Hike #1645; Paoli to Downingtown

Hike #1645: 2/2/25 Paoli to Downingtown with Stephen DiFiore, Robin Deitz, Peter Fleszar, David Adams, Diane Reider, Kirk Rohn, Professor John DiFiore, and Everen

This next hike would be another point to point, again in our Main Line of Public Works Series, from where we left off in Paoli, heading west to Downingtown.

This would be another very rewarding one, which took shape like other recent ones because of the weather predictions. It would end up being far better than anticipated, however.

This hike took shape following the events of our previous one, which was #2 in the series tracing the former Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.

Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works, the state owned transportation network of canal and rail, was completed in 1834, with the two rail components completed last.

The system was originally devised to be a canal for the entire length, but the number of locks that would have been necessary to accomplish the job of connecting Philadelphia to Pittsburgh would have been insane.

Instead, the Allegheny Portage Railroad, which utilized ten inclined planes powered by stationary steam engines, went into service between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. We'd already hiked all of that.

To the east, the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was not at first considered. The Pennsylvania Canal originally found its terminus at Middletown. 

The Union Canal, which had been completed through about 1828, already had its western terminus at that spot, and it traveled east to Reading on teh Schuylkill River, where it could connect to the Schuylkill Navigation. As such, another connection wasn't entirely necessary, but the journey up that far north and then over was a bit out of the way.

It was decided that the route should be rail, and two inclined planes were built at the eastern and western terminus of the line. One was up the Belmont Plane above the Schuylkill from Philadelphia, and the other was up from the Susquehanna in Columbia. The remainder was a double track main line for opposing traffic.

Early 1900s

When this line was first put in, private entities could use it as well, much like the way a turnpike had been used, with tolls along the way. 

The management of the railroad evolved over time. Horse and mule drawn rail cars gave way to regular locomotive service. Private interests could only use the line between specific hours, until eventually they were barred from using the line altogether.

Improvements came slowly, and by 1857, the state wanted to get out of the transportation system ownership. Most of the Main Line of Public Works including the Philadelphia and Columbia on the stretch we would be walking, was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

Improvements came under this new ownership over time, and the original two track line was straightened and made four tracks. By the early 1900s, there were secondary freight bypasses added along the line, which would be a big part of this hike as well.

The original alignment of the Main Line of Public Works actually seemed to be a really great premise for a hike.

I had actually already done much of this in years past, but for all that time, I never included the Philadelphia and Columbia because it never seemed all that interesting.

I'd hiked the Pennsylvania Canal between Columbia and above Harrisburg, and then from Stony Creek north to Clark's Ferry. We'd hiked the entire Juniata Valley along where the Juniata Division had traveled, and then the entire Allegheny Portage Railroad west to Johnstown. I'd still not followed some of the Western Division Pennsylvania Canal, a tiny bit of the Susquehanna Canal, and the Philadelphia and Columbia.

For these Winter hikes, and while Ev is still in a stroller, I decided to tackle this. We started with Philadelphia to Paoli last year.

Since we had had so much snow the past few weeks, I decided to slap this onto the schedule for this week.

Dave went out and scouted some of the line and the freight bypasses for how walkable they would be, and he was surprised at just how great it was. Pending less snowy conditions, this would be part of the hike.

I planned this hike to take us from where we left off in Paoli all the way to Downingtown, and we'd try to trace as best we could the original right of way along the way.

1888

On the last hike through this region, we had finished literally at Dave's house, and so I planned on this hike starting from his house because he had a pedestrian trail connecting from it to the north.

I chose to meet along the Brandywine Trail in Downingtown. The Brandywine Trail is over thirty miles long, and connects the Horse-Shoe Trail at Ludwig's Corners south to the Mason-Dixon Trail in Chadds Ford, and then it continues down to Brandywine State Park and connects to the North Delaware Greenway.

I had done a ton of these trails, and the Brandywine was a big favorite. I hope to do that one again as part of my hikes as we move our way west on the Horse-Shoe Trail and other routes.

The lot we used was behind the police station and a little north of the original Pennsylvania Railroad crossing of the East Branch of the Brandywine Creek.

From here, we shuttled with as few cars as possible to our starting point at Dave's house, on the south side of Paoli on Foxwood Lane.

We parked and got our stuff together. It was a bit windy at first, and so I bundled Ev up in clothing. He sat in his stroller for most of the time again this time.

We walked through the parking lot through the townhouses, and then to the start of the paved pathway on the north side. We almost immediately crossed over a little foot bridge that carried the trail to the west side of a little run.

The trail paralleled the rear of the Paoli Woods development, and then continued out to Chestnut Road where we turned right. Pete met up with us there, having taken the train from his home in the Harrisburg area.

We made our way north to East Lancaster Avenue, which is the old Lancaster Turnpike, and the Paoli Station was angled across the street and to the right.

We headed directly toward the station building, which is rather bland looking, but some major improvements and additions had been added to this site in very recent years.

The original track bed here, as I understand, was on the south side of the current tracks, opened by the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1834. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad had this four tracked at one time, but at this station site, apparently for more platform room, they shifted it to two. Both SEPTA and Amtrack still serve the site.

The original station building was the General Paoli Inn, which had already been established by Joshua Evans on the road to Lancaster in 1769. A toast was made to General Pasquale Paoli, a Corsican General and war hero, and Evans decided to rename the inn in his honor. The settlement came to be known as Paoli.

The 1834 track alignment was right along the building, which burned down in 1899. 

After rail realignment, and following a time of economic depression, Pennsylvania Railroad began erecting its own stations. The 1883 station served Paoli well until the 1950s when it was considered outdated. The PRR constructed the new brick station in 1953, which is still in use today. 

Ted Xaras Collection, 1870s

Some of the canopies of the 1883 structure were retained, but they too were removed with new updates and overpass in 2020. I did look around hoping that the one remaining canopy building on the north side was still there, but I did not see it.

We passed onto the platform, and then headed left to the stairs up to and over the tracks on the new pedestrian bridge. I rode the elevator up with Ev so it would be easier to move with the stroller. The enclosed pedestrian bridge was a great spot to view the tracks.

We climbed down the other side, and I moved all over looking at different sites where historic shots might have been taken to get comparisons. 

The plate girder bridge that carries North Valley Road over the tracks just on the west side of the station dates to the 1880s, and later had a meager pedestrian lane added to it. It was always insufficient, and so the current station was improved at least partially based on that criteria.

Tredyffrin HS

National Archives

National Archives

Supposedly, the old girder bridge is scheduled to be removed and replaced in the very near future.

We descended from the north side of the tracks back down to track level, and then we headed beneath the plate girder bridge to the south side of Valley Road.

The interlocking tower was prominently in view to the west. It dates back to 1896. To the right of it was the old rail yard, which is all now parking lot. This was once an extensive yard area. The tower was erected at a time when the yard operations were still growing.

1918 National Archives

Dan West collection

Dan West Collection

On the edge of the road, there was one of those sort of octagonal concrete buildings which served as railroad phone booths in the early 1900s, but this one might have more purpose, and was referred to as a "railroad sentry box". I'm not totally sure.

Original West Chester Branch right of way passed here

We turned right and crossed over the tracks on N Valley Road to the south side, and then turned to the right into a parking lot, along Paoli Plaza. We then passed an historic marker that notes that this was the historic site of the Paoli Inn.

The building was an important hostelry on the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, and it was occupied by the British in 1777.

The old Paoli Inn burned down in 1899, and a post office occupied the site for many years.

The area was previously known as the site of the Battle of Paoli, or Paoli Massacre, where a British night attack on General Anthony Wayne and his men took place with heavy casualties.

It was considered one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution because of British General Charles "No Flint" Grey, who ordered his men to remove the flints from their guns as not to have any accidental discharges approaching a surprise night attack. 

Grey's men attacked with bayonets with heavy casualties. Grey was vilified, and this occasion was used heavily to push the savagery and evil of the British to embolden the American cause. 

Grey ended up pulling the same crap again in Bergen County NJ just about one year later on the upper Hackensack River.

Earl Charles Grey was the second one, who the tea is named for not the first Earl Grey.

We made our way along the back roads through downtown Paoli, which was quite beautiful with murals and such around.

We continued through town. Kirk stopped for a restroom and coffee break, and the highway, Lancaster Pike/Lincoln Highway, turned off to the right, away from us and crossed to the north side of the tracks.

Lancaster Turnpike was America's first major highway, completed in 1794. This eventually became part of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, completed in 1925. Much of this became Rt 30.

When the railraod was in use, this was the area of a "duck under" track that weaved under the main line and then headed back into the yard on the north side.

A lot of the businesses we were walking by all call themselves "Main Line" such and such, because the entire area on this line is colloquially known as on the Main Line to this day.

Immaculata collection 

Where the Lincoln Highway crosses above the tracks, there was once a prominent station stop, now long gone, known as Green Tree. The station building was erected in 1887, and survived into the twentieth century. The building is gone today, and I don't know exactly when it was discontinued as a stop. Maybe when the grade crossing was eliminated.

Prior to being known as Green Tree, the station was reportedly known as "Duffryn Mawr".

We turned left on King Road, which continued to parallel the tracks on the south side as we headed west.

Soon, we were approaching downtown Malvern. Kirk was catching up with us pretty quickly.

We made our way into the middle of town, passed Bridge Street which goes over the tracks to the right, and soon came to the intersection with Warren Street, which descends and passes beneath the railroad by way of a nice stone arch.

The original P&C line is pretty much where the active line is today at this point, and it only weaved around just a little bit. The major differences were grading. Often, the grade was raised or lowered, and over and underpasses created to eliminate grade crossings.

Where Warren Street dipped under the tracks, there was metal affixed to the outside that oversize trucks would hit prior to the bridge and avoid damage to it.

The station building stands just to the left of the arch structure, with another mural on another building nearby depicting the Paoli Massacre times. 

Like the town of Paoli, this location was not of any other particular consequence other than the battle, until the coming of the railraod and the immediate creation of the original junction with the spur rail line to West Chester, which was created near this spot in the 1830s.

The community was originally called simply "Intersection", or "West Chester Intersection" because the West Chester line originally broke off right here to head south and west. It was one of the first spur lines in America.

The town was renamed by prominent landowner David Evans, apparently after a town in the Welsh Highlands, about 1874 when the Pennsylvania Railroad straightened the track of the original railroad through the community. 

Around this time also, the West Chester Branch was rerouted to a new junction to the west near Frazer. There was a quaint, tower like station originally at this location.

The current station building was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1900 and the location continues to serve passengers today.

Ted Xaras collection, Frazer

We made our way uphill a bit between buildings. Somewhere in this vicinity was the site of the actual junction with the old West Chester Branch.

The branch line climbs up gradually and followed directly beside King Street on its south side out of town, as per the historic atlas maps from before realignment. 

It was somewhere in this area that was the original location of Duffy's Cut, Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad project under leadership of a contractor named Duffy. 

Much lore surrounds the death of the 57 workers, who are buried beside the active tracks today, in an area marked by stones including apparent original sleeper stones from the railroad, some 1500 ft northeast from the intersection of Sugartown Road and King Road.

There is some evidence suggesting at least some of these men were murdered.

Dan West Collection

We followed the road along the rail bed west, and the historic marker for Duffy's Cut is located on the corner of Sugartown Road and King Road. The graves are supposedly some 1500 feet northeast of where the sign is on Duffy's Cut. We didn't see the site, but they must be behind apartment buildings. 

Photos of the site show that they grave site is surrounded by old P&C Railroad sleeper stones directly beside the active tracks.

We continued walking to the west on King Road, which was along the West Chester Branch from 1834 to 1874 when the junction was moved. 

Ted Xaras Collection

It was beside the road from the Kingsbury Condominiums in Malvern west to the intersection with Summit Road, where it began to turn away a bit to the north.

I didn't know any of this at the time. Actually figuring out how this all worked out required going over the maps in some detail. I was just trying to stay closer to the main line overall.

When we reached Summit Road, we turned right. Just a short bit after the turn, we crossed where the original West Chester Branch crossed. I never noticed. I looked back at Google street view later, and it was much more obvious to me.

We continued north on Summit Road, which was pleasant, and there were plenty of other people out for walks saying hello to us on the way.

Summit Road turned hard to the left and went uphill a bit. We meandered through the neighborhood to the west for a while, and then the road turned ninety degrees to the left. Almost immediately, it turned another ninety degrees to the right and continued on a very straight and flat route heading west.

I noted that at the second turn, there was a driveway and a pair of beat up old stone stanchions that lined the entrance to what must have been some sort of estate back in the day. I thought the old stone pillars were interesting.

Original Glenloch Station, Chester Valley Historical Society

I started to realize as we headed a little further west that this road looked like a railroad grade. I looked over the maps, and saw the curve of the road. It really seemed like something.

When I looked into it later, I was blown away to find out that this part of the road was in fact the original West Chester Branch. It followed this road from the previous crossing, then a portion of dead end Amy Lane is along it, and then it is Summit Road from the stone stanchions out to Sproul Road.

To the west, the original line passed through the south side of the Immaculata University campus. When it was rerouted, it connected to the Main Line in Frazer area, an then also ascended to Immaculata, but made its way along the north side of the campus where it once had a station stop.

We continued walking Summit Road until we came to the intersection with Sproul Road. We turned right, but this road had very little shoulder, so following this was a bit unhappy briefly.

Soon, we came to the intersection with College Ave, and cut off to the left. This was a pleasant road heading into the property, which afforded us some very nice views of the campus to the west, and the historic original West Chester Branch continued on the south side of the campus beyond the cemetery.

We could see the cemetery clearly as we started walking on to the property. The old railroad right of way was not immediately obvious at all.

Glenloch, National Archives

The Immaculata Cemetery looked much like a military cemetery with its identical stones all in lines.

We came to the intersection with Frazer Road, with the cemetery to our left, and we continued ahead and a bit to the north on Grotto Road. A lady pulled up to us and chatted a bit. I at first thought it was going to be some kind of security telling us we had to get out of there, but fortunately is nothing.

We continued on Grotto Road, which went near the Camilla Hall of the college. Another lady asked for directions, and then there was one other guy walking near us who chatted briefly. We told him where we were going and invited him along.

Ted Xaras collection

Rarely does anyone actually take us up on the invite, but there have been a few occasions over the years. Usually, it just results in an interesting reaction of shock and awe at what we're doing.

There was a gate ahead where the Grotto Drive is cut off to traffic, used only as a trail through the campus. We followed this beyond the gate and then gradually downhill a bit.

This was a very pleasant walk, on the slopes high above the railroad. We couldn't see any of it from this vantage point at all.

The road curved to the left, and through the trees, we could see the corner and see why the road was so named.

The grotto referred to was a very nice little spot at the bend ahead. 

There was a stone archway and pedestal thing, with a recess in the wall that housed a white Mother Mary statue. In the main arch was a desk thing and a kneeling thing in front of it. Stone walkways led from the roadway down to the front of the grotto. There were signs on the front of it noting that it had just undergone a rehabilitation.

We continued along the closed road ahead through the woods, and then ascended a bit out to where it opened up to vehicle traffic again. The Loyola Road turned to the right, and Immaculata Drive went left.

John J Bowman Jr, Fred W Schneider III collection, Glenloch

The main building was ahead. The main front building was the main hall, and the Lourdes Hall was in sight straight ahead, a wing on the east side. The west side is the Nazareth Hall.

The Villa Maria Hall is the name of the main central building at Immaculata University.

The building was designed by Philadelphia architectural and engineering firm Ballinger and Perrot in Italian Renaissance Style, on the site where the Continental Army were positioned during a Revolutionary War skirmish known as Battle of the Clouds.

The three-story rotunda features Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Greek columns, with stained-glass windows gracing the impressive center dome.

The school was chartered as Villa Maria College for girls in 1920. It became Immaculata College in 1929, and then Immaculata University in 2002.

We made our way to the right on Loyola Drive, and I went on with a bit of a rant about my feelings on latter day Saints, and how Ignatius de Loyola was probably not a good choice. A noted narcissist, obsessed with his own looks and plenty of historic documentation of his efforts to control the Catholic faith led me to a less than favorable opinion of him.

We made our way along the route, to a great view of the front facade of the main hall. I was able to get a shot that was a good comparison with one taken at the time the building was under construction.

Pete walked downhill in the grass from me in this area, and found some interesting wall structures, and then the tracks of the later West Chester Branch!

The line was rather intact other than lots of trees growing through it, and we came to the former site of the Immaculata station stop. There were overgrown steps in the west side of the stone wall that approached this institution. I was unable to find any historic images of the station when it was in use.

The line we were seeing was the one that broke away from the main line at Frazer when the original one we had been following was abandoned.

Ted Xaras collection

We remained on Loyola Drive ahead, passed through a parking area, and then descended through the grass to the right, to the northwest side of the lawn clearing for the college.

At this end, we found that the old West Chester Branch had been obliterated for the creation of a retention pond. Pete went first around the back side looking for a way through.

I was not expecting to find anything worth exploring or walking through here. One of my thoughts was that we might find a path that would take us down to Ravine Road in Glenloch area, but I didn't have much faith in that.

As Pete reached the wood line, he announced that we might be able to get through with the stroller. I pushed Ev along the edge of the retention pond, holding tight as not to tip him, and got help getting him into the woods.

As we entered the line of trees, to our left we could see a couple of rails cut off at the end of trackage on the West Chester Branch, left behind for some reason.

The grade was rather obvious ahead, and even a bit of it had a discernible path on it.

We followed the grade into the woods and west just a bit to where it turned into a cut, and started shifting to the south. Pete continued on the more overgrown railroad bed when a small path turned to the right. I pushed the stroller down that, which shifted to the west to parallel the rail grade just to the north.

We stayed along the land contour of the slope, and Pete soon rejoined us when the rail bed got to be a bit too far out of the way.

An intersection of trails was ahead, where we took a short break. The ATV path led more clearly downhill and within sight of Ravine Road, which was where we needed to be. This route worked out rather perfectly!

While we were taking our break, a group of ATVs came though heading down the hill to Ravine Road. This was some consolation that we would actually be able to get out of there.

Soon, we followed the path downhill, which wasn't too tough, and emerged onto Ravine Road near a business on the right. Ahead, there were three consecutive cut stone arches that carried the road beneath the former Pennsylvania Railroad. 

The middle of the three arches, based on the look of them, I feel is probably the oldest and likely dates back to the early realignments under Pennsylvania Railroad. The south and north of the three culverts are both similar, with wider underpasses and wider arches.

Today, the main line tracks follow the southernmost underpass. The middle one just weaves a bit north of the first one, and the north one was originally the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch, part of the freight bypasses constructed in the early 1900s.

This was the middle of these bypasses. To the east is the Trenton Cutoff, and to the west, the Atglen and Susquehanna Branch, better known as the Enola Low Grade Line.

At first, we felt that the P&T was likely the original Philadelphia and Columbia, because it was narrower, but this turned out not to be the case. Not entirely anyway.

The original Philadelphia and Columbia through this area apparently crosses over the P&T line a bit, because it weaved back and forth a bit, and the two branches are in very close proximity. Because most of this line was re-aligned, and in many cases raised to eliminate grade crossings, most of the original P&C is likely gone, or barely recognizable. I did notice from time to time a little grade going off to the north or south of the line as we walked ahead.

It was a rough spot. Ravine Road isn't that busy, but it's also too fast a road to go any distance on. These underpasses would be the worst part, and I would have to use caution with the stroller.

The group made sure to stay both ahead an behind me to help with the approach of traffic while I ran through pushing the stroller. 

We got through alright at the first two culverts, and there was an ATV path going up to the last culvert.

This area was around the historic site of the Glenloch Station. An early station at this site was actually a former homestead.

It seems the railroad purchased an old stone house that obviously predated the tracks, knocked off the back section leaving doors to dangle in the air, laid the new line, and added a ticket window to the amputation wound in the house!

In the very early days of railroading, utilizing pre-existing structures with added amenities was not so uncommon. A live-in Station Agent was necessary in early railroading, and so this looked like a sensible purchase. We had seen examples of this within the past year hiking former Reading lines.

In the years to come, this building disappeared and a "proper" rail station was erected at Glen Loch. I understand it still exists as a private residence. today.

Examples of these strange, early, opportunistic stations are extremely rare today.

I had to be careful with the stroller. This was only the second stroller I'd been using since Ev was born, other than one hike where I used one other one last year. The first one was damaged when my car was destroyed, and I figured this one would last alright.

It started to crack a bit, and I was using zip ties for the repair to keep it going, but it put added stress on the other side.

I figured this stroller would last as long as the other one did or longer, because I was taking care not to push as hard into rocks and such as we went.

However, Ev is getting bigger, and is around forty pounds now. Maybe even worse, the Winter had been colder this year than last, and I leave the stroller in the car overnight. That could lead to making the plastic of it more brittle possibly.

Whatever the case, when we were pushing to get the stroller up the slope to the P&T Branch, Kirk was holding the front and I was holding the back with Ev in it, and the arms snapped right at the joints where it folds up. We didn't hurt Ev at all, but he panicked a bit for a moment.

Dan West Collection

We had to quickly get the stroller back down the hill to the edge of the road, and started trying to get it back together with more zip ties and duct tape.

I got a couple of large sticks to use as splints on the broken arms, and secured them tightly at the sides to keep it going.

This was going to be just barely enough to limp it along. It wasn't going to be good enough to get to the end of the hike, and we had quite a few more miles to go.

It was very lucky that there was a Home Depot just a few hundred feet away. We were able to get the stroller just barely going, and brought it under the third arch, left on Phoenixville Pike, and into the Home Depot lot.

We walked inside, and went to the courtesy desk where I explained what happened to the guy who appeared to be in charge. 

He looked at the problem and agreed that the splint thing was a good idea. Some of the group felt that purchasing metal re-bar and using that as the splints would be the best option, but I knew that stuff was too heavy. It might just lead to another break elsewhere.

I chose to go with the original wooden stick splints I'd put in, purchase a few more zip ties, and then get a roll of the stronger, black gorilla tape style of duct tape to wrap the thing up better. I purchased the stuff and we headed outside to start repair.

Dave brought Ev back into the Home Depot to look around rather than wait out in the cold while we worked on the stroller.

1950, Tom Hollyman Penn Central archives

I was able to get it to where it felt pretty sturdy, hopefully sturdy enough to get us through to the end of the hike.

We summoned Dave and Ev back out, and got Ev bundled up in the stroller again to be on our way.

Because Dave had scouted this stuff ahead of time, he knew exactly where to go to get back onto the rail bed again.

We walked west to the end of the Home Depot Lot, and directly across the Phoenixville Turnpike, behind a sign, was a faint path up a slope. I was able to push Ev up this, and into some sparsely weedy woods. At first, I thought this was the P&T Branch, because it was flat grade. Maybe it was an earlier line. The P&T Branch was in a deep cut straight ahead, so it's possible this first thing was the original P&C. I'm not sure.

When we got to the cut, I picked Ev up out of the stroller and the others helped to get the stroller down the steep slope into the cut.

The others came down, and we made our way along the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch heading west. We emerged from the cut behind Fizzano Bros. Concrete, where there was some stuff stored.

Dan West Collection

There was still a very good ATV path. We were able to continue on, and with only a few weeds and some ballast rock. Overall, pushing the stroller wasn't difficult.

Soon, we came to the overpass where we crossed over the Phoenixville Pike. Pete and I were up front and the others were a bit behind. John had fallen behind somewhere and missed where we went, so the others had waited up for him.

Just as I was walking over the top of the culvert, a police car was passing beneath. He slowed. I knew he saw me. I peered off the other way and he was stopped on the other side. I just walked faster. I soon reached a weedy bit we had to go around, and then the Rt 202 underpass. The right of way cleared up from here, and it was very easy walking on wide path from here.

However, that spot also offered some much easier access from the road. I didn't want to stop, so Pete and I moved well ahead, and stopped still within sight of the Rt 202 bridge. No one was coming. I told Pete that I'll bet they were stopped by police.

There were no signs saying to stay out of this area, but still, I couldn't chance following busy roads through this bit, so we pushed on ahead for a bit.

In these woods, most of it would be accessible by vehicle going way out, up until there was a tree that had fallen across and blocked the right of way. The ATVs were easily going around it, and we followed their tracks, but no regular car or truck could get through.

When we were just a bit beyond this tree, I stopped and tried to get hold of the group. We had gone over a mile beyond where we saw them, near Ship Road where there had historically been a railroad station going back to the early days. I think it was named "Steamboat" or something at one time as well.

I got a response pretty quickly they indeed were stopped by the police. They were told that they got a call about homeless people on the railroad bed, and that one was pushing a cart! 

The police actually appreciated what we were doing, noted that it was private property, but that it was not posted, so they were not going to stop them from going through. They did note that the railroad owned it, and so we might be asked to leave by their enforcement, and we would have to do so if that happened. I was told one of the two police actually liked hiking himself, so that's pretty cool.

1906 John Stone Collection

We ended up waiting for the group to catch up for a while, because I suppose it was a rather lengthy stop.

The stretch was immediately parallel with Rt 30, which is a four lane, limited access highway called the Exton Bypass at this point.

We passed an old switch box to the left, and then after that, an old signal tower that had collapsed to the ground. In this area, we passed the Exton Station to the left.

Originally, this station stop was a smaller one, known as the Whiteland Station with a small shanty station structure. It was rebuilt in 1981 to accommodate many more patrons. 

We soon crossed over top of Rt 100 on a much more modern bridge structure. The passenger line was always visible below us to the left. We would see some trains go by on this.

The path we were following started getting a bit more overgrown. Dave warned us that we might have a bit of trouble ahead because we would have to go down a crazy slope when we got to the "flyover bridge", where the P&T Branch crossed over the main line to continue parallel with it on the south side.

Pete had to cut away from the group around this time in order to get back to a station stop to get a train back to Harrisburg

We pushed on along the right of way, but it got to be a bit rough. There were more trees down, and many we could go around, but eventually we reached a spot where we just could not go through any further. We were going ot have to turn back.

Disheartened, I looked over all of the maps to see if there was any possible way of doing this better. 

There was a road to the south, but it involved going way uphill. Crossing the Main Line might be an option, but it would not be easy.

We backtracked to where an ATV path crossed, and we went down to the south side. I thought maybe there would be something lower down to get us out to the Whitford Station ahead by the bridge. I got a nice view of the bridge from afar, but there was nothing good in terms of opportunities. With ethe already broken stroller, crossing quickly and scaling the slope on the other side was not happening.

We had to head back uphill to the P&T Branch, and we were ready to backtrack more, when there was another steep pathdown toward Rt 30. It didn't look very good. I figured there might be a path down that way, but it was a long shot.

I checked Google street views, and there was no obvious path coming out to Whitford Road, the next crossing, but there was a faint opening in the vegetation. It could be something.

As a last resort, I ran down the slope toward 30, where there was a clear area, but nothing immediately obvious continuing. From the rail bed ahead, we didn't see any path at the bottom. 

Amazingly, when I walked just a bit, I found that there was a lightly used path that made its way between the bottom of the P&T slope fill, and the edge of Rt 30. It was worth trying.

1906 John Stone collection

I went back and got Ev and the stroller, and the guys helped me get it down the slope without tipping him. We then carefully made our way along the path, which was somewhat rocky. It eventually came up right along the edge of Rt 30, but it was there.

We descended from 30, and soon emerged on Whitford Road. It was such a relief to be done with that bit.

We turned to the left beneath the stone culvert of the Main Line, and the flyover bridge of the P&T Branch, and turned right to reach the Whitford Station.

The station building, which still stands today, was built in 1880, and basically looks like a shed compared to other structures on the line. 

We paused here and considered what the next steps were going to be.

Dave had scouted ahead on this, and although the P&T Branch remained clear some of the way to the west of here, he said that there were many fallen trees and it was at times difficult for a stroller to get through. Considering what I had already been through on this hike with the stroller, I felt lucky to have made it this far with it, and did not want to try my lucky any further on rougher terrain.

1880s Glen Loch Coal Whart from Ted Xaras Collection

I was going to go back to Whitford Road and follow parallel roads back into Downingtown, but left it to the rest of the group if they wanted to continue to follow the rail bed.

John, Steve, and I all went back on the roads, and Dave led the rest of the group on more of the P&T Branch ahead. 
We made our way down to the road, and then had to hurry to avoid traffic coming through the tunnels. 

John J Bowman Jr. Fred W Schneider III collection, Bradford Hills

Once we were through, there was a good shoulder for walking, and pretty old structures along the way.

We soon reached the intersection with Clover Hill Road where we would turn left. At the intersection, straight across, was a lovely old mansion house. Historic 1873 A R Witmer Atlas of Chester County shows this as being Shoemaker property. It must have been a very affluent person.

The road was not so heavily used, and was actually quite pleasant to walk. I was glad we chose the way we did.

1955, Winfield Gross

For a good long while, there was a good sidewalk beside the road that made for much more pleasant walking. 

Even when the sidewalk ended, there was still a pretty good shoulder for us to walk on for a while.

We passed beneath Rt 30, and I chatted with Steve about how great it was to have a parent that you don't have to pretend to be someone else around. I'm lucky that I can be just as odd and crazy around my mom and dad as I am around anyone, and so many people don't have that, but he seems to have that well with John being his dad.

We continued walking and came to a rather new development on the left, which had just installed some new walkways along the housing.

Ted Xaras collection Glenloch 1873 wharf

We were able to break away from the edge of the road for just a bit, almost until the intersection with Boot Road ahead.

We turned right on Boot Road, and I didn't notice at the time, but we crossed the original P&C right of way. The entrance to the right of the Exeter Supply Company is built on the original railroad grade, in the original Bradford Hills Curve. There is still a curve on the main line, which was proposed to have been rebuilt early on, but it never came to pass. The original 1834 track had a might tighter curve that had been lessened under Pennsylvania Railroad management.

Woodbine, National Archives

The original line came into the current line very close to where the Chester Valley line of the Reading Railroad had its junction, also gone today.

The Chester Valley Trail follows most of that line, but it ends currently just to the east of Whitford Road. That right of way has been completely obliterated through quarrying, so the trail couldn't be extended through the Downingtown. 

The long term plan I have now ready calls for the trail to shift from the Reading line to the south, and then get on the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch to head west.

When we got to the main Boot Road crossing of the active tracks, I took some photos near the top. When I posted them on Metrotrails, John Stone left some amazing 1906 photos taken by his grandfather of the site, which also featured some of the newly constructed P&T Branch above.

With this, I had a perfect then and now compilation to share.

I understand the P&T Branch has been abandoned now since the early 1980s, but some sources say it was abandoned in 1991. I'm not sure what to believe.

The most boring part of the entire hike was the section along Boot Road heading west to Brandywine Ave. They are going to build a new train station off to the right of Brandywine Ave, which is probably close to where the Woodbine Station used to stand. An early 1900s small station stop, probably the smallest on the entire Pennsylvania Railroad, stood at this location or near it. 

I was ready to turn right up Brandywine Ave and go under the stone culvert beneath the Main Line, then turn left in town to cross over to the Brandywine Trail and our end point, but John reminded me that there was a pedestrian path upstream from there, which I had not been aware of.

In the new development, on River Station Blvd, we could walk back and then onto this new paved trail, across a pedestrian bridge, and across the Brandywine Creek. We had a great view there of the "Downingtown Low Bridge" where the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed.

The four arch stone viaduct was completed in 1892 by the Pennsylvania Railroad to replace the earlier 1862 iron deck truss bridge. That bridge replaced the original wooden covered bridge of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.

It was known as the "low bridge" after the P&T Branch was completed, at which time the very tall trestle on the south side of town became known as the "High Bridge".

We turned right at the end of the bridge onto the paved section of the Brandywine Trail, and made our way beneath the arches of the bridge, and then back to the parking lot behind the police station.

When we arrived, I got in touch with Dave, and they were still up on the P&T Branch! They couldn't believe that we made it back before them! It was a bit of a wait, but not so bad. They arrived after dark, and it was getting colder, but no huge problem. I got a ride back to my car at Dave's place to close another very fun and interesting day. It would also be the last trek for the second Graco stroller.