11/5/19 Juliustown to Mt. Holly with Justin Gurbisz, Jennifer Tull, Shane Blische, and Dan Asnis
This next hike would be another point to point, this time on Election Day. I had the day off, so of course I had to make the best of it by putting a hike together.
Juliustown Station
I struggled with what I should post at first, but then started thinking about the last time we had done any of the old Union Transportation out near Fort Dix. There really wasn’t much left of that line to cover, and I could knock it out in pretty short order, then attach some other stuff.
I started looking at where we left off on it, at the former site of Lewistown, now a ghost town with no buildings, where the Union Transportation/Pemberton and Hightstown Railroad had a junction with the Kinkora Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and looked at what potential connectors would work.
Someone had mischief in Juliustown
I soon came up with a route leading to Mt. Holly NJ, a town I had actually never hiked to before, following the former Atlantic Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad out of Pemberton. The Pemberton area rail trails were things that have been on more “to do” list for over a decade. I knew I had come up with something I would appreciate.
I also knew Shane Blische would appreciate this one. It’s always good to do lines like that with him, because not everyone really cares at all about all of the crazy railroad history the way we do.
Remnants of the Kinkora Branch
I made the meeting point the Taco Bell adjacent to the Acme in northern Mt. Holly. We could meet there, and then shuttle to our start point.
This was a point that was a little harder to figure out. We couldn’t start in Fort Dix. We had already done the Kinkora Branch to the north from Lewistown, and we can’t do more of the Kinkora Branch to the south of there because it’s gated off on Fort Dix property.
I figured out a route then that would take us from Juliustown and do a little bit of what we had already done on the previous one out this way.
Kinkora Branch
I didn’t mind too badly, because I did want to see the old Juliustown Station, which still stands near the railroad bed, but it was moved a few blocks to the west.
I originally planned to park in Juliustown Park to the east side of the town. When I drove back there, I found that it was gated at dark. I didn’t want to count on being finished by dark, especially with the time change, so we instead pulled up to an on street parking spot.
Before pulling over to park, I had seen a guy standing out in his property, with lots of cut logs and such around, right on the old rail bed. He looked friendly enough, so I pulled up to him when we were passing back through to ask him about the railroad.
The man confirmed that this was in fact the old Kinkora Branch. He went on to tell us that the station that was moved and was now a private home used to sit on his property, and that he had built his shed shack back there on the original station’s foundation.
Kinkora Branch
The Camden and Amboy Railroad, America’s first regular civilian passenger railroad between Camden and South Amboy NJ via Bordentown and Burlington, was chartered in 1830 and began development soon after along the Delaware River.
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. 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).
Kinkora Branch bridge
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. It utilized the original rail bed from Kinkora through Columbus, and probably the same line south of there.
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.
Kinkora Branch bridge
The railroad continued further south from Lewistown to New Lisbon in the newer incarnation, but that last three plus miles was abandoned in 1881, although the tracks remained in place there until 1909.
It was no longer necessary with the other line reaching that point out of Pemberton. The entire Kinkora Branch seemed somewhat redundant until the advent of the first World War.
A resurgence of the line occurred and began operating military supply trains in 1917.
Kinkora Branch
Service languished again after the war, but the needs of Fort Dix and Maguire again revitalized the line during World War II.
The last troop train rain in 1965, and after the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central to form Penn Central, they petitioned to abandon the line south of Columbus in 1971. Most of what we would walk saw service end at that time.
The last of the line lasted until Conrail days, reportedly having been abandoned in 1982.
Wye to the northbound Union Transportation
We walked Main Street out to Lewistown Road where we turned left, to the south. The railroad bed was out behind people’s houses at that point, but we could at times see back through the yards at the remnants of it.
Eventually, we came to where the rail bed got closer to the road again. Shane got on it earlier and was bushwhacking parallel with the road. I stepped out onto it to find that ties were still in place.
I think of this line as having been abandoned earlier, but really 1971 isn’t all that long ago compared to so many of the lines we hike.
Union Transportation line was left to right, this is looking ahead on Kinkora Branch
Just ahead, the rail bed crosses a concrete bridge over a tributary to the Rancocas Creek. Some of the road below that point appears to have been built over the grade. To the right, there was what looked like a right of way, probably the start of a wye that would have connected with the Union Transportation heading south, the way we were going.
A little bit beyond, I saw where the left side of the wye was going off into the weeds.
The intersection with Lewistown Road, which changes names to Juliustown-Browns Mills Road, and Fort Dix Road is the former site of Lewistown.
Likely former wye to southbound Union Transportation
There is not a single building there any more. The Kinkora Branch rail bed where it continued to the south is now gated into more Fort Dix property. To the left was where we had come from the previous time on the old Union Transportation line, and it crossed over Fort Dix Road in this area to it’s south side, where we would continue to follow it. I cut across the fence and checked out what might have been more of the connecting wye at this point.
The Pemberton and Highstown Railroad was completed for it’s 24 mile length from it’s two namesakes in 1868.
Looking ahead at former Union Transportation
The Camden and Amboy Railroad bought most of the stock, and so were in control of the line.
Union Transportation
As such, Pennsylvania Railroad became controller after it’s future acquisitions. The Pennsy continued to own the line, but the Union Transportation Company was created to run the line in 1888. This is where the Union Transportation Trail, which follows much of the line to the north, takes it’s name. The height of service on the line was around 1910, though another resurgence happened when Fort Dix Air Force Base was constructed and the line was regularly used. Pennsylvania Railroad resumed operations eventually, but because the Pemberton and Hightstown was not included in Conrail, it continued operations on it’s own when Pennsylvania Railroad went to Conrail.
Union Transportation
Passenger service continued until 1931, but could not compete with buses and growing automobile popularity.
Freight service continued regularly until construction of the New Jersey Turnpike. This severed the line, and the first section south of Highstown was abandoned. In 1977, the railroad could no longer fund it’s operations and NJ Department of Transportation made them close. Other sections of the line were abandoned in sections starting in the 1950s, and all but the section to Fort Dix from the south was abandoned by 1980.
Union Transportation
The remaining stub remained in service, but Fort Dix no longer needed coal for it’s operations, and so the remainder of the line from Mt. Holly was abandoned in 1984. Monmouth County Park Commission purchased the first section to the north and opened it as Union Transportation Trail in 2010, with other sections to follow soon after.
We started walking the grassy swath parallel with Fort Dix Road to the south. Even though it was a busy road, it really wasn’t at all an unpleasant walk.
Union Transportation
The right of way was slightly delineated by a difference in color in the surface, and I think the rail bed was a little bit harder packed than the rest of the grass around it.
There were a couple of little access roads into the Fort Dix property to the left. We pretty much just stayed right on where the railroad was. I was half expecting that someone would stop us to ask questions in this stretch, but before we knew it, we were out of it.
Still walking the same distance between Fort Dix Road, we approached Marcus W. Newcomb Middle School to the left, and on the other side of Fort Dix Road, Helen A. Fort Middle School.
Union Transportation
There were kids walking across the crosswalk between these two schools as we approached where the railroad used to run. We walked by just after the last of the kids had passed and were heading into the school.
We continued past this point, crossed Catesville Road, and then some sort of industry to the left. A line of trees appeared along the rail bed to the left, and then it became somewhat overgrown.
We soon entered a wooded area on the rail bed. It was passable. Some sort of ATV or something spuratically must use the right of way because we were able to walk it.
Union Transportation at the middle school
Unfortunately, fields started to open up to the left, and the railroad was inundated with Autumn Olive to the point that it was pretty much impossible to walk.
Union Transportation line
I expected this part would be pretty easy, but we had to get down to the left into the fields to walk closely parallel.
At the end of the first field section to the left, the right of way went back into the woods. With forest on both left and right, there was less sun to grow stuff, and of course that made this the most easy way to get through between sections, so it remained pretty clear for a bit, until we got to the next section of farm fields to the southwest.
We bushwhacked through the stuff as best we could, but pretty much everyone but Jenny and I got too sick of it and went off into the fields to the right.
Union Transportation line
At the next farm grade crossing, I also opted to get off of the rail bed and check maps over for some options and see how far we were to the next road crossing. None of this right of way was ever posted as “no trespassing” or anything, but it sure was not easy to get through.
As we were standing there and I was looking at my phone, cars appeared on the edge of the farm field way out by Fort Dix Road. At least six guys stepped out of these and started quickly heading toward us.
I was still looking down at my phone GPS, and Justin warned me that I should look up, someone was coming.
Union Transportation
The men all had sort of plain clothes on, but with badge insignias on them. Two of the six were wearing black suits with ties.
“Oh shit” someone said, and Justin said that he thought it was Feds.
It made sense; we had been walking parallel with the Fort Dix property, and they were probably wondering what we were up to walking out there. It’s possible that Fort Dix still owns the railroad right of way, because I read somewhere that at some time they owned the Pemberton Station to the south.
Dan's video
I tried not to worry too much. There were no signs, and it truly was an innocent attempt to trace a historic railroad bed. What would they do?
Autumn Olive inundation
It really doesn’t pay to prosecute someone for being curious and not ignoring any signage at all.
When the guys got up to us, I greeted them, and it turned out to be something so much funnier than we had anticipated it would have been.
We were all thinking we were going to get detained by Feds for a couple fo hours and questioned about stupid things, but this ended up being just a bunch of Board of Education guys and school security. Even the school Principal had shown up (one of the guys in the suits and ties).
Union Transportation line
It turns out that as we were walking by the Middle Schools to the south, just after the kids had crossed, someone thought we were some of the students involved in truant activities! Someone had called in and reported that a group of the kids had wandered off from school, and they went to find us!
“We were just trying to trails the old railroad bed” or something I said to one of the guys.
“Well...you’re on it!” the guy said. They realized pretty quickly that we were not students playing hooky. I went from being nervous to utter disbelief in a matter of moments. Dan caught up and got the entire thing on his GoPro.
I apologized to the head guy that was doing most of the talking for inadvertently causing the disturbance, and all of them walked the muddy farm road back to their vehicles. I waited for them to leave before I pulled the beer back out that I had hidden in my inside suit jacket pocket.
From here, we followed along the farm field edges a bit more. There was one spot where I tried to get back up on it because there was a trail cam I didn’t want to trip. Jenny followed me, and we ended up bushwhacking through some terrible stuff to get back through and own the other side.
Union Transportation
Justin had the smarter idea; just walk past the camera but in such close proximity that you could never tell what it was taking a photo of. It would just look like a blur. I wish I had thought of that, because that was a horrible mess.
After a bit, we came to where there were houses and such, and we had to get back up on the railroad bed. Fortunately, it was good and clear by this point, for the most part. The grasses weren’t abrasive. We walked the right of way through a line of trees and then out to Pointville Road.
Field walkin
This was a questionable section. I had been looking at it on aerial maps, and even went to Google Street view. I figured we could do to the north of Pointville Road, but to the south looked like it just went off into a private yard and that was it.
I got to the road first, so I just casually walked up the driveway of the private house because I was curious to look at the right of way and get a photo. I thought we would be walking around.
As I got to the section, there was a split rail wooden fence and a brown sign that read “Trail Closed Dusk to Dawn”! I was blown away.
Surprising trail section
I would never have thought this random section would be an official trail, especially since it came out on someone’s driveway.
Weedy
We all cut across the yard on the rail grade, passed around the fence, and followed the nice grassy cleared rail bed to the south with houses off to the right and fields to the left.
The trail was lined with birches and such, in an ornamental fashion.
When the trail section came to an end, it was just a spot at the end of Wilbert Street. The street went off to the right, but the rail bed continued ahead, not as a trail.
It was pretty overgrown ahead, as it curved off to the right toward the North Pemberton Station stop, and the southern terminus of the Union Transportation.
Weedz
It was some nasty bushwhacking for a bit in order to stay on the rail bed, but after a short while we came out to Fort Dix Road next to Jamison’s Bar and Grill. This had originally been my plan for a lunch stop, but unfortunately it was not yet open. We would instead have to settle for the Wawa across the street.
The North Pemberton train station was right across the street, and standing in good condition. This was the start of the North Pemberton Rail Trail also.
I don’t even know where to begin trying to explain the history of the Atlantic Division.
Atlantic Division map
It’s really hard to explain where these lines came from and how they were all put together to form the Atlantic Division, which basically went from Camden to Bay Head on the eastern shore. Different sections were built by different companies.
North Pemberton Station
The first one was apparently the Camden and Burlington County Railroad, which first opened up out to North Pemberton in 1861. Most all of what we would be hiking from here would be originally that line.
The station at North Pemberton was a Union Station that served both the Pennsylvania Railroad as well as the Union Transportation.
The original North Pemberton Station from the beginning of the line burned down, and it was replaced with the current station in 1892.
There was also a South Pemberton Station on the Atlantic Division. Just to the west of the stations there was a junction, where the original Camden and Burlington County Railroad continued to the west, but the Philadelphia and New York, or Philadelphia and Long Branch Railroad continued east to the shore starting in the early 1870s I believe.
North Pemberton Station
This made for an important east/west connection to the Jersey shore from Philadelphia by way of Camden to various shore points around Toms River.
Union Transportation line
Passenger service continued to North Pemberton until 1968. After that, the station fell into some disrepair, as these things tend to go, 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.
Union Transportation
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.
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 irreplacable artifacts had to be scrapped.
Rail bed in North Pemberton
The old station building remains closed to this day because of unwillingness to negotiate.
Rail bed in North Pemberton
I’ve always hated that term “eyesore”. Historic pieces, rust and all, are endearing and interesting to me. Looking at rough pieces of machinery, or historic buildings, or anything like that, don’t make my eyes sore. I’m not offended by the sight of anything like this, and to me anyone who complains about such things are just whining little bitches that need to find something better to do with their lives than complain about what’s in the peripheral.
So, now they have a station with no one in it, no one using it. Such a disgrace.
Historic image of North Pemberton Station
We walked on up to the Wawa and got something to eat for lunch. I had one of those delicious quesadillas they make.
Union Transportation
It’s probably the best they you can get, because you can get extra cheese and various vegetables. It even includes squash. Quite good.
Justin and I stood drooling over the amazing looking donuts, so I had to have one of those too.
We sat out on the station platform to eat. It was odd that they even had a station platform in place when there is no track around anywhere.
After we finished eating and taking photos of the station, we started walking the right of way to the west.
This was a pretty cool one for me because it’s been on my “to do” list for so many years.
North Pemberton Station
I was already looking at doing hikes in the area on it back in 2002, but at the time it was just too far away from everything else I had done to include it.
Section house
When I finally did get close, the entire Rancocas Creek area was kind of left out because I was busy on NJ Perimeter.
Near the station, there was a white building that I wondered if it was rail related. I at first thought it might be some storage reproduction, but then Shane noticed it was a Section House, because it still had rails at the door to it.
The rail bed was quite pleasant ahead. Rather than regular benches, there were a lot of double stacked railroad ties with newer pieces of flat wood placed on top of them.
We soon reached a bridge over the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek. This was a very pretty little spot. The sides of the bridge appeared to be made of old railroad deck grating, and the tops were adorned with profile slices of old railroad rails.
This work was certainly not that of government rail trail development. This was done by someone with aesthetic in mind; someone who cared about the railroad and it’s history.
North Branch of Rancocas Creek
I would bed that the work here was done by the Pemberton Township Historic Trust, because when the station and museum was closed, the rail trail was also closed and fenced off.
The bridge with it's nice details.
Just a bit beyond the bridge, there was a thing on the left side kind of built up using wood, like a standing area. It would not have been for a washout, and I don’t think it was for the trail, so it was probably something railroad related. There should be some more modern structures on this since trains still did come through to Fort Dix until the eighties.
In just a little bit, we came to the former junction site where the line coming off of the Union Transportation joined with the Atlantic Division line out to the ocean. This area was once a station stop known as Birmingham.
There used to be a station in this area, which I was told still exists. It was apparently sold to a private farmer for a dollar or something, and he moved it to a nearby farm near the airport, and restored it for use as a personal office. We did pass a little foundation, but I don’t know that this was where the station used to be. It was probably somewhere near the next road cross.
Historic image of Birmingham Station
We continued walking along, and Shane noticed that there were fence posts on the left side of the grade made of old railroad ties. The real odd thing was they never bothered to remove the spike plates from any of them. He knocked one of them over.
Inside North Pemberton Station
We continued through more woods, and then passed a sewage treatment plant on the left. The trail continued on the railroad bed ahead until we got to the intersection with Birmingham Road. There was an old switch box thing there where the tracks used to cross.
From this point, the rail bed ahead was grown over pretty badly. We couldn’t get through it.
Fortunately, a road known as Indian Trail was immediately parallel with it to the left, so we could just walk that and be just about right on the thing.
Junction at Birmingham
We walked along the road for a bit, and there was a private driveway that cut off to the right to follow the rail bed just barely below the level of the road.
Union Transportation in North Pemberton
I didn’t pay much attention to it, but this road just continued and didn’t have any houses along it. After a bit, there were no signs saying to stay off or anything, so we climbed down to start walking it. It was a nice little stretch. As we were walking, Dan was behind us, and he was starting to join when a lady apparently came out and yelled. She had seen us come down to the grade and was angry that we were walking on it. Dan called me up and told me that the lady was coming after us. I turned and looked back and saw this lady walking like she was on a mission straight toward us.
Odd Pemberton trail section
I decided to just keep walking more quickly. The rail bed came out at a gated driveway a short distance ahead anyway.
Birch lined rail bed, Pemberton
Dan remained on the parallel road, and said that she walked as far as the end of the driveway, and then she was on a cell phone. Apparenlty she called the cops, but we never saw anyone even show up.
After the driveway, Indian Trail remained on the left side of the railroad grade, and another road, Laurel Lane was on the right. Some of the way there was a path on the rail bed, so we walked some of it between the two roads.
Indian Trail curved to the right where it and Laurel Lane came together, and we could still see ties under the pavement at the crossing.
Wouldn't know it was rail bed...
From there, Indian Trail was on the right side of the rail bed, and the rail bed was in private yards immediately to the left of us.
We continued ahead through a pleasant neighborhood to where Indian Trail turned off to the right. We decided to wait up for Dan there at this point, where there was a concrete shed to the left. Shane looked at it and said “I think this is railroad related....”. He went around the other side and could see that there was a Pennsylvania Railroad keystone in the top.
Ewansburg Station
We didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the former Ewansville Station, which was just a concrete shelter stop.
Union Transportation
I didn’t want to continue around on roads from this point; there would have once been a bridge that carried the railraod bed over Rt 206 ahead, and I figured we might be able to get out to it if we just cut into some woods to the south of where we were.
We walked into a dead end street briefly where the road turned, and then cut into the woods on a path to the left. This took us down hill slightly, and then back up to the sloped drop off to Rt 206. We could see where the railroad would have crossed the highway.
Not always easy
I eyed up the other side, and could see some cut logs. There were houses to the left and to the right, but a good healthy swath of trees ahead. I told everyone to aim for the right side ofthe logs, and we’d try to go straight into the woods until it was safe to get back on the railroad bed.
We dashed across traffic, climbed the slope, and then surprisingly found a good graded road on the other side that led us right back onto the railroad grade again.
As we were making the corner back to the rail bed, I noted another grade that I thought looked like a railroad remnant.
Weeds
I didn’t know what it could be. I figured just a siding or something. It seemed to go nowhere with Rt 206 right there.
It turns out that what we found was one of the obscure remnants of the Vincentown Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which operated from 1861 until 1928 between Ewansville Station and Vincentown, roughly parallel with present day Rt 206.
The railroad bed ahead was totally clear for a time, but then the driveway access to it turned off to the right. We continued on it, which wasn’t too bad, parallel with Railroad Ave ahead.
Overgrown near Pemberton
There were fallen trees and such, but it never got all that bad. We had a foot path that people had been following much of the way through this somewhat messy section.
Then, all of a sudden, we were on open public trail. It just got clear at two posts vertically out of the ground.
We were now in the Smith’s Woods Park ahead. We crossed an open power line, and saw a sign for native pollinators. From there, it wasn’t long before we got to historic Smithville.
This was another site that I’d been wanting to reach for quite some time.
Union Transportation
The village was first established as Shreveville in 1831 when Jonathan and Samuel Shreve began operating a textile mill along the Rancocas Creek. The industry was purchased by Hezekiah Bradley Smith in 1865, and the settlement was redubbed Smithville. The H. B. Smith Machine Company began building bicycles there in 1881. The town was even home to a rare bicycle railway that once connected Smithville with nearby Mt. Holly, created to help residents of Mt Holly commute to work at the factories in Smithville. It was used from 1892 until 1897.
North Pemberton Station
The post office in Smithville closed in 1962 and the industry was all dying out, as things tend to do.
In 1975, Burlington County purchased the land as it’s first county park, and Historic Smithville became public land along with Smith’s Woods, a woodland lot adjacent to it, originally intended for the recreation of the village employees.
We passed a trail access to the right across the road before reaching the village area itself.
Historic Smithville
I ran around and did some then and now compilations, and then headed to where the large warehouse building used to be along the tracks ahead.
Next to it, there was a long concrete coaling trestle. Shane had headed well into the woods to the north to look around, and Justin and I found our way onto the coaling trestle.
While we were up there, Shane was back in the woods and spotted what we were on. In his excitement, he didn’t bother to run the trail back, but rather cut through the mess of horrible undergrowth and brambles to reach the thing.
Coaling trestle
I would suspect his angle in those weeds probably offered better photo opportunities than one would normally see of this industrial remnant. He made his way around and joined us on the structure before moving on.
Enjoying the walk
After looking around, we got back on the railroad bed heading to the west. It was a good trail for a little while, but the trail ended when we got to the next parking area, the Smithville Lake access.
The right of way was overgrown, but not entirely impassable. Shane and I opted to stay on it while the others went out to the closely parallel Railroad Ave. It took us over Lake Ave and Raccoon Trail before it finally cut directly across Railroad Ave.
There was no getting ahead from here. The rail bed went into a chain link fence that blocked off a land fill apparently. We just turned to the right on the road, which was actually pretty pleasant, and followed it for a while.
The road took us along a pleasant slope above the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek, which was very pretty. We took a little break as we started getting to the outskirts of Mt. Holly. From there, we turned to the left on Clay Street, then right on Hulme Street which remained only a block away from the rail bed.
Weirdly filled bridge
The rail bed continued as the Mt. Holly Rail Trail at the next intersection, Pine Street. We just had to turn left briefly on Pine, and then right onto the rail bed into some nice woods. It was pretty wide at first, but not overdone like many rail trails are. It was actually quite grassy at first.
As we walked a bit further, the first strange thing was the existence of a trestle that had been filled in around. The trail actually went to the right of the bridge, which still partly had ties on it. It was filled between the plate girders, but strangely not removed.
I really don’t know what the deal is with this one. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else.
We continued from this point around a corner, and soon the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek came into view to the right. Just ahead, the grade got higher. I figure erosion must have taken some of it down from past flooding, which could explain a lot of what happened with the bridge we’d seen.
Second bridge
Just ahead, there was yet another odd bridge that was filled in around. This time, the trail went on top of it with fencing erected on either side.
I went down to the right along the creek to check out the pretty views. I could see the plate girders of the former bridge above us, as well as the boards jutting out that would have at one time held up the walkways on the side of the bridge.
I looked off to the right, an saw a standing bit of masonry. I figured at first that it was the remnant of an old dam, but it could have been a bridge abutment. I took a photo of it to remind myself to look into what it was later.
Burlington Branch bridge site
In going over the history of the area, I first realized that the bridge abutment was that of the Burlington Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
This was a very very old line. It was first incorporated in 1836 as the Burlington & Mt. Holly Railroad and Transportation Company. It eventually became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, and in 1895 it became the location of the first electric trolley experiment in New Jersey. 500 volt DC Trolley wire was used, and two passenger trolley cars were operated, built by the Jackson and Sharpe Co. of Wilmington DE.
Caboose in Mt Holly
The Burlington Branch discontinued electric train experimentation in 1902, and Pennsylvania Railroad abandoned the line completely in 1927. I found out later that we inadvertently hiked some of this right of way to the north.
While trying to superimpose modern USGS and historic ones showing this route, I also figured out the mystery of the two filled in bridges that were so strange.
The North Branch of the Rancocas Creek had been completely, or almost completely. It used to pass beneath via the first bridge site we passed, weave to the north, and then passed back under it again coming toward Mt Holly Station.
At the station
At some point, the creek was rerouted so that the main flow remains on the north side of the Atlantic Division, although the Burlington Branch would still cross it. The two filled areas were piped so that during heavy flow water could still be taken on. The entire area we had been walking through was known as Creek Island.
We continued on the trail and soon saw an old caboose on the right. This was just before the historic Mt. Holly station.
The old station had recently been renovated as the “Train Wreck Distillery”. I’d like to pay a visit to the place, but it didn’t look open yet as we were going by.
Station in Mt Holly
I’m not quite sure when that station was constructed.
We crossed over Madison Avenue from the station, and then turned slightly left on the grade heading to the southwest.
Almost immediately, tracks started back up, although they were overgrown. A second set where the gauge was not right was to the right of the main set. There was also a large hook hoist thing in the open parking lot to the right.
We continued along these tracks through high grasses and weeds heading to the west. I had expected this section to be clear, like it was still used as an industrial spur.
Abandoned
As we walked, there were soon abandoned industrial ruins off to the right. We opted to head into the woods to check them out a bit.
We climbed up slope and got into the area where there used to be a building. The was blown out brick all over the place. We stepped over some of the ruins to a clear former room, now all daylighted, and stepped into another room that had a large tank in it. We walked around it for a better look. I have no idea what this place was. There was also a giant smoke stack made of light colored stone still standing.
Justin and Shane scaled a fence on the other side to get back to the railroad line, and Jenny and I went back around the other way. Dan opted to remain on the tracks, and we could see him going by on the other side.
Directly across from this building was the former junction with the Medford Branch, which headed to the south where it connected with another line.
Stack
I’d like to try to trace this one eventually as well. It’s just that the area around the junction is fenced in for a modern solar farm.
We continued along the tracks to the west until we came out to Atlantic Avenue. There was an old lady in the first house where we first came out sweeping her porch, but didn’t look up or even seem to notice this loud posse coming out and being more than a little noticeable.
At first I figured we would walk up Atlantic, but then I decided I wanted to see a bit more of the railroad line, and then we could cut back to the north by way of a cemetery.
The railroad got kind of too overgrown to pass through, so we followed Atlantic for a few blocks parallel with it, and then a clear path followed along it the next bit of distance. We crossed Maple Ave at grade, and then continued along the somewhat less overgrown tracks to Rt 541, the Mt. Holly Bypass.
At this point, we finally left the railroad bed. We turned hard to the right parallel with the bypass briefly and into a large cemetery heading north.
Abandoned
I think it might technically be two cemeteries. One was a long strip to the north, and the second one was separated by a line of trees.
Medford Branch junction area
We stepped through to the larger one, and I noted that there were graves in the weeds. I guess these were unbaptized people or something. I don’t know what.
We continued through the cemetery to the gate at the north on Rt 537, Marne Highway. We were going to stop by Spellbound Brewing for dinner, but the place was closed. We continued down the road to the east, which was probably the crappiest section of the hike, until we could see the train station again to the right.
There, we turned to the left on King Street and crossed the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Burlington Branch used to cross just a bit to the east of this bridge. There are now abandoned industrial buildings there now, which were probably put in after the railroad was taken out, because it was abandoned in 1927.
We continued up King Street to Grant Street and turned left. If we had turned right to Clifton Ave, we would have been on the railroad bed.
Ham
We turned right on Rutland Ave, then left on Bartram, and right on Thorndyke to reach the Holbein School. There, we turned to the right through the school yard and skirted over to the right side of it heading north. This was right beside the old Burlington Branch route.
When we got to Levis Drive to the north, we turned to the right and then into the parking lot for the TD Bank toward the CVS. The railroad passed right through here. I went into the CVS and got myself an iced tea, and they had free Halloween candy at the desk, which I ate a couple of pieces of. Shane felt the need to tell the clerk to excuse my behavior, whatever weird thing I was doing at the time.
We crossed over High Street from there and got to the parking lot where Taco Bell was on the north side.
Before even going to the cars, we walked directly to the Taco Bell and had a delicious meal.
At the school hiking through
Jenny had to get back to Mt. Olive, so we convinced Dan to get us back to my car in Juliustown. During the ride back, I took my pants off, and there was some sort of conversation about how Justin needed something for his butt, so I found him lots of bottle caps and wine corks to hand to him. Dan ended up stopping in the middle of the road to take them from him.
We can be quite odd and irritating.
This had been a pretty good day covering a lot of stuff I’d been wanting to see. It also sets us up to do several more connecting trips.
Me without pants in Dan's car.
Among the next ones I plan to do from here would be the Atlantic Division heading to the east from Pemberton on our way toward Toms River, as well as to the west from Mt. Holly. It becomes active out that way, but a parallel road walk might make for an interesting road walk trip in the winter months.
I hope to do another one to the south on the Medford Branch, which skirts apartments and such and might be possible to hike. There is also a hike I want to do that would be specifically focused around hiking the Rancocas Creek and Rancocas State Park starting at it’s confluence with the Delaware.
I think we’ll see at least one of these end up on the schedule in the near future since they’re back home in New Jersey and not too terrible of a commute for everyone to get to, plus it’s slightly warmer there so we can avoid Winter snows a bit more. I trust that it’s going to be quite good.
HAM
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