Hike #1627; Shenks Ferry to Quarryville

Hike #1627: 10/13/24 Shenks Ferry to Quarryville with Diane Reider and Everen

This next trip would be another relaxing and interesting point to point, back to the Enola Low Grade Trail and other stuff through the region from where we had left off the previous time.

This was a lot more filling in gaps in the middle of all of the 911 Memorial Trail stuff.

I wanted to focus after the NJ perimeter series on the 1,400 mile 911 trail from New York City to Shanksville PA, then down to Washington DC and back to NYC, but not only on the designated route.

I decided I would try to fill in all of the trails and historic routes as best I could inside that 1,400 miles while doing the rest of it.

So far, we've gotten a whole lot of those routes done.

The major trails inside it, the Appalachian Trail, Great Eastern Trail, Tuscarora Trail, Mid State Trail, Standing Stone Trail, Mason-Dixon Trail, Horse-Shoe Trail, and Conestoga Trail have all been in the works.

I started doing all of these before my son Ev was even conceived, and after he was born and was with me on every single weekend, I couldn't continue with all of the really rough terrain stuff because it would be too hard with the stroller.

We got as far as Holtwood Dam on the Mason-Dixon Trail, and we got down to Pequea on the Conestoga Trail. I'm down to the Maryland line on the Appalachian Trail, and we're continuing to do the Horse-Shoe Trail again because I've been able to get the stroller through. The Pennsylvania section of the Highlands Trail is superimposed on Mason-Dixon and Horse-Shoe for a lot of time, and we're focusing heavily on that.

The other corridors I'm working on include the Union Canal, the Main Line of Public Works (Pennsylvania Railroad), and the Pennsylvania freight main line, which includes the Enola Low Grade Line. 

Rt 222 underpass, Quarryville

Rt 222 today

We had done the Enola Low Grade and the rest of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Columbia and Colemanville area, but nothing east of there. We'd also done all of the other interesting trails and many back roads through this region.

This time, I wanted to make a major jump to the east, to Quarryville, and start with some of the stuff we'd not yet explored in the Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve.

I figured this would be a really nice hike, but I was absolutely amazed that only Diane showed up to hike with Ev and I.

I chose a spot behind the Dollar General in Quarryville for a meeting point. We had met there one time before on the trip I planned out of Strasburg, and ended up changing it to a loop. This time, we'd finally end up there, but not following the historic former Quarryville Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad like I had planned at that time.

Quarryville was where the original Lancaster and Quarryville Railroad made its way down to connect with the Lancaster, Oxford, and Southern, which continued down to Peach Bottom. This is another line I want to try to trace, but it's mostly inaccessible.

I didn't realize it at the time, but the parking lot, and very close to where we were parked, was the southern terminus of the Quarryville Branch, where the Lancaster, Oxford, and Southern continued south.

We waited around for a little bit to see if anyone else was going to show up. When no one did, we got in my van and began heading toward our starting point in Shenks Ferry.

On the way, we passed through Martic Forge, and as we were driving, I figured I might as well pull over and get some of the then and now comparison photos I'd wanted to get, but didn't when we were hiking the Conestoga Trail through there.

L B Herr collection

I got to the road beneath the trestle where I had a few shots to take, and realized how quickly I could do them.

Since it was just the three of us, and I figured we would get most of the hike done pretty fast, I decided to turn the car around and go back to get a few more shots over where the trolley line used to pass beneath the Martic Forge Trestle. 

This trolley line was the former Lancaster and York Furnace Street Railway Company, better known as the Pequea Trolley, which operated from 1903 to 1930. 

The trolley hugged the walls of the narrow gorge along the Pequea Creek from Martic Forge down to Pequea on the Susquehanna River. Beneath the Martic Forge Trestle, it is now a private driveway, and then River Road is built over a bit of it to the south before the Conestoga Trail follows it downstream.

The Martic Forge Trestle on the Enola Low Grade Trail, former Atglen and Susquehanna Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was completed in 1906. It was abandoned about 1988. The catenary lines over the right of way still carry the power from the Safe Harbor Dam eastbound to power the Northeast Corridor.

The bridge, a fixed, metal 6-panel rivet-connected combination Warren deck truss with deck girder approaches is 1,560 feet long, and spans the Pequea Creek, River Road, and the trolley bed. The center is about 150 ft high. 

The trail was developed starting about 2010. At first, there was wooden decking on the old ties, but it was burned by an arsonist and replaced by the concrete we see today.

Near the corner of River Road and Marticville Road is the historic ironmaster's homestead.

Martic Forge is of course named for the historic former Martic Forge, which operated in the 1700s, and furnished farming implements as well as supplies for Washington's Continental Army during the American Revolution.

The ironmaster's house in more recent years was known as Kepler's Lodge, and it had several more additions put on it over the years.

The sandstone quarried locally was used to expand upon the building through 1769.

It is likely that the main additions to the building were added under ownership of Robert Coleman between 1793 and 1805.

The forge was in use until the late 1800s, and in 1924, the ironmaster's home was purchased by Mary Kepler, donated to the YWCA as a Summer retreat, and named Kepler's Lodge in honor of her mother, Mary Mathilda Slaymaker Kepler.

The YWCA continued to operate the property until the 1940s when it was sold to the Lancaster Jewish Community Center, who renamed it Camp Taemoh.

The LJCC operated the camp through the late 1960s, and it then became a private residents. Residents since that time have done a wonderful time restoring the property.

The Martic Forge Hotel also used to stand on this corner, but it sadly burned down in 2014.

Once I was done getting all of the photos I wanted, we were on our way to our start point.

There is really no direct way to go between these sites. The Enola Low Grade line is pretty much a straight line, but there are no highways that go direct, so we had to zig zag around a bit.

Green Hill Road South turned us downhill and to the parking area for the Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve along the tracks and the Susquehanna River.

The tracks were close by in view, built in 1877 as the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad, later to become part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. However, the history of the site dates back way before that.

Back in 1775, Captain Joseph Reed, who served in the the Revolutionary War militia, purchased land to establish the ferry across the Susquehanna here.

By 1832, Henry Shenks was operating the ferry, and so this is how it got its name.

When the railroad arrived, the hotel served it, and Shenks Ferry became a station stop. More residences and even a school on River Hill was erected.

Also, when the Enola Low Grade Line was under construction, a dynamite factory was near the location and exploded vaporizing eleven workers.

In much later years, there was also a sort of dredging operation where coal silt was removed for processing from the river as well. The major flooding from Hurrican Agnes in 1972 changed the way the river was flowing, which ended that operation.

I got everything unloaded from the van, and we were soon ready to go.

At first, I figured the start of the hike would be an out and back through the wildflower preserve. The abandoned section of the road ahead, which closely parallels the Port Deposit Branch tracks which are up on a fill, is now part of the trail passing through the area. I wonder if this was actually an earlier right of way of the Port Deposit Branch.

When the Safe Harbor Dam was built just upstream in the 1930s, I understand some of the old railroad bed had to be brought up to a higher grade, because the reservoir inundated the original right of way.

We walked the entire extent of the road parallel with the tracks, to where it crosses Grubb Run and then climbs the hillside to the left as Green Hill Road South.

At this point, there is a stone culvert that carries Grubb Run beneath the road, and also the tracks. It seems that the railroad must have built both structures, since they are contiguous, which makes my theory about it being the older road more plausible.

At this crossing was the former site of the Curtis B. Grubb flour mill. There were no foundations to be seen at the location.

Since the last time I had been out there, there was caution tape put around the stream and culvert for some reason. Ev wanted to get out of the stroller, and he immediately went behind it. I had to explain to him why it was there, and that we weren't supposed to go behind it, although I couldn't really figure out why it was there myself.

From this location, Curtis B Grubb iron mine railroad, built before 1875 and only in operation for a few years, broke away from the road and railroad line to gradual head up the Grubb Run valley.

I had read about this short-lived, narrow-gauge railway for a few years, and had really wanted to see it, so I made sure to stick it onto the start of this hike.

It ended up being absolutely beautiful, not too hard to push the stroller on, in splendid woods. The creek was running low, but it was still quite pretty.

One of the reasons I scheduled this hike ahead of time was the fact that the Paw Paw fruits have been out. We aleady had some luck finding them recently on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, so it wasn't so big a deal to find them again.

Still, I thought it would be enticing for people to come out to try some of these fruits that area only available certain places and certain time of year. It was another reason I was so surprised no one else came.

The trail was great, without too many bumps, but we came to a spot that didn't look quite right with a footbridge.

As we approached, we saw the stone abutments to where the railroad crossed a little side stream.

We paused to look around, and then down between the old bridge abutments, I saw something out in the middle of Grubb Run. it was a single, narrow bridge abutment. I remembered reading about this as well, and it was stated it might have been a part of the railroad. I had to climb down to have a better look.

Ev stayed up above with Diane and ran around at the bridge site.

I got down to the bottom, and then walked though the steam over to the pier.

It was badly undermined on the upstream side, and I'm afraid it won't last much longer at all. I probably could have pushed the thing over myself if I'd been so inclined.

I found out reading into it later that it was not associated with the railroad at all.

This pier supported a 6-in cast iron pipe, which before 1900 carried Natural Gas through the Susquehanna River Hills all the way to Baltimore.

The top of the pier bears some shaping for the round pipe that it used to carry, and there are apparently pieces of it in the hill on the sides of Grubb Run, and other infrastructure from the line can be found at other locations along the Susquehanna.

I climbed back up to the rail bed, and we continued to the north for a bit.

Soon, a side trail to the left led gradually uphill. This was not shown on the map, but I figured it went back out to Green Hill Road North, where we could use it to get up to the Enola Low Grade Trail.

First, I wanted to continue exploring the old mining railway ahead. The line continued up Grubb Run to serve iron ore banks owned by C. B. Grubb.

We followed the rail bed a bit further, but soon came to where it was obliterated, and a handsome stone arch carried Grubb Run beneath the Enola Low Grade line, which was very high above on a massive fill.

The ore banks would have been just beyond this point, but the construction of the fill made it rather inaccessible.

I could have walked through the culvert to the other side and gotten to it, but I don't believe there was much to see now, and all of that land I understand is private property.

I did walk into the culvert a bit to have a closer look at the construction.

It is interesting that as late as 1906, the Pennsylvania Railroad was still using fine cut stone rather than concrete like most other lines were doing.

My understanding is the that there were two factors at play here. One of them was the fact that one of the head engineers on the railroad was adamant about the use of stone, sort of an old fashioned bloke. I don't recall his name, and I haven't gotten far enough to reach it yet in the current Pennsylvania Railroad book I'm reading.

The other factor is that Pennsylvania Railroad was just out of reach from the concrete plants that were more easily accessible to other lines. The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western had Edison's concrete closely available. The Lehigh Valley, the Reading, Lehigh and New England, and the Central Railroad of New Jersey all came close to the new concrete facilities of the Lehigh Valley.

It was a cool scene, and we turned back to follow the grade down Grubb Run in the direction we'd come, until we got to the side trail that went gradually uphill to the north.

Ev had run most of the entire railroad bed, but was ready to get into the stroller going uphill.

It wasn't terrible to pass through, and when we got near the top, we crossed over a grassy power line clearing.

I had been expecting that we'd emerge on the road again, but the trail took us out directly to the Enola Low Grade Trail.

I was going to backtrack on this for a bit, to a small gully where we had found Paw Paws the previous Autumn, but then I decided against it and figured we might find more out this way.

Was this the ore banks?

We were on a fill at first, and stated heading to the east on the line, abandoned since 1988. There were plenty of other people on the trail at all times.

We made our way out into the middle of the high fill that carried the line over the Grubb Run. I went over to the north side to look down through the trees, to see if I could see the last bit of the Grubb iron railroad, but I couldn't see anything.

I did see what I think was the remnants of the ore banks, as a heavily dug out area along the right of way. The area was indeed heavily posted so I didn't go into it.

Ahead, we started to enter a major cut. It all reminded me much of the Lackawanna Cutoff in New Jersey. All of the big railroads were doing these major improvement projects at the start of the 20th century.

John W. Barriger III photo

Just at the entrance to this cut, there was a side trail going slightly up to the left, on a grass and wide route.

There was a jogger coming by, and I asked him if he knew where that trail went, which was just labeled with a sign reading "walking trail".

He told us the trail went up and just came back down to the rail trail again. With that, I decided that we would do this trail instead of the rail trail. We had already done the rail trail in this section on two previous hikes, and we didn't need to do it again.

This side trail went very gradually up. Ev was stating that it was bumpy, which of course it was compared to the rail trail, but it was nice to get in there and into the shade.

We continued up just a bit, and through pleasant woods a little further away from the railroad bed. The jogger went ahead of us on this route, and when we were near the height of the land, he came back through to let us know there was a little high grass at the end, but otherwise it was clear.

Near that height of land, there was a little table and picnic area, and a sort of side path that apparently goes off into private land. The trail turned ninety degrees to the right and began descending.

It was gradual at first, and then got quite steep for a moment. It then turned ninety degrees to the left again, on a little shelf above and parallel with the rail trail. This was the very grassy bit.

We followed it as it gradually descended in the cut, back down to the rail trail, and we continued east on that.

I had been worried that it was still rather hot out, and we would not have very much shade at all, but that wasn't the case.

I was shocked, but during the entire course of the day, either the sun was in the right spot, or we were out of the sun, blocked by either shade or the correct amount of cut for the sun to not be in our faces one bit.

In the deep cut ahead, we approached the underpass of River Hill Road. I had done some then and nows of this in the past, but I set up yet another with a photo by John W. Barriger III.

Up next, we came to the former crossing of Colemanville Church Road. I think it would have crossed over the tracks on a bridge originally, or maybe it's been totally cut off since the line was built.

Either way, the road used to go on through, and now it does not. There is trailhead parking and access on the left side, the north bit of the road. On two of the previous hikes, we made connections to the Conestoga Trail by using Colemanville Church Road.

We had covered that section a couple of times, but we hadn't done the stuff to the east of this point yet in a long while.

I'd only done the trail at all from Marticville Road. I hadn't done anything east of there, and even that I hadn't done in many years.

I had some of my own photos to compare with on this, taken both on my first time up, when I was backpacking the Conestoga Trail, as well as on another trip with Jillane a few years later, where we walked from this area all the way to Columbia.

I had not yet been on the bridge since it was redecked following the arson that burned the top of it. Last time I was across, it was wooden decking over the old ties.

John W. Barriger III photo

I had a whole lot of historic photos of the bridge I wanted to do comparisons with, and this would be one of the highlights of the trip, so I wasn't in a hurry here.

Lancaster News

This hike was bound to go very fast either way, because it was so direct and easy.

I had four shots at very different times between about 2013 and present, all taken by me except the Lancaster News one that showed it after it was burned.

Ev was fast falling asleep after we got off of the foot path section to the west. Normally, I would allow him to sleep much longer since he was exhausted, but I didn't want him to miss the coolest part of the hike, and he loves old railroad trestles.

It took a little bit, but I got him to wake up when we were out on the bridge. He was soon happy to get out and run, and look over the edges. I lifted him up, not too high, so he could see over the side.

We had good views of the Pequea Creek, and the driveway that used to be the trolley bed below.

We continued all the way across the bridge, and on the other side was a nice historic marker and a bench in the perfect spot to relax for a little break.

I had a few more then and now history compilations to get, and a couple more things to queue up for what was coming up ahead, so I got some of that stuff ready while Ev ran around like crazy again.

There were shots at both sides of the bridge that appeared to have been taken from a height of land on either side. 

1966 Denise Thom McKnight

The west side had one that had been taken during the construction of the line, and on the east side there was one after it was active.

There was another from the near side featuring more of the construction of the bridge. I really enjoy stopping and comparing these things before setting them up.

We paused for a bit longer so that I could rest after doing this, got Ev some food, and got myself a drink to share with Diane. 

The right of way went into a cut immediately on the other side of the bridge. 

The rail bed, the entire way to the end, had mile markers for the trail, but also close mileages on original railroad mile markers in place.

We continued east to reach the Marticville Road crossing. The area has changed quite a lot from what it was only a few years ago.

Until very recently, the highway used to have a hard turn at either side of a stone arch underpass beneath the Enola Low Grade line. This would be the first of many of these former underpasses that have been altered over the past few years, but this one at least remained in place.

The old bridge was cut off to traffic, and barricades put across it, while Marticville Road was re-aligned for a gentler curve, which didn't have the problems with overhead clearance.

John W. Barriger III collection 1934

I wanted to have a closer look at it, so we turned downhill to the left to have a look at the stone arch.

I was able to fit the stroller through it, so I figured we would head downhill, and then turn left to get back on the trail on the other side. That didn't pan out, so we had to go back through and back up the way we came, but I was glad to have seen it better.

I also managed to get another then and now from before the highway was rerouted away from the original underpass.

We headed back up to the rail bed, and then the trail had a paved, gradual bend to reach a point in Marticville Road, off of the rail bed, to cross where there was good line of sight.

We headed back up the other side and through the somewhat new parking area heading east.

The section was straight as an arrow for a long while, and paralleled, but was out of sight with Pennsy Road, which is Rt 413.

I figured this next section ahead and most of the way to the end would be terribly boring.

While it wasn't particularly eventful, I found the entire thing to be very relaxing and enjoyable. We stopped to read all of the signs along the way and just strolled.

The next marker we came to told of the train wrecks of the Atglen and Susquehanna Branch.

This section ahead was much wider than anything else we'd be on the entire day. The Pennsylvania Railroad's main lines were known for their four track alignments, but this, as just a freight bypass, was double tracked most of the way, except for passing.

A third track had been added as I understand for a helper engine at Marticville Road.

However, this section just ahead was an important spot on the branch over the years. At its peak, there were six tracks passing through this area, which served water facilities, ash dump, employee quarters, and more.

2010 Richard Dick photo

We came upon another sign about all of this in this area, and on it showed some of the aforementioned water facilities.

A photo was on the historic marker featuring a stone tower that served mechanical workings for a 5,000,000 gallon round reservoir, which served the needs of the Pennsylvania Railroad in this area west of Smithville PA.

I figured the thing was gone, but just then, Diane spotted it up through the trees. Today, it is surrounded by forest and barely visible.

The area of the tower and reservoir today is private, and so we didn't attempt to approach it. It was also really high up and I was feeling rather lazy, enjoying my easy walk.

We continued on from here, and passed a garter snake along the right of way ahead. So many of these get killed by passing cyclists, and it's really sad.

Somewhere in this section ahead, there used to be a railroad tower. I was looking, I thought pretty closely, for where exactly it would have stood, but somehow I missed the spot along the way.

We pushed ahead, and went up onto a bit of a fill as we approached the overpass of Trout Run.

I almost didn't do this hike the way we did it, because there are trails in Trout Run I want to eventually do, but didn't get to on this one.

To the north, there is a Lancaster Conservancy property I think it is, which has a loop, and to the south, there are several loops that bring trails down to Stump Road.

Beyond that Steinman Run trail system continues south, and I could get all the way out to an abandoned former through road on that.

Eventually, I would like to continue south and maybe connect that in by back roads with more of the Conestoga Trail system, but I haven't figure out exactly how I want to do that yet. With Ev still in the stroller much of the time, I'm not going to push too heavily for that.

Ev was exhausted from running around like crazy just after the trestle, and so by this time he had fallen deeply asleep.

We continued on ahead, and reached the Sigman Road crossing and trailhead.

This was another of those spots that used to have an old Pennsylvania Railroad bridges that didn't have enough clearance, so they did away with it. 

The bridge was replaced by a modern prefabricated bridge, and I think the original was probably another of the stone arches.

Along the edges of the trail, as we walked, there would occasionally be a large fine cut stone block sitting as a bench.

We soon figured out that so many of these old stone culvert bridges were removed, and that the giant stones from them were placed along the trail for use as benches, or barricades, or whatever.

After Sigman Road, we started heading into a bit of a cut. A stream known as Climber's Run crossed under the right of way in this area. I thought maybe the tower I was looking for was close to this spot, but I'm not so sure at this point.

We continued ahead into a deeper cut, and soon approached the underpass for Rawlinsville Road.

Ev got done with his name just around Sigman, and he was out of the stroller and running around again. He climbed on blocks and such by Climbers Run, and continued to the underpass, with funny graffit beneath it showing funny faces.

We emerged from the cut after the underpass, and there was an amazing amount of people out using the trail. Not just cycling, but walking. I was quite amazed by it.

The next crossings were a bit different. Route 272, Lancaster Pike, crosses beneath the high fill by way of two underpasses. The east and westbound lanes today are both separated but quite a bit.

The fill is so large that we would not even know we were going across any road if it were not for the split rail fencing they had placed directly above them, so that in the event of a tumble at that location, it would not be out into traffic.

We crossed the southbound, continued a bit more, and then crossed the northbound.

This was the area of Smithville. An odd little community, if we even want to call it that, of mobile homes, farms, and woods.

Golden Spike, 1906 Lancaster Newspaper

I don't really know much of the history of Smithville beyond any of the newer developments, but I do understand that this was one of the only places there was a station on the A&S Branch.

I read that the station was to the east side of the northbound 272 overpass, and so I started looking in that area. Some maps seemed to agree with this assumption.

There was a clearing to the right of the trail, somewhat mowed off, in that vicinity, but I'm just not sure if that was it or not.

I can't seem to find an accurate photo of the station either, despite it having been a later developed line than others.

The Dan West collection on west2K, an excellent rail station research resource I often use, shows a photo of what is labeled Smithville Station on the Enola Low Grade, but I don't think that's correct.

The station building is an old pagoda style station, shown with many patrons standing at the platform and awning. 

Because the A&S Branch was pretty much a freight-only bypass, I don't really see the amount of people standing on the platform like that as being very likely.

Dan West Collection. Smithville?

Further, the old pagoda style stations had pretty much fallen out of favor by the time the A&S Branch was constructed. Most all of the new buildings were made of brick or stone, and built to last. I find it very hard to believe that the Pennsylvania Railroad, with all of its money and success, would construct an obviously "combustable" station.

I thought it looked like some of the old Lackawanna stations of old photos, like Oxford or Hunlock Creek. 

If the photo is as I suspect, not from the A&S Branch, then from where? The Pennsylvania Railroad had its Quarryville Branch further to the north slightly, but did it ever have a station called Smithville? 

There were stations nearby in Refton and I think New Providence, and some of them are still standing, but they don't look like this one.

I posted the photo on the Metrotrails Facebook, but no one seems to have a guess as to what it could actually be from. 

We continued east from the 272 overpasses, an then passed into another cut. We then passed beneath Sawmill Road.

Locally, they refer to these underpasses as Sawmill Road East and Sawmill Road West, because the road crosses the tracks twice within a couple of miles.

The right of way went from a cut and back to a fill again, and then we crossed over top of Hollow Road.

After a long while of the trail going mostly in a straight line, we started to curve right, to the south.

As we walked, people continued to pass us in both directions. As it was later on Sunday, people were out of church, and even the Amish and Mennonite folks were out.

Some of the Mennonite boys and girls went by us on bicycles and in their rather formal dress, but the Amish are apparently not allowed to use pedals, so they have these sort of push bikes.

Big groups of them wearing black with navy blue shirts and suspenders with straw hats went by us.

We continued around the bend until we were heading almost due south. We then crossed beneath Sawmill Road east.

At this point, we were very near to the community of New Providence, which was served by the Quarryville Branch.

There were no station stops along this section at all, just a speed through thing.

Pretty soon after passing beneath Sawmill Road, we passed beneath Truce Road. I noted that it was a rather new bridge, but it was capped on top of old stone abutments.

It was somewhere in this curving section I understand that the golden spike was driven upon the completion of this branch line. I think I found the spot and got another then and now of the site.

We continued to pass beneath Cinder Road, and the right of way began turning to the east again.

We came to more of a grade with the land around with some nice pastoral views to the south, and then entered yet another deep cut when we shifted to the east.

Pretty soon, we came upon one of the only grade crossings of the entire day, at Fairview Road.
This was apparently an overpass until 2010, when the bridge, which was a low through truss structure, was removed.

It seems like this must always have been a grade crossing, but I'm not so sure. Maybe it was cut off in railroad days?

There does not appear to have been a spot where it could have gone over or beneath, but most of this fill must have been removed at some time to make the grade crossing.

We crossed and passed a parking area, and there was an interesting bicycle parking thing using notches cut into a long section of log to the right.

Heading east from this point, we approached the Rt 222 overpass.

This was an interesting spot, because an old stone culvert was completely eliminated, and replaced with a high pedestrian bridge.

The main route into Quarryville must have been a major problem with the small rail underpass, and so all of that fill was taken away to replace it with the high thing there today.

We continued on from here, and it wasn't too long before we reached Oak Bottom Road.

We should not have had any more grade crossings if we had been here a few years ago, but the underpass that brought Oak Bottom Road under the tracks has been removed.

It's really sad that so many of these things have been removed, because with 222 cleared nearby, it really didn't seem necessary.

We continued across the road, and I did some then and now compilations from before and after the culvert was removed, using Google images.

2009 Google

We continued back up the other side and continued ahead. Blocks from these culverts continued to line the way. In fact, the previous grade crossing had them stacked to prevent vehicles from entering the rail bed.

We continued ahead, and all of the newer development from the Quarryville area was parallel with us on the right.

We were up on a higher fill again approaching the older portion of town, and soon approached and crossed Church Street. The stone arch carrying the road beneath is still in place I understand here.

We continued across a short distance, and there were industries below the fill on both sides of the rail bed.

Pretty soon, we came to another little bridge, which looked like it was just a sort of connector between the businesses on either side of the grade.

2009 Google

It turns out, this was a rail underpass. The former Lancaster and Quarryville Railroad made its way into Quarryville at this spot.

It was built in 1875, and connected the Pennsylvania Railroad in Lancaster south to Quarryville, about 15 miles. It later became the Quarryville Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

On the south side of town, the Lancaster, Oxford, and Southern Railroad used to continue further south. It also used the Quarryville Station.

Passenger service on the Quarryville Branch line ended in 1909, but freight continued until it was badly damaged by Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

I had been wanting to cover the rest of the Quarryville Branch as part of a hike in the past, and I'd scheduled it but changed the plans rather last minute, so at this point, I've only traced the line from West Willow area north.

Almost none of the right of way will be accessible from where I left off on it, and it would be about ten miles, but I might take the trip one of these days when I feel so inclined.

Again, I did not know what I was looking at when we were on the overpass for this line, but I got a good match photo using a comparison from the South Lancaster Historical Society, looking toward the old station building.

We continued ahead from here just a bit, and we were looking for the best opportunity to come back down to the roads to get back to Diane's car. We were almost done.

Just a short distance ahead, there was a sort of path going off to the left and gradually making its way downhill. I figured this might have at one time been an industrial spur, but I didn't know what it was for sure. I think at the time I was thinking the Quarryville Branch was still farther ahead.

I figured it was clear enough, and we might be able to use this in order to get down from the elevated grade.

We started following it a little bit, and when we got close to the bottom, it appeared to be cut off from access, and we started seeing "no trespassing" signs.

We had to turn back. Fortunately, it wasn't all that far and we were still close to the end with plenty of daylight to spare.

We got back up to the Enola Low Grade line and continued a bit further to the east.

I found out later that this actually was a railroad grade. It had originally been built in about 1905 as a connection with the Quarryville Branch used during construction.

When the Enola Low Grade was complete, the connection was abandoned.

Then, after Hurricane Agnes came in 1972, the Quarryville Branch further to the north was severed from Lancaster. In order to serve some of the close local businesses, the original grade built for construction was rebuilt to access these businesses on the Quarryville Branch, although this ended up being short lived.

1973 R. E. Small photo

We pushed ahead, and I expected to find another former underpass removed, but there wasn't one. The next overpass was Lime Street, which was historically a deck girder rather than an arch.

This was done so because Lime Street also carried a trolley line into Quarryville.

The next crossing we could see ahead was in a deep cut, an underpass beneath Rt 372. We were not going to go that far. We either had to find a way down to Lime Street, or head back the way we came to the most recent descent spot.

The west side of Lime Street looked like the best place to go down. It was a little steep, but I just had Diane go down in front of me so that if I capsized with Ev, he would be alright and be caught.

We got down to the street, and continued to the south. Lime Street looks only barely wide enough to have supported having a trolley track beside the street.

We continued a bit more to the south, to the corner of East State Street, and there was something set in the pavement that read "Dickinson Corner 1906".

To the right of us was a funeral home that looked quite nice and historic.

This turned out to be the historic I. Haines Dickinson House, which was called "Dreamworld". It may date to earlier, but was remodeled in its grandeur in 1906 by store owner Dickinson. It was more recently turned into the Reynolds Funeral Home, and since 2020, Reynolds and Shivery Funeral.

We turned right here on State Street and began walking directly in the the heart of the downtown.

I was happy to be getting done when we were. It had been a relaxing day.

I just wish I'd saved more historic info about Quarryville before getting here, because we had the time and I could have gotten a lot more photos.

We went right by the old station site and I had no clue it had been right there. I watched the left side of the road, and there was an old sort of neon Dollar General sign that looked pretty old.

I figured this must have been one of the oldest Dollar Generals in the state.

I cut left through a bank parking lot and then across Bank Avenue to the parking lot where we had met in the morning.

The Lancaster, Oxford, and Southern Railroad was at the far side of this lot, but I didn't know it at this time.

It is certainly one I hope to explore to some degree in the near future. It is one of those nearly forgotten lines, which finds its roots in the 1870s, and this branch to Quarryville opened in 1890.

The line was not a success, and like so many of those oddball railways I like to follow, it was abandoned in 1918. We'll come back to this another time.

Diane took Ev and I back to my car at Shenks Ferry to close out another great day.