Hike #1249; Avondale to Newark

Hike #1249; Avondale to Newark

8/24/19 Avondale PA to Newark DE with Diane Reider

This next hike would be a point to point and a return to an area and line I have been wanting to do for quite a long time now.

An old station in Avondale

The route was that of the Pomeroy and Newark Railroad.
My first experience with this line was running the Mason-Dixon Trail hike series many years ago. When we started on that in it’s first section, the very last portion of the hike was where the trail was superimposed onto the old Pomeroy line’s right of way. The next section after that, very much of it was part of the old railroad line.
I was fascinated by the fact that this line went back and forth across the White Clay Creek so many times between the north end of the preserved land and Newark.

Historic 1898 image on the Pomeroy Branch

Not only did it seem to keep crossing, most of the bridges appeared to have been quite low, which meant this line was particularly susceptible to flooding.
I had a nice took going over the history thanks to the amazing anthologies of photos on these lines put together by Gregory Pawelski, some of which I include here with credits.

Station in Avondale

The railroad was first built in 1869 as the Newark and Pomeroy Railroad. It later became the Pennsylvania Railroad Pomeroy Branch. It broke off of the main line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg in Pomeroy, and headed south to Buck Run, Doe Run, Chatham, and Avondale where it made connection with and crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Octararo Branch. It continued to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio’s Landenberg Branch in Landenberg, and then continued on White Clay Creek south to Newark. Apparently the connection further south to Delaware City on the Delaware River eventually became part of the Pomeroy Branch.

Octararo Branch station

Passenger service ran on the line, nicknamed the “Pumpsie Doodle” and other variations, until 1928. Abandonment of the line began in 1936.
The section from Chatham to the Delaware state line was abandoned in 1937. The section from the state line down to the end of Newark was abandoned in 1939. The northern end was truncated back to Doe Run in the 1960s. The remaining stubs of the line were in service through the mergers that formed Penn Central Railroad, to the beginning of Conrail in 1976.

PRR Pomeroy Branch (right) and Octoraro Branch (left) in January 1939. Gas electric on the PRR Octoraro Branch in Avondale, Pa. The southbound MD-59, powered by G5s #1073 (right) has entered the Pomeroy Branch to allow the northbound train powered by No. 4650 to pass. (David H. Cope)

The north end was truncated again, and remained in service under Conrail subsidies until 1980. Conrail only kept the stub in Newark, which was transferred through the breakups and abandoned most recently. The line south of Newark to the refineries at Delaware City remain in service to this day by Norfolk Southern.

I said for several years that at some point I would end up hiking the entire old right of way between it’s start in Pomeroy and Newark, but just had never gotten around to it.

The Pomeroy Branch from the main line today

August had been going great, and I had a couple of free weekends I wanted to put something especially good for Summer on. Because the majority of this hike would be along the White Clay Creek, and it was both scenic and easy, I figured this was a surefire winner. After all, I had pulled some very large crowds the last few times I organized hikes in this area.
So, I was extremely surprised that only Diane showed up for this hike. I figured this would be the best one I’d done in the area yet. I figure part of the problem is that there is so much stuff going on the same days, and people are committed to whatever else.

Old rail bridge likely

Regardless, we headed out to do the hike. It was still going to be great.
We shuttled from the grocery store areas on the east side of Newark where I’d made the meeting point north to the town of Avondale.
Avondale was already settled in colonial days, in two separate tracts of land divided by William Penn, which became London Grove and New Garden Township. Avondale takes it’s name from Avondale Farm of the Miller family who operated farms and mills in the area.

Avondale

The town was quite nice, with a lot of farm land around, typical encroaching new development, and also a lot of historic buildings. I liked it pretty much immediately.
William Penn wrote of this area “The County itself in its soyl, air, water, seasons and produce both natural and artificial is not to be despised. The land containeth divers sorts of earth in some places a fast fat earth like to the best vales in England, especially by inland brooks and rivers. The air is sweet and clear, the heavens serene, like the south parts of France, rarely overcast. The waters are generally good, for the rivers and brooks have mostly gravel and stony bottoms, and are in number hardly credible.”

Historic home near Avondale

I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to park to start the hike, so we had to drive around in Avondale a bit first to figure that out.
We ended up parking at a little lot on Pomeroy Avenue. I didn’t know it at the time, but this road was built directly on the right of way of the Pomeroy Branch.
To the right of us, there was some old industry, and what appeared to be an old freight station. We first got out and walked over to have a look at that.
It turns out that this was in fact the station for the Newark and Pomeroy Railroad, now along the still active tracks of the Octararo Branch through town.

The old rail bed below Avondale

The Octararo Branch was originally built in the 1850s as the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad. Some sections of it are abandoned, while others are used for short line service.
The station had been moved from it’s original location 180 degrees to be along the Octararo Branch. We got on that branch and started walking to the west, and soon passed another station building.
I assumed at first that one must be the passenger, the other the freight station, and didn’t consider they could have been for the two lines before they were Pennsylvania Railroad.

New Garden Station site

The second station had a flat top and visible masonry construction. I figured it was original.
It turns out that this one was originally a two story station, but apparently they chopped the top off of it in 1946 to make it smaller. I figure it must be the original station in some form, because that type of masonry wouldn’t be around otherwise.
We headed across West State Street on the tracks, and then crossed over the East Branch of the White Clay Creek on a bridge. The Pomeroy Line used to parallel this and crossed just to the left of where we crossed, then crossed the Octararo Branch at grade to turn to the right. It appears that a power line follows closely to the old Pomeroy Branch at this point.

The rail bed coming out to Auburn Rd

We continued ahead on the active track, and walked out into grass to the right to see if we could get a better look at the right of way. When there was nothing to see, we crossed a business property to Gap Newport Pike, and then turned to the right on Ellicott Road. To the right of the road beyond the intersection, there was an abutment to a former bridge over the East Branch of White Clay Creek. That must have been the east leg of the wye that connected with the Octararo Branch.

Laurel Heights Trail

We continued down Ellicott Road, and there was a handsome old homestead on the left. I tried looking it up, but can’t find any particular history about it.
We continued along, and the Pomeroy Line used to parallel it to the right. I could see some of the fill for the right of way through the trees, but it was nothing we could walk. The road turned away from this, and then climbed up hill for a bit.
We continued to Garden Station Road, which was certainly named for the railroad station that would have been on it.

Rock cut

We headed down hill to the White Clay Creek, and there was barely any disturbance of where the railroad would have been. I simply made an assumption for where it should have been to take a photo. I could not find any historic photos of the New Garden Station, which also would have stood at this point. I guess none exist.
We crossed the creek, and then turned left on Clay Creek Road. I had originally wanted to try to bushwhack in to the next piece of the railroad bed ahead, when the creek comes closer to the road on the left, but then I opted against it. I figured we could head over to it by another way. Diane and I discussed politics and the craziness of all parties as we walked the road to the south, and then turned to the left on Auburn Road surrounded by lots of development.

Historic image of the rock cut, New Garden Historical collection

We got into deep discussion and I missed where I had wanted to make a left turn onto Lavender Hill Lane. This leads into a development where Mill Race Trail starts. A bit of the old railroad grade is now a trail through there. I didn’t know it at the time, because it wasn’t shown on maps yet, but the trail does connect out to Auburn Road, so I ended up missing a piece of the railroad bed here. I did get a photo of it looking in to the property.
Where the railroad crossed Auburn Road, it continued and then crossed the White Clay Creek again. We didn’t do that bit, because it goes onto private land near a house.
Instead, we continued ahead to the intersection with Penn Green Road. We turned to the right here briefly, and then to the left on Laurel Heights Road.
Just ahead, on the right, there was a trail section just above the Penn Green Road ahead that took us along a side hill slope parallel with the road.

PRR Pomeroy Branch Landenberg, Pa. trestle (50-feet tall, 120-feet long) circa 1910. (George A. Wolf Photo)

I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently some of the lower portion of Penn Green Road through here is built on the old railroad bed.

History in Landenberg!

The original Penn Green Road was actually higher up the slope even than where the trail was we were walking, and it came down to cross over the railroad bed on a bridge before picking up it’s current route to the south.

Landenberg from New Garden Historical Commission Collection

The trail was really nice, with slight ups and downs, not too far from the road. The trail makes a loop with an upper and lower section, and we remained on the lower section, which appears to be more scenic anyway.

Amazing lunch

The trail took us through the woods and eventually hit the location on the old Penn Green Road where it used to cross the tracks. There was a historic marker there that told about the railroad, although here they referred to it as the “Pommie Doodle”.

Landenberg Store historic image

The railroad bed went through a very impressive deep cut directly below this point. I was surprised, because the sections I’d seen of it before followed a much easier path of little resistance right along the creek. This was substantial.

Landenberg Store

We left the official trail, which began to loop back, and carefully went down hill to the current road route along rocks and such. We then stepped over to some fill that covered a bit of the old rock cut. There was a historic photo of it I wanted to try to emulate, so I climbed down into the cut and made my way to the other side, avoiding mud as best I could.

Landenberg Junction Park

I think I set my photo up pretty well, and was quite happy because I know most won’t be climbing down in there to try to get what I’d gotten.
I didn’t want to try to chance following the railroad here because it came out to a private driveway, probably close to someone’s house. I climbed back out, and we turned on Penn Green Road heading to the south.
There was a spot that looked like it would have been a rail crossing, where the road went through a cut of it’s own, but it was not the railroad. We then crossed the East Branch of the White Clay Creek on a high bridge.

New Garden Historical image of Landenberg Station

To the left, east, we could see the central pier to the bridge that carried the railroad over the same.
We continued on the road to the south, with the creek to our left. The railroad was farther up the slope from the creek in this area. I spotted what was probably an old dam ruin along the way thinking it might have been a rail spur, but I didn’t realize the right of was so high up at this point.
After passing the church, we reached Landenberg, where there was a handsome pony truss bridge spanning the creek to the left. We had a look at this, and then decided to take a break at the wonderful Landenberg Store.
I had seen this place on the google maps ahead of time, and was immediately interested by it. It was the only business establishment we would be passing for the entire hike, but this one gave me a good feeling.

Historic view of Landenberg, 1927, Mary Simons Collection

I was beyond correct with this one. The owners were very friendly to talk to, and the food was excellent.
The lady at the counter told me about a road trip she had taken with a child where they tried some sort of odd sandwich, and so she made her own version of it and called it the “Road Trip”. I went with her recommendation and tried it, and it was quite delicious. I was really hungry, and she had containers of pasta salad too. I figured I’d best try that as well.

New Garden Historical Commission image of Landenberg

The pasta salad was the best I’d ever had. She told me it was her special recipe.
They also had excellent chocolate milk, and an odd company cream soda I’d never had before. Diane had brought a lunch with her, but it looked so good that even she had to try it. Neither of us were at all disappointed, and I’ll plan another trip out there just to revisit.
The place was also good for us because it was full of historic photos. The store itself used to be a sort of meeting hall that was much taller. The top of the building, which had like a dance hall we had described to us, was knocked off so the building was much shorter.

Landenberg Junction park

The pony truss bridge over the creek had been closed for many years because the state was going to replace it with a concrete structure, but the residents wanted their old bridge back. A special deal was made to keep it, and it’s now a no-weight bearing structure that compliments the ambiance of the area.
Directly across from the pony truss bridge, the railroad used to cross the road on a rather high bridge.
This was also the junction site between the Pomeroy Branch and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Delaware and Western Railroad. That line was originally incorporated as the Delaware and Chester County Railroad in 1867, and was renamed the Wilmington and Western in 1869. The line was extended through to the junction at Landenberg in 1872. It became the Delaware and Western in 1877.

A dam on White Clay Creek

The western end of the line came upon hard times at the same time as the Pomeroy line. The Delaware and Western was scaled back to Southwood on the PA side in the 1940s, and then to Hockessin DE in the 1950s. Excursion trains began use of the line in 1966 to that point, and it’s been going strong ever since. Despite having major bridge washouts over the years, they have always rebuilt and are apparently quite successful.
Landenberg Junction was at one time a very happening place, with industry and travelers going in three different directions. It’s now such a sleepy place, one would never know.

The start of the White Clay Creek Preserve

I showed the lady at the store one of the historic photos I was trying to duplicate, but they could not positively identify it. I was later able to figure it out thanks to Gregory Pawelski and his extensive collection of images. He was able to confirm exactly where I was looking.

Nivin Trail section

When we finished eating, we walked across the bridge to check out the junction. That site is now part of a Landenberg Junction park. The bridge abutments at the former crossing are still standing. We climbed up the right side, and they had a set of steps to get to the different levels of the two lines. A trail followed the Pomeroy line for a bit, and a shorter distance on the Delaware and Western. The old station was apparently on the other side of the road, and the area now has some apartments in older buildings where they don’t necessarily welcome visitors. There used to be a siding out there to what was known as Sheehan’s Yard. I’d love to get over there to have a look around, but it just didn’t look feasible.
We walked from here along the right of ways side by side. I stayed on the Delaware and Western for a bit, which got super muddy, to where we hit private property. I then climbed down to the Pomeroy line to return to the road again. It’s really a neat little park area.

Covered foot bridge

We made our way back down to the Landenberg Road, and out to Penn Green Road where we turned left to continue south. Maybe one day the right of way out in that area will become part of a trail system, but it doesn’t look like it’s happening for a long while.
The creek remained pretty close to the road, which was scenic enough. I watched closely to see if I could see any remnants of the railroad, but there was really too much vegetation.
We stayed on the road until we got to Good Hope Road, at which point the White Clay Creek Preserve was already on the left side of us. It would just have been really difficult to try to bushwhack over to the rail bed and wade the stream. We chose to just stay on the road, then take Good Hope Road to the left the short distance to the former rail crossing.

1891 Library Company of Philadelphia image of one of the crossings

At the crossing, it looked kind of rough to the north, but a trail headed into the woods on it to the right. This was not your regular rail trail. It was really narrow, and barely had the right of way cleared. A side trail led to the right up hill, and had signs of the property of London Britain Land Trust.

The rail bed in White Clay Creek Preserve

The trail took us through woods briefly, out to London Tract Road, where there was a sign designating the section we had just been on as “Nivin Trail”. Nivin Trail along with another new one called Vaughn’s Trail make for an additional one mile loop on the north end of the property. One of these days I’ll have to get around to that.
From London Tract Road, we reached stuff I’d done before. The Mason-Dixon Trail comes in from the left on the road and turns onto the rail bed heading south, then follows it on and off quite a lot all the way to Newark.

We continued here, and the rail bed remains pretty clear, but much narrower than people come to expect of a rail trail, which I love. There is a little covered foot bridge to the right soon that leads to a parking area where I finished my first hike here.
The section is incredibly beautiful and relaxing. There are only very seldom remnants of railroad ties in this area abandoned since the thirties. There are fantastic views of the White Clay Creek and wetlands all around.
The first place where the railroad crossed the White Clay Creek in the preserve was now redecked as a foot bridge. We walked out and across it, and continued on the other side for just a little bit. The right of way then became very overgrown, so we backtracked across the bridge and continued on the other side on Mason-Dixon Trail, which is still very pleasant.

Mason Dixon Trail

I really need to get around to finishing that trail as well. I have committed so much time to tracing it through, and there’s really not that much of it left I need to get to.
The Mason-Dixon Trail is a 199 mile long route that connects the Brandywine Trail (which connects to the Horse-Shoe Trail) in Chadd’s Ford PA with the Appalachian Trail at Wiskey Springs PA. I’d already hiked the entire thing from Chadd’s Ford to Elk Neck State Forest, and I’m missing a piece from there to Perryville MD. From Perryville MD across to Havre De Grace and up along the Susquehanna to well above Wrightsville I’ve also completed, so I only have to do the section between the Susquehanna River and the Appalachian Trail.

Snake skin

The only problem is I’m doing so much stuff out in western PA with the 911 Memorial Trail route that I don’t want to commit to too much other stuff out there. One of these days I’ll get to it.
Mason Dixon Trail took us past an old stone foundation along the creek, and around a bend to where the railroad bed came back across to the west side again. We could clearly see the old piers coming through the woods. If we hadn’t been looking for it though, it’s easy to miss.
There is such a seamless joining of the rail bed and trail again, where we don’t feel like we’re walking a rail bed, that it’s easy to miss. The trail also meanders back and forth within the right of way grade, so one wouldn’t think of it as a straight rail bed.

Sinking abutments

We came to another crossing site after a section with fields, and there were again multiple piers heading out toward the water. This looks amazing to me, where some of the old piers are sinking into the creek. Every flood that hits damages the old infrastructure more.

The rail bed

The efforts of other generations to try to repair this line were obvious, as there were old masonry piers as well as multiple concrete ones in the same line. The old stone ones are sometimes tilted sideways. I wondered if the bridges were washed out or if they had been removed upon abandonment of the line.
I took a dip in the creek in this area, which got kind of deep. I wanted to see the other side anyway to see if it was feasible to continue following the rail bed. It didn’t look at all clear yet on the other side, so we opted to stick with the Mason-Dixon Trail again.

Old bridge site

The trail kept us close to the edge of the creek and over some nice foot bridges and such.

Mason Dixon Trail

The combined Mason-Dixon and Penn Del Trails followed along the creek, and then turned to the right at the confluence of the East and West Branches of the White Clay Creek. It followed the West Branch just a bit to Sharpless Road, crossed on that, and then headed back into the woods following the West Branch back to the confluence again.
We took a break at that bridge, and a couple of people riding around in what looked like an old car from the twenties passed by. I had taken a photo of this car in Landenberg coming across the bridge, and when I saw them again, hoped that they saw us, and might have though it crazy that these same people were still walking this far south.

Charles Bailey Trail section of rail bed

The bridge also had several snake skins laying on it, and entangled in it. At first, I thought someone just spread them out there, but then since there were so many, I realized that snakes must actually have been shedding here.
Somewhere in this area, Yeatman’s Station existed on the Pomeroy line. I’m not sure where it was, but probably just around the south side of the previous bridge site.
We continued on Mason-Dixon Trail to where it was close to the edge of the creek. We could see people sitting around on the other side, which meant that another trail was on the other side.
Charles Bailey Trail utilizes the old rail bed for quite some time on the opposite side, and so we waded across the creek to reach that as soon as we had a good spot. We climbed up the slope and visited a nice masonry lined underpass with a new foot bridge built originally for the railroad.
We continued south on the Charles Bailey Trail on the rail bed, which continued to follow the creek on a pleasant, clear but narrower trail. It took us through a couple of rock cuts as well as up on shelves. Quite a pretty area.

Pomeroy Trail

Eventually, we came to the next bridge site. This one was much more substantial than the previous ones, but the bridge was long gone. The creek was shallow in this area, so we easily waded across to the other side, where the rail bed became part of the Mason-Dixon Trail again. There were quite a few people hanging out in this area.

Mason Dixon Trail

Just after the bridge site, we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line. The trail remained on the railroad bed for a bit, but then turned off of it to the left. The rail bed goes out over a field, and becomes more indistinct in the next section. The Mason-Dixon Trail was again our route out to the next parking area, adjacent to Chambers Rock Road. The state parks in Delaware have an entrance fee for parking, but there were a lot of people there. We wandered on through across Chambers Rock Road, and continued on Mason-Dixon Trail. The rail bed remained to the right of us for a bit, and I think I might have found the spot where it crossed over the White Clay Creek next. The Mason Dixon Trail is coaligned with Nature Preserve Trail on the Delaware side, now White Clay Creek State Park instead of “Preserve” on the Pennsylvania side.
I saw a spot where there were humps completely covered over in vines, and we walked out to a stony bar in the creek. That was likely where the bridge was, but I couldn’t be sure due to lack of evidence. It wasn’t too hard to line it up on the aerial images though.

Crossing the Mason Dixon Line

We continued on the trail to the south and reached Creek Road, which is the next leg of the trail. The Mason-Dixon Trail turns away in it’s rerouted section I’d done not that long back, to the Tri State Monument and the Arc Boundary Monument. We passed the park nature center in the historic building to the right, and continued south to Hopkins Road. There, we turned to the left across White Clay Creek, and then right again on the railroad bed.

A last swim spot

This section was much different than the rest of it we’d been on. It was much wider, with wider mowed sides to it. Many more people were using it on bikes and such as well. We continued downstream past a pumping station and a pretty wetland meadow, and then crossed over the section of Wedgewood Road that is now a trail with a prefabricated foot bridge over White Clay Creek.
It wasn’t too long before we reached our last crossing of the White Clay Creek. Again, the railroad bridge was gone, but it as replaced by a prefabricated bridge on the old abutments, with the middle pier now doing nothing, just standing in the water. We crossed the bridge and continued on the trail on the other side, which took us to Creek Road. We were rejoined by the Mason Dixon Trail, which also followed Creek Road.
I was annoyed to see another bag of dog crap left right along this section as soon as we started getting closer to a parking area. People are always leaving their bagged dog crap everywhere.
We passed a parking area on the left, and then there was a sort of clearing on the left where it looked like we might be able to get down to the creek. We checked it out but found nothing. I wanted to take one more dip to cool off before we got to the town of Newark.

Along the college campus

We soon reached the College Ave bridge site where there are only abutments left, and there seemed to be an access to the creek there. I went down and laid in it one more time before moving on.
We made our way up to the bridge site, and continued where the trail was getting to be more used. There were nicer prefab bridges on this bit, with stone abutments made for ambiance. The trail became paved as we made our way closer to the University of Newark.
We crossed College Ave again, and the edges of the trail were lined with tall light posts. We passed a student housing area where a group of them were playing beer pong.

Baha

We reached Olan Thomas Park before the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and Thomas Street where the trail crosses on an angle. At that point, there were good historic markers we stopped to read.
We then crossed the intersection, and I was amused by one of the signs at the active railroad underpass reading “12’ Too High? Too Late. Stop Now.”.
We followed the trail under the active tracks, which had some sort of thing over it to keep debris from falling down onto the trail, and out to an access road to a nearby shopping plaza. The trail was closed from there, which I don’t understand why, apparently for some construction. We went just barely to the right through some college parking lot or something, and then came back to it at Main Street where I’d set up another then and now compilation using a historic photo I saw on one of the history signs.

Historic image of Pomeroy Railroad's Newark Station

The trail continues through town, down along a road, then across Delaware Ave and out through a parking lot, and over Wyoming Road before entering a swath of trees again. It then continues out to where the James F. Hall Trail which goes east and west parallel with more active tracks. I’d done this bit before to the right, but not to the left, which is where we turned.
There were more historic markers, and then a section of rail with a cool bench made of old wheel trucks. The active tracks here was the former Pennsylvania Railroad.
We kept to the left, where James F Hall Trail follows the former eastbound leg of a wye to where it joined the main line. Originally, the Pomeroy line would have gone straight across to continue to Delaware City I suppose here, where it’s still used.
We continued onthe paved trail after the rail bed turned away, and soon approached the underpass of Library Ave. There was some lady pushing little dogs in a baby stroller talking on her cell phone about what an excellent mother she is. That was weird.

End of Pomeroy Rail Trail

The trail turned left, to the north, at the other side of the underpass. That took us out to Wyoming Road across from the College Square shopping plaza area where Diane was parked.
She got me back to my car, and I took a long drive home passing through Kennet Square and other little towns on the Octararo Branch, and I stopped at wawa for some food.

James F Hall Trail where the railroad connected

I was feeling really great about what an awesome hike this was, but there still is a degree of disappointment that no one else found it interesting. Some of the really great sections I’d posted that don’t get any interest have brought me close to ruining my record of never posting a hike that no one showed up for. I’ve been going strong with my weekly hikes since early 2004.
Before that, there were countless times I’d post a hike, and sit waiting at Port Colden Mall for people who claimed they were coming to show up, only to leave me there waiting disappointed. There were a few close calls over the years where only one other person came out, but it’s been so infrequent until recently.
I’m afraid the day is indeed coming where I’ll drive some crazy distance to find no one there to meet me. I don’t know how I’ll take it. But I can’t expect that the interest will always be as strong. The group goes through it’s ups and downs, and everyone has their own things they want to do.
I reminded myself that we had a fantastic showing for the Musikfest hike, and everyone loved it. I just want them to know that every hike can be amazing with the right frame of mind.

The view on my drive home.

I accept that not everyone will have the level of interest in something as me, therefore they cannot have the same level of personal commitment to trying to see these places. Anyone can post any number of hikes on the same days and entice more people to come out based on the subject matter of the trip.

\HAM