Geocaching and NJ Railroads

Geocaching is a game which involves GPS units, hidden prizes, and various clues offered by organizers. It makes use, in some cases, of the benchmark system used by surveyors to create accurate benchmarks for their local surveys.

My nephew and I were looking at the US benchmark system earlier today. These small brass disks are numbered, and each has a precise geographic location in latitude and longitude out to several decimal places. Many of the locations are along former railroad rights of way / stations / junctions.

For example, Sussex Jct, just outside the town of Sussex, is:

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/datashee ... PID=LY0711

DESCRIBED BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1942
LY0711''1 MI SE FROM SUSSEX.
LY0711''1.0 MILE SOUTHEAST ALONG THE NEW YORK, SUSQUEHANNA AND WESTERN
LY0711''RAILROAD FROM THE STATION AT SUSSEX, ABOUT 1200 FEET SOUTHEAST
LY0711''OF STEEL BRIDGE 65.93, ABOUT 700 FEET NORTHEAST OF STATE
LY0711''HIGHWAY 23, AT A GRAVEL ROAD CROSSING, 120 FEET SOUTHWEST OF
LY0711''THE HOME OF JOE TODD, 33.5 FEET NORTHEAST OF THE NORTHEAST
LY0711''RAIL OF THE TRACK, 11 FEET SOUTHEAST OF THE CENTERLINE OF THE
LY0711''ROAD, 8 FEET SOUTHWEST OF POWER LINE POLE WG 65, AND 1.5 FEET
LY0711''SOUTHWEST OF A STANDARD REFERENCE POST. A STANDARD DISK, SET
LY0711''IN THE TOP OF A CONCRETE POST AND STAMPED 411.935 SUSSEX JCT.
LY0711''1933.

You can track upline and downline with minimal effort. The system also provides altitudes for the various locations, and some offer railroad mileposts in their descriptions.

Other points in Vernon, Beaver Lake, Franklin, etc have similar info. I'm sure mapping the L&NE, etc would be just as easy.

Here's the entry for Franklin NJ, zip 07416.

You'll note the NYSW, L&HR, and DL&W Franklin branch are mentioned. This was about the time the DL&W abandoned the branch, I believe.

STATION DESCRIPTION
LY0700
LY0700''DESCRIBED BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1934
LY0700''AT FRANKLIN.
LY0700''AT FRANKLIN, SUSSEX COUNTY, NEAR THE RAILROAD YARDS, ABOUT 900
LY0700''FEET WEST OF THE NEW YORK, SUSQUEHANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD,
LY0700''ABOUT 700 FEET WEST OF THE WEST END OF THE HIGHWAY BRIDGE
LY0700''OVER WALKILL RIVER AND THE YARDS, 120 FEET SOUTH OF THE
LY0700''LEHIGH AND HUDSON RIVER RAILWAY, IN THE TOP OF THE NORTHEAST
LY0700''CORNER OF THE ABUTMENT OF THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN
LY0700''RAILROAD STONE ARCH BRIDGE OVER WALKILL RIVER, 10 FEET NORTH OF
LY0700''THE TRACK, AND ABOUT 4 FEET LOWER THAN THE TOP OF THE RAIL.
LY0700''A STANDARD DISK, STAMPED 518.952 T 13 1933.

Lackawanna484, Thanks very much for this. My wife and I have gotten into geocaching. Combining it with rail intrests is a neat cross-over. Abandoned sites adn lines would be good ones for placement.

Question: where did you get the detail information on the specific benchmarks? I have been looking for such for a while now.

I remember Bob Handville (I think this was his correct last name). He was the MOW section boss on the DL&W's Gladstone Branch. When I was just discovering railroading, he told me that the government used railroad structures for benchmarks, because of the belief that bridge abutments, etc. would be in place for a long time (unlike street and private buildings sites). I remember a couple of them somewhere along the Gladstone Branch, but I can't remember exactly where. But, then again, they might have been railroad property ones.

The geocaching website in the first link is where I started.

I plugged in a few zip codes for places I knew had hosted railroads. Even abandoned rail lines pop up in the "view original datasheet" map, and once you get a link point, you can track north, south, etc. If you plug in Branchville NJ or Sussex NJ zips, you'll find the first or second hit gives you a railroad. The in town station or rail junction was often a primary landmark for the plate riveters

You're right about the railroad bridges. There's a USGS class for them: "massive structures". If you walk south on the DL&W from Branchville, you'll see some text about the third oak tree from the left, and the northwest corner post of the cow pasture, which are now unidentifiable. The long abandoned stone bridge of the DL&W is still findable, though.

For people just joining the discussion: the reference points load directly into a GPS unit for searching

Here's one in the parking lot of the DL&W Far Hills train station. (Remember that the postal zip code creates its own zero point, so mileage derives from that point)

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/datashee ... PID=KV6543

Notice that nobody surveyed the lat-lons of LY0700 and LY0711-- the elevations are carefully measured, but they just got the lat-lons off the topo map. Most of the benchmarks along rail lines are like that-- precise elevation, but the lat-lon isn't surveyed at all.

On the other hand KV6543 (a newer mark) is a fairly-careful GPS lat-lon, but the elevation given is just based on the GPS ellipsoid height.

The datasheets are at www.ngs.noaa.gov.