Old Phila. & Columbia route

There are a few areas in Bala Cynwyd/Narberth where the old Phila. & Columbia travelled between 1832-1850. Are any of the buildings along the very obvious paved-over ROW, that were originally railroad buildings? Has anyone fully investigated? I only ask because there is a small road in Bala Cynwyd, named Ford Rd., where there are a couple of old buildings along that road/ROW. Has the Lower Merion Historical Society or PRRHS fully researched this? Thanks

I can't comment on the buildings at this location, but my understanding is that the original P&C had few structures of its own and generally used adjacent taverns and inns along the way, some of which are still standing -- e.g., the Anthony Wayne Inn, and similar structures at Eagle, Christiana, and Kinzer's. Some of the original stone block track bed is, or was, exposed on the western fringe of Fairmount Park, and there are several original stone bridges and culverts extant.

The Railway Route. The railroad began in Philadelphia and headed in a westerly direction:

* It crossed the Schuylkill River at the Columbia Bridge and proceeded up the "Incline Plane" at Belmont Plateau.
* There it turned right and paralleled Belmont Avenue and then followed Conshohocken State Road into Lower Merion.
* Still paralleling Conshohocken State Road, it passed through the Cynwyd train station, up Bala Avenue and Bentley Road, and crossed behind the fire house.
* It then crossed over to the south side of Montgomery Avenue (Bowman’s Bridge).
* At All Saints Church, it crossed back over to the north side of Montgomery Avenue and went in front of the Lower Merion High School.
* From there it curved left onto Church Road and onto Coulter Avenue to the Athensville (Ardmore) train station.
* It followed the tracks of the R5 until Haverford where it again curved left onto (Old) Railroad Avenue to the intersection of Bryn Mawr Avenue and County Line Road.
* Here it followed Glenbrook Avenue until it crossed County Line Road, then Lancaster Avenue, then up Montrose Avenue and rejoined the R5 line at the Rosemont station where it continued west and left the Lower Merion area.

White Hall depot is now The Bryn Mawr Hospital Thrift Shop.

The early structures built by the Philadelphia & Columbia and the Pennsylvania were small and utilitarian; (wood) they reflected both railroads’ emphasis on long haul traffic. During the 1870s and 1880s, the Pennsylvania built or rebuilt eleven stations to serve the township on the railroad’s main line and its branch to Reading. These structures ranged from standard designs (replicated in many locations throughout the massive system) executed in wood or brick at Bala, Cynwyd and Merion to individually designed depots of stone at Narberth, Wynnewood, Ardmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr.

Source: http://www.lowermerionhistory.org/texts ... art08.html

I'd sure like to know where there are any of the old stone block sleepers still in existence.

Thanks - that's a great description of the route. The place shere I suspect railroad buildings is on Ford Road, as originally mentioned, near Bala Ave., just before the ROW heads into Montgomery Avenue. Also, I found a building at Brookhurst and Schiller Aves., in the Penn Valley/Narberth area which could also be a railroad building. I'll have to get a close look to determine if any are close enough to the ground to serve as a passenger station and of course, will post a photo if the research is promising.

There is a cutting in the stone hill on the East side of the Schuylkill Valley Barnch between Bala and Cynwyd. Between Bowman's Bridge near the General Wayne Inn, the tracks made an arc more than a block south of Montgomery Pk., through what is now Narberth Boro. There are some stone ties to be found back there, and others at the Gen. Wayne Inn, and near Ford Rd. & Montgomery Ave.
The 10 ties still in place are in the South parking lane of Edgely Rd.

Found this map which helps show the ROW and where remnants were at least in 1920:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... lumbia.jpg

Here is the source for the map:
http://www.lowermerionhistory.org/atlas/columbia.html
A blueprint copy of the above map and its notes was sold at the PennCentral auction at 30th St. Station in the early 1970s. There have been published photos of what I think is the scene in

Note C: "Stone tie and three pairs of square stone blocks, at south corner of row of dwellings". For photographic purposes, long dowels or rods had been pushed into the spike or bolt holes in the tops of the stones.

Here is what I mentioned in a previous post, but only 1 track's square ties remain, the stringers are gone.

Note G South side of Midvale Ave., opposite Methodist Home for the Aged. Double track as in F, but on tangent.

These traces should also still be visible today:

Note K East and west slopes of side-hill cuts, on east side of excavation of Schuylkill Division, Pennsylvania R.R. and south of highway bridge carrying Montgomery Ave. over said division.
At the N.E. corner of Ford Road and Parson's Ave., Mr. J.S. Parsons has built a corner post containing several of the old square stone R.R. blocks.

I think that a few disturbed square stone blocks can be found near back streets in:

Note QR Between Q and R the line has been entirely obliterated by the building operations which produced the newer part of Narberth.

Thanks for the map . I went by the little stone colonial house with a porch on Ford Road along the ROW. The porch is about the level the tracks would have been. Now I have to investigate if it was a passenger station, because if it were an ordinary house, its front facade/porch would be facing a road and not the ROW; unless, the porch was added after the tracks were taken up. I'll have to talk with the owner. Thanks again, guys.