too dark for me to find the trails through the Churchville Nature Center. We’d have to abandon that idea and simply focus on getting back.
James and I were making good time, so I told Shane and Dan to wait for us at the entrance to the church property on Bristol, and we would hurry back to my car.

Old Holland station stop

I would have to come back to hike the last leg of the Newtown Branch out to Holland PA.
James and I followed the Bristol Road to the south; the traffic was awful and we had to move much farther off of the road than I felt comfortable with having to do.
We kept going south until we got to Murray Road. This road was much less busy, but it still sucked. We followed that to a left turn on Chinquapin Road, and then followed that to the outlet from Churchville Lake and where we would have come out from that area.
The gate at the area I intended to come out was now fenced and locked. Maybe it would not have worked out for us after all.

Historic Newtown Branch timetables

We soon came out on Holland Road. A right turn along the edges of the businesses got us quickly back to the cars at the parking lot. I went back and picked up Dan and Shane who were still waiting at the church sign.
Dan drove James back to his car in Jenkintown, and I brought Shane back home to New Hope.
It was a bit frustrating not to have finished the Newtown Branch, because there is only a tiny bit left to do. I got even further frustrated when trying to navigate, because my phone stopped showing my “current location”. It made things a bit tougher getting back to New Hope via the back roads as well. We managed to get through it and everyone was on their way home.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of this old line after yet another few years. I wonder if history will paint the demise of the railroad and beginnings of the trail as progress or failure.