C&F Branch to Rittenhouse Gap/Seisholtzville

[frankgaron2]

RDG Alburtis, PA 2.jpg

Hi All:

This line has always intrigued me, and I finally got the bright idea to follow it on Google Maps. I was very happy to see that 99% of it is VERY visible even to this day. I'm looking forward to following it as soon as the snow thins out.
Anybody here know more about this long-forgotten line?

[frankgaron2]

Here's more - this is the bridge over the creek at the south end of Lockridge Park.

[frankgaron2]

ROW crossing Mountain Road.

[frankgaron2]

Moving further up the mountain...

[frankgaron2]

Crossing State Road.

[frankgaron2]

Here you can see the switch for the switchback - Seisholtsville to the left, Rittenhouse Gap to the right, and Alburtis is down towards the bottom.

[frankgaron2]

Here's the ROW right at Bear Creek (former Doe Mountain) ski resort. Notice the patches of snow on the right.

[frankgaron2]

I believe this is where the ROW peters out at Seisholtsville. Not 100% sure - have conflicting info that the line might have gone a bit more north/northwest here and crossed Saint Peters Rd.

[choess]

The aerials are slightly deceiving. Per the 1902 USGS topo and a 1915 PennDOT map, the ROW shown in your last picture cut across what's now a cleared field in a straight line, crossed State Road somewhat NW of its junction with Walker, then crossed Walker Rd, keeping more or less straight across St Peters Rd and ending a short distance beyond. The remains of this part of the ROW are a series of discontinuous treelines. Check the Google Maps imagery: if you switch to the "Map" view, it now shows cadastral (tax) boundaries, and you can see where the ROW crosses St Peters Rd as a separate parcel.

Don't know much about this end of the line, other than it was supposed to haul magnetite to the furnaces along the Lehigh to mix with the limonite ore mined closer to the river. IIRC, Holton shows a map of the Reading's plan to connect it to the Colebrookdale Branch at Barto, which of course was never built. Don't know what the motivation was for that, although they did mine ore at that end of the Colebrookdale Branch as well.

[frankgaron2]

Hi There:

You are right, and thanks for updating us on this. I was out following the line on Saturday and was surprised at how easy to see the line was in most areas. Had a bit of trouble finding anything once it crossed State Road, but I didn't really get out and look or anything. I'm excited to learn more about this line- it's amazing how steep a grade this little-known line had on it. Must have been something to see back in the day.

[frankgaron2]

Thanks for reminder in Holton's book - I read that and I did a double take. The lines are so close together, but man what grades it had on the climb up and out of Alburtis!

[MrBill]

Pretty cool that there are all those winter time views to track those grades with. So all the little branches in this general area were for hauling various ores? Forgive my naivete of the locale. I'm a rail history buff with a lot of projects, and I'm enjoying your photo studies very much.

[frankgaron2]

Hey There:

Glad you are liking these - there sure is a lot of history up that way.

Most of the information I've found is off of Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allentown_Railroad (see my posting about this one here as well)

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catasauqua ... e_Railroad

I wish I knew more than I do, but info on these lines is (seemingly) hard to come by. Will post more as I have it!

Frank

[MrBill]

Thanks for those informative links Frank. You surely know about Penn Pilot. Can you capture some views from there? Will provide great comparison pics. You can see the C&F bridge over the East Penn at Alburtis in the 30's.

[frankgaron2]

My pleasure! I'd be happy to post some captures from Penn Pilot. Only problem is - I can't seem to pull up the aerial maps. All I get is current-era ones, no matter what I do. Clearly there's something really simple that I'm not doing - any clues?

Thanks again,

Frank