Hike #1295; Pemberton to Whiting

Hike #1295; Pemberton to Whiting

2/8/20 Pemberton to Whiting with Shane Blische, Jack Lowry, Kirk Rohn, Sarah Jones, John DiFiore, Doug DeGroff, Captain Soup (David Campbell), Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Tom Vorrius, Kathryn Cataldo, and Kevin Kowalick

ON THE TRAIL!

This next hike would be our next in the series to cover the entire Pennsylvania Railroad’s Atlantic Division, which stretched across the entire state of New Jersey from Camden to Toms River, and with branches out onto Island Beach at Seaside Park.

Historic Pemberton Station image

There is a lot of great history to this line that for a while just seemed to escape me. Definitive history on this and other lines that were later associated with the great Pennsylvania Railroad is muddied at best. There are very few books that will give anything both comprehensive and easy to digest.

Pemberton Station

Since starting off this series, I think I finally am gaining an understanding of it.
Of course, the area of Philadelphia PA and Camden NJ have some of the earliest railroad history in the nation.

Atlantic Division

It was the Camden and Amboy out of Camden that had the first regular operation of a locomotive hauled passenger service. In fact, the locomotive known as the John Bull is considered to be the oldest continuously operating self propelled vehicle in the world (I saw it when I was very young, and I recall it moving on a stationary track, and making a lot of noise).
In the early days, entrepreneurs and businessmen had little faith in railroads. Crazy stories such as a woman’s uterus would fall out if she rode a train were the types of crazy stories that went around. Also, investors in canals surely did not want to lose their shirts to the obviously more sensible means of transportation.

A view back at the Birmingham junction, Atlantic Division and Pemberton Branch

The first part of the Atlantic Division was chartered in the 1840s, proposed as a horse car railroad to pass through some of the towns on its way to Mt. Holly.
The horse car railroad never came to be, but the same charter was used to create the Burlington and Camden County Railroad in 1866, which achieved the goal of connecting Camden with Mt. Holly.
The line was extended east with some little branches as far as Pemberton, where the Pemberton and Hightstown (later the Union Transportation) continued to the north through Fort Dix, New Egypt, and other points. That station at North Pemberton was a union station used by both lines that connected there.

A map showing what would become Atlantic Division

A junction, in a place called Birmingham, just west of Pemberton, is where the Atlantic Division continued to the south side of Pemberton and beyond.

Atlantic Division

This section section was originally built from what I can understand as a branch of the New Jersey Southern Railroad, known as the Pemberton and New York Railroad.
It’s an interesting point that this line, an 18.25 mile stretch from Pemberton to Whiting (which we would be walking) became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad rather than the Central Railroad of New Jersey like the rest of the New Jersey Southern lines. Pennsylvania Railroad started operating the stretch August 1 1878, and was sold to PRR on March 31st 1879.

Rancocas River view

Looking at the map today, it appears to be a seamless, simple route that would have been planned, built, and managed similarly right from the start, but simply was not the case.

PRR Atlantic Division map

We had already done the entire Union Transportation and just about all of the Kinkora Branch previously and we’d done three other hikes on the main through route of the Atlantic Division. The first was the bit from Pemberton west to Mt. Holly.

Atlantic Division

The second one was from Mt. Holly heading west, much of which is still active, to Merchantville. The last one was the missing piece we hadn’t done between the junction with the former Camden and Amboy at Camden and Merchantville.
The bulk of the remaining Atlantic Division would be the sections from Pemberton to Whiting, and then from Whiting the remaining seven or so miles east to Toms River. From there, I’ll probably plan a few other hikes where we’ll trace more of the lines around the area. I haven’t figure out how those are going to be oriented yet.

Atlantic Division abandonment where it's not trail in Pemberton

I met most of the group at Whiting Town Center, a strip mall with a closed grocery store and a ton of other little businesses.
From there, we would shuttle in my van and Tom’s SUV to Pemberton and drop Captain Soup’s car off along the way around Browns Mills as he had previous engagements later that night. He had been visiting from Wyoming and wanted to try to get at least one hike in.
We managed the shuttle pretty well and found a church to leave Captain Soup’s car at only a very short distance from the former railroad crossing. Kat and Kevin met us at the start.

Dam on the Rancocas

We parked in the corner of the Wawa parking lot in Pemberton where we’d be able to get some food and drinks before we started off the trip. I warned everyone that once we left Pemberton there would not be any kind of businesses for the entire day. This is the most secluded section of the entire branch line.
Pemberton was already an existing settlement before the railroad arrived. It was first settled in 1758, and at the time was known as New Mills. It was incorporated in 1826 and renamed for James Pemberton.
The old railroad station is directly across from the Wawa, and the North Pemberton Rail Trail is right up alongside of it. This was the “Union Station” where Union Transportation had its southern terminus, and the Pennsylvania Railroad was a branch off of the Atlantic Division from the junction at a place called Birmingham just to the west. My plan was to walk to that junction site, then turn left and follow the Atlantic Division the rest of the way from where we left off last time here.

Dam on the Rancocas

The original North Pemberton Station from the beginning of the line burned down, and it was replaced with the current station in 1892.

Dam on the Rancocas

Passenger service continued to North Pemberton until 1969. After that, the station fell into some disrepair, which is customary of such old disused stations like this, and it was saved and treated as a gateway to the Pine Barrens for many years starting I think in 1999. It was open as a museum by Pemberton Township Historic Trust.
The Trust started accruing various transportation artifacts during their time there, and Pemberon Mayor David Patriarca was quoted as saying they were an “eyesore” and wanted them removed. The trust purchased an old Roebling diesel, after which Patriarca convinced the town council to cancel the lease on the property in 2012.

Pretty Rancocas view

The Pemberton Township Historic Trust was ordered to remove all of its artifacts within a couple of months, which is a pretty much impossible task. The collection had to be donated where possible, and sadly some irreplaceable artifacts had to be scrapped.

Historic South Pemberton Station image

Although the town apparently has some sort of plans for the old station, and the inside looks to be in good order, it still remained closed at the time of this visit.

South Pemberton Station site today, confirmed site using 1870s maps

Kat and Kevin were parked around the end of the Wawa opposite where the station was, so we didn’t know they arrived for a while, and I thought maybe they went to the wrong place!

South Pemberton Station

We got walking from the station heading west for a bit. The first bit of trail is really easy walking with a crushed stone aggregate base rather than mud or sand.

Rancocas tributary view

We crossed over the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek where the railings are made of repurposed older grate walkways I think, and continued to the junction site at Birmingham. I let the group catch up here. We made a hard left to turn onto the Atlantic Division for the rest of the hike.
This stretch of the trail did not have the surfacing that the section to the north had. It was grassy, and a bit muddier, but not anything terrible. The right of way took us very close to the North Branch of the Rancocas with some nice views.

Pemberton Bypass on the old rail bed

Soon, Shane came into view sitting in the middle of the right of way. The improved surface trail breaks off to the left from the now overgrown right of way, which goes off into a business area ahead. There were also a couple of trails going off to the right in lands of the Rancocas Conservancy. The organization has a ton of land all through the area. This particular tract is known as the Beechwood Preserve (I noted one very large one of this species, but unfortunately carved full of names and such next to the creek).

A right of way of sorts at Pemberton Lake

I’ll certainly have to come back and do an entire series of hikes just on the Rancocas for sure. I’ve still not incorporated much of Rancocas State Park, and there are plenty of other tracts of land and trails I’ve never done in the region.
I thought to possibly take one of the foot paths to the right, but it was a good thing I didn’t because that would have just looped us back. We took the crushed stone path that bypassed the private section of the railroad bed, which took us too a lovely dam on the Rancocas.

Pemberton Lake

We continued on the trail, which took us back to Hanover Street across from the fire station. The road bridge over the Rancocas was under construction. Apparently a new bridge.

Pemberton Lake

We had to turn right here, toward the Burger King.
This was about the site of the former South Pemberton station. The site where the railroad used to cross is pretty obvious on the west side of the road, but not so much to the east. I used some 1870s maps to confirm the former location of the station.
We crossed Hanover Street and continued along Magnolia Road, built mostly on the railroad, to the larger Pemberton Bypass. The highway has much obliterated the former railroad.

Pemberton Lake

There were some berms and such just off the road around the intersection that might have been some remnants of the grade, but it’s just too hard to tell now.

Ruins in the woods

The stretch ahead was what I consider to be the worst part of the hike, where we had to simply walk the wide highway because it destroyed the grade.
The 198 acre North Branch Preserve of the Rancocas Conservancy is on the left side of the highway here, and might have made a better alternative, but it was out of the way. I’ll have to make another Rancocas themed one to go along with this as well. We just stayed on the highway and watched for what looked like rail grade going off to the right.

The rail bed at Cole Bridge Road

To the right, there was some sort of grade and a path going into the woods adjacent to the lovely Pemberton Lake, and I figured that was the railroad grade.
This might have in fact been some kind of old sand quarry turn off or siding. The railroad did go alongside the lake briefly as per historic maps, but somehow we lost it briefly in this area.
We took a little break along the edge of the lake, which is part of Pemberton Lake Wildlife Management Area, before continuing on to find the grade.

The rail bed

It became apparent that we were just following the lake shore and were not on the railroad bed at all in short order. So, we took to the next path that went back into the woods to the north. This took us over a high sandy knoll, probably the most elevation we saw over the entire course of the day, and then the path abruptly ended. There was no good way to bushwhack through the woods to the north because the forest floor was all wet. We decided to go back and follow the same path we were on along the lake just a bit more, and then cut onto another grade headed sort of northeast.

An old rail bridge

There were some sort of concrete ruins along this grade, although we have no idea what they might have been. I’m still betting sand quarry or something.
The grade we picked up took us out to Cole Bridge Road, a sandy unpaved road that turns north in the direction we needed to go.
We walked by a guy that was just sort of standing in his driveway, kind of shocked to see this big group of people go by. I greeted him and we moved on ahead. The rail bed was obviously just up ahead, blocked on one side by a pile of stand to keep vehicles out. We turned right and were back on course again.

The rail bed

The rail bed paralleled Cole Bridge Road for a time, and then continued off along the left side of a power line clearing.
Kevin came running up to me at some point and said that the guy that was standing in his driveway was now following us.
This was rather odd. I wondered if he was going to try to kick us off of the property or something. There were no “no trespassing” signs back here, but I’m not sure where the state land begins or ends yet. He apparently talked to some of the people in the group and the gist of the story I got was that he was going to cut a tree down and then there were two trees and then something about a pickup truck.

Approaching another bridge

We figured he probably started walking behind us because he saw the girls, Sarah and Kat, walking near the back of the group and took some kind of interest.
We all continued on the rail bed, which remained to the left side of the power line cut. At two different locations just ahead, there were old concrete bridges, no doubt left over from railroad days, over tributaries to the Rancocas Creek which flows just to the north. They were interestingly poured, because the abutments were done first, and the main span of the bridge, also concrete, was laid into the crade of the abutments separately.

Beaver dam

We skirted wetlands, and there were huge puddles in the rail bed, and a very large beaver dam off to our right/south.
It was a pleasant walk from here to the settlement of New Lisbon, where a branch of the Rancocas Creek passed beneath the railroad by way of a much longer concrete bridge.
The right of way beyond became part of a driveway to several homes on the way to 4 Mile Road.
We took a brief break at the road, at the former site of the New Lisbon Station. There was a sign there that read the town was established in 1810.

Muddy Atlantic Division

The station site was very recognizable. There was a concrete curbing for where the platform was, which extended well beyond the edge of the road. Along this entire stretch there were railroad ties still in place in the grass.
This section of the Atlantic Division has been out of service since 1966, so it’s pretty good to see so much still in place.
Just barely past the end of that station platform was the original southern terminus of the Kinkora Branch, which was the subject of some of the past hikes in the area.

Atlantic Division

The Kinkora Branch is very forgotten at this end, and the line has a very interesting history.
In February of 1833, the Delaware and Jobstown or McAdamized Road Co. was chartered to connect the Delaware River at the confluence with Crafts Creek through Columbus, Jobstown, Juliustown, Lewistown, and New Lisbon. The name was changed to the Delaware and Atlantic Railroad Co. in 1834 so they would have the ability to continue the line east toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Construction began in 1835 and continued through 1838.

Old concrete bridge

This was a mule or horse drawn railroad with strap rail rather than solid metal (straps of metal affixed to the tops of wooden rails).
It carried charcoal and lumber between New Lisbon and Kinkora, probably for use at the nearby Roebling site, as the Camden and Amboy had not yet reached that point when service began.
The line was not really successful, and was eventually abandoned, according to The History of Burlington County, in 1850. It found a rebirth as the Columbus and Kinkora Railroad in 1866, after the Pemberton and Hightstown had opened.

Old concrete rail bridge in New Lisbon

It utilized the original rail bed from Kinkora through Columbus, and probably the same line south of there.

Old concrete bridge

It was changed to the Columbus, Kinkora, and Springfield Railroad in 1870, and the Camden and Amboy would operate it upon it’s completion.
Because the Camden and Amboy became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, so too did the Kinkora Branch.
The railroad continued further south from Lewistown to New Lisbon in the newer incarnation, but that last three plus miles was abandoned in 1881, which is why it is so little known to this day. Despite that early abandonment, tracks remained in place to where we passed by until 1909.

New Lisbon Station site

Shane brought it up that the junction would have been in this area somewhere, but he figured it might have been on the road. As per the historic maps, the junction was near the present day curve in Mt. Misery Road just barely east of the station site.

New Lisbon Station site

We noted the platform in the woods a bit as we walked, but I definitely missed this former junction site because we had to walk Mt. Misery Road for a time. Ahead, the railroad right of way is overtaken somewhat by several homes built over it. This was not too bad, because it wasn’t a big road like the Pemberton Bypass.
After the first few homes, there was a sandy path back over to the power line from which we could access the railroad bed again. The path was in woods parallel with Mt. Misery Road until it opened up into a cultivated field setting. It was a nice open walk here.

Capt. Soup with New Lisbon post office

We eventually had to turn right at the end of the fields back out to Mt. Misery Road because the power line and rail bed were cut off ahead. They go into more back yards, so the road walk was again necessary.
After just a couple more buildings, there was a VFW Lodge on the left. We were able to walk into their parking lot and back to the railroad bed in back of it. It was a bit more beat up in this area and not as worn down by ATVs, but it was a nicer walk than the road. We got our group shot in this section, because I thought it was funny with some derelict cars and an old bus in it.

The rail bed

We were almost to the point where Captain Soup was going to cut out from the group. A driveway used the right of way just up ahead, and there was another dirt road coming in from the left known as Rancocas Lane. I did not know it at the time, but Rancocas Lane was actually the Browns Mills Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which made its way about 1.7 miles north to the community of Browns Mills. There was a tower and a small station shanty building once at this location.

Browns Mills Junction

Now, it’s just a sand road that doesn’t look like much of anything. We figured the junction was somewhere close by, but after looking at historic and current maps, it’s obvious.

Browns Mills Junction today

We headed to the next crossing, at Junction Road, which seemed like it would have been the former junction site, but was not. Captain Soup said his goodbyes to us there, and headed back up the road the distance of a couple of blocks to his rented jeep.

The rail bed

There was a private house directly across the street from the intersection of the rail bed, which is used as a driveway, and there were cars parked in it. To the right, on the power line, there was a crappy ATV path that bypassed the house and such to get back on the railroad bed on the other side.
I did not know it for sure at the time, but this was the former site of a railroad station that was known as Brown’s Mills In The Pines. The station here predated the spur branch up to Browns Mills, and apparently stood on what is now the edge of the private driveway on the other side.

1893 image of Browns Mills In The Pines

I decided we would quietly make our way along the crummy ATV path and then just continue once we got past the private home. Fortunately, we did not have any problem here.

The rail bed

We continued off into another nicely wooded section of the right of way, which remained clear and actually had quite a few railroad ties still in place.
Shane kept picking up spikes along the way, would carry them for a little while, and then lob them back onto the edge of the right of way further down.
Unlike a lot of the other sections of this grade, the grade itself remained the best walking route from here for a long ways ahead. However, my biggest concern with this entire hike was a missing bridge in this section a short distance ahead.

Browns Mills, 1893

I had gone over maps from different seasons and found a way around this problem spot, but it would add at least another mile of distance to it.

A happy group

The bridge abutments were nice old stone ones, capped with a little concrete, where the railroad and power line make up the boundary for Brendan T. Byrne (formerly Lebanon) State Forest. The only realistic opportunity to cross would be a couple of logs.

Missing bridge site

I decided pretty quickly if any of the group wanted to walk around to the next road and then back to the tracks they could do so. It wouldn’t be very difficult to figure out. I decided to just walk right across the log. The first bit was extremely slippery, and close to the water. However, at that spot the water was very shallow. The next log was much higher up, and walking it meant gaining elevation all the way across to the abutment on the other side.
I walked across the thing with no problem at all. Uncle Soup went to follow me, but on that very first slippery step, he went off into the water. Fortunately, he was fine, but he decided to shimmy across rather than try to walk it.

Missing bridge site

A few in the group wandered around looking for another potential way across, but the problem was this was a confluence point.

Shimmy shimmy

The water flowed north to south, and on the north side, several little branches of waterways came together to pass through the railroad right of way in one concentrated spot. If we did not cross at this point, it was either the long walk around or it would mean crossing at least three bodies of water on logs.
Doug had the smart idea of using a long stick for balance going over it. He also broke off one of the branches that would be hard for anyone else to throw their legs around. Everyone else pretty much just shimmied over as best they could.

skills

Kevin went a weird way across on a thinner log, which probably would not have held any of us heavier than him, which went across some of the stream to another log that sat perpendicular to the one we were crossing. Another slippery log closer to the water, it was not a great way to go, but he managed to get across with no problem.
Kirk was the last one over, and he was the only one other than me to just walk it, although he carried a long stick as a balancing pole to get across.

Pines rerooting themselves

Once we were all over, we walked ahead to skirt the development of the County Lake Estates. This went on for a bit. Rather than be closer to that on the railroad side, I headed off into the woods to the right of the power line in the state forest land. There was a very nice foot path just barely inside the woods there with easier footing than the track bed or power line, which had become increasingly sandy and hard to walk on.
We crossed Spring Lake Blvd near the mid section of the estates, and then continued east beyond the end of the development.

This is what the Rt 70 bridge looked like in Upton before being removed.

A bit further ahead, we reached John D. Rockefeller Memorial Highway, Rt 70, where there was once a concrete bridge that carried the road over the tracks.

There's a pipe.

Just before that, there was a house on the right and a little side road. This was the former site of Upton Station.
Aside from the one home there today, there is pretty much nothing left of Upton.
We continued across, and made our way into more desolate lands.
The rail bed was clear again for a while, and pretty easy walking. It had left state forest lands, and soon skirted an access road to the left just ways into the woods. To the right, there was a large open blueberry farm with electric fences skirting the edge of the rail bed.

Doug found the Jersey Devil!

It was still in interesting area to walk, form deeper woods to more expansive open lands. When we got back to the woods, I watched as the pine branches grew from straight out to down into the ground where they were rerooting themselves. We passed headless deer carcasses probably from trophy hunters that wanted nothing but the heads and antlers.
Off to the left, there was a weird haunted house type setup. A trail led through the woods and into buildings with spider web stuff from the trees and such.

Along the blueberry farm

It must be one of those haunted walks people pay to go through. I was up in the front with Doug and Uncle Soup, and soon the others were nowhere to be seen.

Fire scarred

We continued to a point where several sand roads converge and cross the rail grade and power line, and Lebanon Forest Road went straight across. This was on a little knoll where we could see further back where the others might be.
We waited a while and I figured they must have all stopped to go into that haunted house thing (they did).
Once they were all within sight again, we started moving ahead a bit more. We could follow the rail grade for a bit, but then had to get back out in the open again.

The rail bed

All of the lands between the parallel Lebanon State Forest Road/City Line Road and the power line were burned, probably by forest fire service recently. It was all well contained and looked professionally done. I could still smell the burn around there.
The rail grade headed most the entire distance from Pemberton in an east southeast direction, then shifted to due east near the Halloween place. Very soon, it shifted again in an east northeast direction. I figured we were going to have to stop and wait for the others for a while in this next stretch.

Rail bed

Just then, I started hearing hooting coming from the woods, probably from Jack.
Somehow, they managed to catch up with us walking on Lebanon Forest Road/City Line Road. They walked parallel with Doug, Uncle Soup, and I still on the rail grade until we came to Butler Place Road, another sand road which crossed the grade and power line. There, we headed to the left and we all walked Lebanon State Foroest Road closely parallel with the clearing.

Rail bed in Brendan Byrne State Forest

This was around the area that the Buckingham Station once stood, though there was really no sort of remnant out here either.
That road eventually turns right to cross the railroad grade and power line, and becomes Buckingham-Whiting Road. We remained on a path closely parallel for a bit, and then came out to the rail grade at a large body of water impounded by a stream known as the Pole Bridge Branch.

The moon at Pole Bridge Branch

The scene where we walked out was stunningly beautiful. The full moon was rising in the east and looked enormous. As we approached the water, its reflection could be seen along the edge of the right of way.

The moon and Pole Bridge Branch

In the western direction, the sun was setting with a bright orange.
The railroad bed was on a sort of causeway over the Pole Bridge Branch, and soon after we intersected another sand road called St. Mary’s Ave. By then Rt 539, Warren Grove-Whiting Road came into view. We could see the cars going back and forth across this, as well as the next road. After not long, we crossed Cherry Street on which the Whiting Town Center mall is located.
We continued on the right of way just a little bit more, and then turned to the left over a grassy area, then crossed Diamond Road, which is named for the railroad diamond between the PRR and CNJ lines, to reach the mall. We walked into the lot with relief that this one was done. Shane continued to the diamond site, and then walked around the back of the store on the CNJ line to come around to the lot the other way.
I laughed at a Veterinary Clinic sign that was backwards but lit up.

Ham

It was good to be finished. I had spent the entire week off of work, feeling pretty sick with what was probably the flu, and things only started to improve the day before. Still, it comes in waves, and by this time of night, already dark and getting colder, I was starting to feel pretty crappy.
Jack drove us back to Pemberton in his comfy van, and we were on our way out. I couldn’t get warm to save my life most of the drive, but when I got a shower I felt much better.
From where we left off in Whiting, we are set up to do the next one in this series, which could be the last really, from where we left off to the site of the bridge that took the railroad out across the Barnegat Bay. Of course, there are a few other snippets we could cover as parts of other hikes. We could do a little bit on the beach again, although I’ve already covered that. We could do the bits of other branches out closer to the western terminus and so on, but there really is only one more Atlantic Division hike for me to have done the bulk of it.

Pole Bridge Branch

We’ll have literally walked across the state yet another way. I’ll have to plan to get this one done soon. I’ve already got some really cool ideas for what to do on this, and when we got done with it we can go on to Tuckerton Railroad or something else connecting very easily.

HAM