3R Survey Log

We decided to spend the day officially expanding our surveys into Mifflin county and Bald Eagle State Forest.

We started out by visiting Stillhouse Hollow Rd, which departs old route 322 just west of Milroy and accesses Greens Valley. Unfortunately, this very rough road is blocked at the second switchback by a gate proclaiming that there is an unpassable bridge ahead. It was still worth the visit, however, as the hollow off of old 322 was quite obviously a very substantial log slide. It seems highly likely that this was constructed to feed the Reichley railroad going past the mouth of the hollow into the Milroy sawmill.

Next we took new 322 up to Sand Mountain Rd (deja vu all over again?) and went to the other end of Stillhouse Hollow Rd. Passing a very nice little camp/residence, we followed this rough road back to reach Lingle Stream. Alert! Suspicious ledge! We were very pleased to discover a branch apparently undocumented by Kline. We surveyed it to the west, along a branch of Lingle Stream, as far as the dam at the Seven Mountains’ Boy Scout Camp lake. It criss-crosses a scout nature trail, but is reasonably intact. It’s interesting to ponder whether it continues on the other side. Could this be the real connection to Crowfield Rd railroad, and the hell with Kline’s supposed horseshoe route (which we never found) over Sand/Treaster mountain? Hmmm.

Returning to the truck, we headed southeast on Stillhouse Hollow Rd, as it appears plain that the RoW is under the road. Reaching a gated bridge at the junction with a private driveway, we explored and found RoW continuing southeast along Lingle Stream. We continued to survey through some really nasty thickets, until it became obvious that we were into Greens Valley. Somehow–scarcely imaginable in these thickets!–we missed the junction with the line coming up from Laurel Creek reservoir and Milroy.

[From: Pitch Pine and Prop Timber, p. 132, Benjamin F. G. Kline Jr.]

We continued surveying along Greens Valley stream. It’s a quite scenic and extremely narrow valley, with heavy rhodadendron. Eventually, with much cursing, we reached the aforementioned defective bridge on Stillhouse Hollow Rd, which appears to primarily need new wood planking. Ok, DCNR, whatever!

The RoW must continue (along with the omnipresent Mid State Trail) on the other side of the bridge, but we decided to suspend here and head back along SHR, so we might sample other points along this route. Apparently “Horse Path” is 2km up Greens Valley Stream from here, and perhaps this would be an appropriate place to experiment in the future with my proposed “equi-motive survey” techniques.

Returning to the truck, we headed up and over Sand Mountain Rd. While being run off the road by an a$$hole in a big pickup towing a huge RV at ridiculous speed for this road, I noticed something curious and let out a “whoa!”. Walking back, we found what appears to be wide rock-ballasted RoW atop Sand Mountain. Vince pointed out that there were no obvious tie cribs. The location does not appear to jibe with Kline’s maps. Waypoint.

We turned onto Siglerville-Millheim Pike and stopped to briefly explore the area where the MST crosses the road. Though it seems highly likely the railroad crossed in this area, it’s fairly level and we found no clear signs. We therefore headed SW on a 4WD road which is also the MST. Eventually it does a jog to the NW. Exploring on foot, I quickly found a small stone fill giving clear evidence that the next portion of road (after the first jog) was atop RoW.

Continuing to the second jog in the road, the road ends, while the trail continues. Walking a ways down the trail, it becomes obvious that this is again RoW. We decided to record the stretch of road between the two jogs as RoW under road. We will come back later to connect this with our surveys earlier in the day, and extend it NE along Panther Run and hopefully to the supposed connection over the mountain at Little Poe Creek.

New territory! How cool is this…?

Project Status

• daily contributions: 1.12 miles
• total: 27.15 miles
• daily contributions (under road): 1.06 miles
• total (under road): 16.18 miles
• grand total: 43.33 miles

[as reported by Vince]

Today we went over to Beach Creek Railroad country on a bit of a whim. We walked the dinky railroad to the top of the mountain above Monument. The line heads up the hollow a couple of miles and then switchbacks up the side of the mountain. Most of it is used as road nowadays for access to natural gas wells.

From the looks of some areas of the road, there may be a quarry operating somewhere up there too. The area is obviously rich in fire clay. It’s also obvious Harbison-Walker was mining coal on that mountain to fire their kilns–at least at some point–as the dinky right of way is liberally sprinkled with coal. Small spikes and bricks are in abundance around the lower end of the line. The top of the mountain has evidence of multiple clay pits and subsidence from underground coal or fire clay workings. It’s also apparent that in later years they used an inclined plane [or 'funicular' or perhaps 'gravity tram'--correct terminology is debatable!] straight down the side of the mountain to avoid the switchbacks. This is clearly shown on Penn Pilot images of the area, as well as historic topos.

After Monument, we took a ride up to Kato and happened to locate the inclined plane that Phil had once mentioned. If you head up the road out of Kato towards Clarence, the grade of the incline is in the woods not far to the left. Upon reaching the top of the hill, there’s a yellow and black gate across the road leading into the area where the mines were that fed the incline. We found the area at the top of the hill where the hoisting machinery was located. Nothing is left except for some studs sticking up out of concrete bases. Paul found a joint bar (which had been adopted by ants) and about 1/3 of a broken mine car wheel.

If you go further up the hillside, there is evidence of tramway grades and collapsed drift entrances. It seems likely that they were simply running the mine cars to the top of the hill and then hitching them up to the incline. Due to time constraints, we did not walk this all the way down the incline to the BCRR grade. That’ll have to wait for some other day.

Be sure to check out the new maps being created to summarize findings in various regions. They are a great way to appreciate just how extensive these railroads were. We’ll try to add to them regularly.

They are listed in the menus to the right of each page. Enjoy!

When we started our “Rothrock Railroad Re-survey”, it seemed silly to worry about the name suggesting our efforts were only in Rothrock State Forest. But today we entered new territory: by crossing US route 322 we entered Bald Eagle State Forest (known in the vernacular as ‘Baw Diggle’).

We decided to make a quick excursion to the area of Bald Eagle State Forest around Poe Valley State Park. We began by taking US 322 to Sand Mountain Road, and heading NE past the Boy Scout camp. Reaching the junction with Synagogue Gap Road (story?), we decided to explore a trail which continues NE along the headwaters of Big Poe Creek, as it seemed like a potential spot for railroad grade. The road goes about a mile to access some new deer control areas, then is blocked by a gate. We parked at a nearby camp and trekked over to the headwaters area of BPC. Checking both sides of the stream showed no obvious signs of RoW.

Returning to Sand Mtn Rd, we continued through Wildcat Gap (story?) where we switched to Poe Valley Rd. Although it seems very likely that railroad ran along Big Poe Creek here, the area is uber-developed with moderately nasty vacation camps which hinder thorough exploration. It’s also very likely the road is built atop any former grade. We therefore continued to Poe Valley State Park proper.

At the east end of the park, we parked at the gated junction of Poe Valley Rd and Little Poe Rd. Kline’s map suggests railroad ran along Little Poe Creek and branched over Long Mountain to Panther Run (Mifflin county). We hiked up LPR, not observing any particular signs of railroad, but with Vince observing that the route was reasonable for logging railroad. It’s a nice hike, if nothing else.

[From: Pitch Pine and Prop Timber, p. 132, Benjamin F. G. Kline Jr.]

Finally, after a road crossing of the creek, we observed what appears faint RoW on the right-hand side. Very soon we came upon the blue-blazed Little Poe Trail joining on the right. We began following the trail, which does seem to generally follow RoW. This sure isn’t your momma’s RoW, however! Gotshall (or was this Mowery & Wagner?) was apparently skimping on construction–probably by using stringers everywhere–and the path is much fainter than the nicely-ballasted routes we are used to from Kulp and Reichley.

We followed the route until it seems to end and the large stumps disappeared. Vince spotted a really nice spotted salamander which put up with our examination for a surprisingly long time before slipping beneath the leaves. We then returned to the junction of the trail and LPR. The route of LPR up the ridge into Mifflin county seems suspiciously steep, so we suspected the the actual route may have departed the present road. We briefly explored, but suspended due to waning light. Perhaps we will approach this route from the Mifflin side…

Returning to the truck, we examined the area around the junction of PVR and LPR for signs of railroad, finding nothing. Heading down (NE) towards Poe Paddy, however, we quickly noticed a curious ledge on the south side of the road. Examination among the pine trees showed almost certain RoW. Nice! We waypointed it for further survey. It seems to reappear regularly, so we may be able to log legitimate mileage here eventually.

We decided to depart Poe Paddy via the infamous Poe Paddy Rd switchbacks (4 wheel drive ONLY). Just a short distance from the park’s historical marker, I noticed a very obviously rock-ballasted RoW merge from the right. While it’s not clear where it was going, we waypointed it for future exploration.

The trip up over PPR was uneventful. It does offer a great view of a Lewisburg & Tyrone (Pennsylvania railroad) bridge (I guess this is the location shown as “Penn View”) and is worth a visit if your suspension will tolerate the trip.

Project Status

• daily contributions: 0.44 miles
• total: 26.03 miles
• daily contributions (under road): 1.31 miles
• total (under road): 15.12 miles
• grand total: 41.15 miles

[Today's report is from Vince because Paul was "otherwise engaged" most of the afternoon.]

I began the day armed with a printed copy of a Penn Pilot image showing a suspicious line paralleling Thickhead Mtn. Road, basically at the northeast end of the mountain between the two sharp curves in the road. I parked at the gate just above where Bechtol Rd splits off and began hiking up TMR. At the location where the known railroad comes out onto the road, I noticed that the ledge for the tail track is visible for a short distance on the opposite side of the road and slightly below it. Did we notice this on previous trips to this spot? Can’t recall.

Continuing up TMR, I chose a spot about halfway between the two curves and went crashing up the side of the mountain through heavy mountain laurel. If there was anything to the lines noticed on the Penn Pilot image, it should have been readily apparent shortly after leaving the road. Nothing. Not even a patch of talus. Continuing to the top of the mountain, I aimed for the bare concrete slab visible from the air on the southeast corner of the mountain top. There’s nothing here now, but heavy cables lying in the brush seem to indicate there was once a tower of some sort here. Following the access road out, I soon regained TMR.

I chose to hike TMR down towards our previously-named “Grand Jct” atop Thickhead Mtn. When I got about where I thought I had on previous visits, I turned around and headed back for the northeast face of the mountain to close the gap on TMR. About that time, I got a call from Paul that he was headed out to join me and we arranged to meet along Boal Gap road, which would allow me to hike all the way out the top of the ridge at the northeast extremity of Thickhead Mtn. and then get Paul to return me to my truck. By doing this, surely I would have to intersect where the railroad must have curved around the end of the mountain, right?

Well, after a long hike down through relatively open forest (i.e. hard to miss railroad grades) and after doing my best to skirt around private lands, I had very little to show for it. The only promising lead came right at the end where the private camp road comes out onto Boal Gap Road about a 1/2 mile above the junction with Krise Valley Road. Here, there’s an earthy ledge that seems to go for a ways on the south side of the stream. It’s level enough and the curves are gentle enough but there are no rocks or tie cribs immediately visible and it’s quite narrow. Nonetheless, it’s not at all unlike some known grades we’ve seen on very earthy hill sides in pine forests. The first bit of this appears to be on a patch of public land, so further investigation seems warranted.

Paul’s addition: After arriving at Boal Gap Rd, I explored a bit along the stream. The slight route we previously observed continues parallel to the stream. Nowhere is it entirely clear that it is or is not former railroad. In fact, it greatly resembles the “earthy ledge” Vince mentions above. I found an (obviously popular) horse trail in this area which angles steeply up the hillside and which might have originated as a log slide. It intersects a couple of paths a ways up the hill, but they seem likely to have been constructed as fire breaks or logging roads. Basically: nada.

Project Status

• daily contributions: 0 miles
• survey total: 25.59 miles

We determined that this very humid day was the day to complete a survey of the previous lead found along the John Wert Path (formerly the Sinking Creek Trail). We left a car at Bear Meadows, and went to Thickhead Mtn Rd end of the path to begin surveying.

The path departs the road on a driveway to two camps. On its left, RoW is buried under copious rhodadendron. At one or two spots it breaks out to expose rock ballasting. [note: the map does not show this stretch in the correct location, probably due to GPS inaccuracy]

We stopped at the first camp to talk to a resident. He informs us the camp was completed before 1952, and that workers were housed there during construction of the nearby pipeline. We suspect the bulldozing of the driveway dates from that time… does that mean the original access to the camp was via the railroad RoW? Hmmm.

Around the first camp, we found the RoW appears to have dropped down closer to Sinking Creek. Its path is a little vague until passing the second camp, at which point it’s plainly visible alongside the cleared JWP. At the pipeline clearing, it’s pretty easy to extrapolate the path across the interruption. From there on we found it a pretty easy survey, as most of the RoW is very well ballasted with rock. If you go, expect lots of rocks and rhodadendron!

Eventually, the RoW began to trend a bit to the left, away from the stream, and become somewhat vague. At its approximate end, Vince identified a fairly clear logslide (or at least skid road) coming downhill from the left. It appears there was probably a loading area where it met the railroad. Sure enough, Vince found a very large pile of clinkers right about where one would expect a locomotive to sit while loading logs.

We explored a bit around the area to see if we’d missed anything, but it appears this really was a terminus. We continued along the John Wert Path to Bear Meadows, which is a rather nice hike with rather fine large hemlocks and other trees. We still don’t know who John Wert is, but we appreciate the 1.11 miles.

Project Status

• daily contributions: 1.11 miles
• survey total: 25.59 miles

We began the day’s exploration by taking a brief look around Treaster Kettle Rd at the big zig-zag near Reichley Trail. The gnats were bad and things didn’t appear promising, so we moved on.

Next we visited the extreme end of Bechtol Rd, where it enters private land. Walking back towards Thickhead Mtn Rd, I examined the curious scrap curving uphill into Bechtol Gap (see 9/2/07). It sure seems to have tie depressions. I then followed the road, looking for anything on the other side. Sure enough, I quickly found a fairly good trace, complete with tie depressions. Consulation with Vince and “the device” showed it headed towards that last survey. Did we miss a diverging branch during that survey?

We headed out along this new track, crashing through lots of Mt Laurel, periodically assured of our route by rock ballasting. Eventually we reached a modest clearing and intersected our previous survey where we had thought it turned to road. Oops. It appears we lost our way at this point during that survey. It is possible the road we were following was a track into Bechtol Gap, but also possible it was not. We will delete that section of the previous survey.

We returned to the road and the stream down Bechtol Gap. Following the stream, we watched closely for signs that the railroad went that way. Unfortunately, there really aren’t any. We did find a rock-edged “ramp” steeply departing the stream, but it seems to go nowhere and is a bit too steep even for a geared locomotive. Continuing downstream, I was blessed with an encounter with several yellow jackets, which diminished my enthusiasm. I made a quick excursion up the SW hillside, while Vince continued downstream and then up onto the SW hillside. We found nothing, which appears to conclude that Bechtol Gap (at least the lower portion) is–finally!–a bust.

We will have to examine the upper reaches of the gap, where that curious scrap ends, to try to figure out how the railroaders escaped from Thickhead Mtn and its unfriendly stinging insects. Stay tuned!

Project Status

• daily contributions: 0.4 miles
• daily deletions: 0.06 miles
• survey total: 24.48 miles

Just for the heck of it…

• believed under road: 13.81 miles
• grand total: 38.29 miles

We took advantage of a few holiday hours by visiting the Treaster Kettle area. Since yesterday’s hunt seemed to indicate railroad headed through Bechtol Gap, we decided to explore below there.With permission from a cooperative landowner, we searched the area south of Treaster Kettle Rd in the general direction of Bechtol Gap.

Unfortunately we found no signs that the railroad passed through the gap and extended NE along the north side of First Mountain. Perhaps it passed through the gap and curved around to follow the north side of Little Mountain in a SW direction…? But as Vince has pointed out, they would soon encounter Heckendorn Gap, which seems an impassable barrier.

Frustrated, we decided to explore along Boal Gap Rd. Just downstream from the upper crossing of Boal Gap Run, we found a couple of disjointed fragments which could be RoW. If so, a lot of the RoW has been ravaged by flooding. We will have to explore at additional points along Boal Gap Run to see if we can verify whether this was railroad grade.

Project Status

• daily contributions: 0 miles
• running total: 24.14 miles

Part I

We began the day by heading NE on Greenlee Rd from Whipple Dam state park. We stopped where Greenlee Rd crosses Greenlee Run and briefly explored the area with no findings.

We then proceeded out Beidleheimer Rd. Vince made a quick stop at the summit of Bell Ridge, to inspect whether the RoW might depart from the road there, with no findings. I proceeded to the sharp bend of BR at the headwaters of Croyle Run. This is where I had first discovered a scrap of stone ballasted RoW several years ago. Kline’s map shows a sawmill at this approximate location.

Heading a short way downstream, I noticed two apparent grade scraps on the north slope of the ravine, just below the road. I then became distracted by Croyle Run Trail coming down the hillside, because it sure looks a lot like a well preserved log slide. I followed it down and across Croyle Run, where it seems to turn into a road. I found remains of a building on the left side of the road, though scraps of tin, asphalt shingle, a cast iron stove, and chimney block makes it seem too new to be lumbering related.

On the theory that a log slide would enter a log pond, or at least a stream above a log pond, I headed farther down Croyle Run looking for prospective sawmill sites. I did find one level spot on the north side of the stream, but found no visible remains, and no signs of a dam. Damn.

About this time Vince radioed me and we met near the headwaters. He agreed the two grade scraps looked interesting and concurred with my opinion that CRT was a log slide. We evaluated the road across the stream and the camp remains, and concluded they probably are not relevent.

We then evaluated the couple of scraps. While it seems likely they are in fact portions of RoW, they don’t seem to go anywhere much. About that time, Vince noticed some interesting stonework which suggests a foundation just inside the sharp bend in the road. It could be that these are the only remains of the Beidleheimer sawmill on Croyle Run. It would make some sense, as the main track would have passed above the mill on the hillside (to deliver logs), while the one scrap of track closer to the stream might have gone onto a ramp to remove cut lumber from the stream side of the mill.

If this is the mill location–nearly at the headwaters of Croyle Run–then the mill must have been steam powered. I had always figured it to be water powered, but the size of the stream makes it unlikely.

Vince then surveyed the known portions of the wye track on the NE side of the road bend, while I enjoyed the weather.

Part II

Next we headed for Bear Meadows, with the intention of walking the John Wert Path from BM down to Thickhead Mtn Rd. Vince had a theory that (based on their ownership of the area east of Bear Meadows), Kulp should have entered the Sinking Creek valley, traversing the south side of Little Mountain.

While delivering a return vehicle, we stopped and examined the area around Treaster Kettle Rd and Thickhead Mtn Rd. If the railroad went up the north side of Little Mtn, it should be in this area. While I found one scrap that looked to me like RoW, Vince was skeptical due to its brevity. We searched the area further and found nothing other than a lot of very large toadstools.

We proceeded to the beginning of John Wert Path, where I distracted Vince with the suggestion that we take a quick look at Bechtol Road, which branches off of Thickhead Mtn Rd toward Bechtol Gap. We had never explored it, and it seemed like it could fit with Kline’s illustration of a route from the Little Mtn area (and previously-explored Thickhead Mtn switchbacks) over Triester and Sand Mtns.

Bechtol Rd ends at posted land near the NE end of Treaster Mtn. It seems a bit steep for grade, but possibly workable. Near the end, we decided to head up the Bechtol Gap stream a bit to look for possible stream crossings. Very quickly I found an extremely curious shelf which initially appears like a road, but which quickly degrades into likely RoW nearing the stream. We headed upstream and were baffled by where it could have been going. The ravine gets narrow and steep; it seems to be a route to nowhere. Returning downstream, I looked for a branch further NE, while Vince followed the road/RoW back. I found nothing of interest, but Vince found that the road/RoW seems to develop tie depressions, and merges neatly onto the gravel road. So. Maybe this was a branch to access some timber. Further exploration may be necessary.

Heading back onto Thickhead Mtn Rd proper, we went downhill, looking for other possible switchbacks off the road. Bingo! There it is. Neat as pie, another RoW departing TMR and heading downhill (NE) along the north face of Thickhead Mtn. And how have we previously missed this??? We followed this fairly well ballasted stretch downhill a good ways. Eventually it deteriorates into a road, but that’s good because its deep ruts help mark its path. In places, the rock RoW is still clear enough to know you are still on the right track. Eventually we intersected a “Ferns from Hell” section and decided that was a good place to call it quits. Vince reported a nice neat 0.5 mile track, making the day worthwhile. At least as important, we now know the railroad apparently escaped Thickhead Mtn via Bechtol Gap, not Heckendorn Gap (which always seemed unlikely due to its steepness). That should help us locate RoW further NE on Treaster Kettle Rd, almost to Colyer Lake.

Not content to call it quits, Vince insisted on a brief (solo) jaunt up John Wert Path from TMR. Sure enough, he came back on the radio to confirm that “they ran trains here”. The day thus yielded another area where we will soon log mileage.

Project Status

• daily contributions: 0.62 miles
• running total: 24.14 miles