Hiking To "G" Tower

Monday was such a gorgeous day I decided to hike along the former L&HR from the Belvidere sewer plant to G Tower. The tracks are still in place. Here and Great Meadows are the only existence of original L&HR mainline tracks in Warren County. The ATVs have cut out a decent walking path right next to the tracks and hiking was easy once you got down the bank from the county road. The tracks are intact to just before the Bel -Del at G Tower. It looks like when Conrail abandoned the L&HR they just loosened bolts and spikes and swung the whole piece out of the way.Even a switch frog was lying along then bank in amongst the twisted pile of rails and ties.
The foundation of G tower is still in place and is now a place for discarded tires. It looks like they used 3 pieces of rail as the main support beam for the tower.There are three raisl cut off on either side of the inside of the foundation. One other interesting thing was the Bel Del had somewhat of a shine on the rails ,meaning NS must still go to Belvidere.
I also shot a picture of the Conrail yellow gon that is forever(?) trapped on the old L&HR just east of the road bridge by the laundromat.
I then hiked to the top of the old DL&W bridge at Buttzville and looked down at the L&HR right of way. I continued my journey along the sad abandoned stretch of L&HR from Buttzville to Andover. I stopped in Allamuchy and outside of Tranquility at Creek Rd. There are sevearl telegraph poles stioll along the road and an electrical/signal box as well as the concrete bases for crossbucks.I didn't get to see much around Andover as traffic was heavy along Rte 206. I do know that there is a parking lot where the L&HR tracks once were.
Hopefully this summer I can get to film the remaining ACTIVE L&HR trackage for Sparta to Warwick.

Well, here we are at the end of July and I still haven't made it up to the Sparta-Warwick section yet. I have to try soon or waste yet another summer of wanting to film action on the former L&HR. Sure wish NS/CSX hadn't stolen the stack traffic from the Susie Q. It would give us more opportunities to catch stuff up there. Oh, well.

I don't know if you folks have seen this photo before. It dates from around 1972. I spent four very happy years at G, from 1960 to '64, and a few months in 1972, just before it closed. I appreciate your telling us about it today. I've driven there a few times, along the right of way, getting on from Foul Rift Road, a quarter mile south of the tower.
When Conrail began in 1976, I went to the EL side. One of the places I posted was UN tower, in Lake Hopatcong. One of the operators I posted with there was Tommy Sipple. I didn't know it at the time, but he had worked U tower in Manunka Chunk, in 1935. He must have worked with the operators at G, blocking trains between Belvidere and Manunka Chunk, or maybe the agent operator (if there was one) in the station at Belvidere. I could have asked him if he knew a couple of old timers at G who left just before I arrived.
The bottom photo is one of Shorpy's magnificent ones. It shows Manunka Chunk in 1900, with the line in the top right heading south to the Bel Del. Not the Lackawanna's Hall signal at the tunnel entrance; and the diminutive turntable pit. I walked there from Rt. 46 a few years ago.

I live in Harmony Township. My kids and I (2 boys 13 and 16) hike the Bel Del and the L&HR as much as we can. We almost always come home with something - date nails, insulators, etc. My younger son at age 11 found one of those aluminum speed limit signs (like the one in the photo of G tower) in a heavily overgrown section a few miles south of Great Meadows. His brother, 2 friends and I missed it. That day, we left it - mostly because I'm 50 and collect cast and steel marbled signs. After we got home he asked me if I'd ever seen a sign like that............"uh, No I haven't". Then he asked if he thought I'd ever see one again... "no"......... Crap. 11 years old and smarter than me. Long story short, my boy now has a "restored" speed sign in our garden with all my other stuff. the tel-tale in that area, that protected a bridge that is long gone, is still standing too. He said we should "liberate that too". Sorry son - last time I checked I do not have a heavy duty crane!

Thanks for posting that pic of G tower. I have not seen it before.