Newtown line leased to Montco for recreational trail

Update on the rail-to-trail:

South of Moredon Road, the trail has been completed, and it goes to Shady Lane. I walked this stretch the other day. The signal just south of Moredon remains (at least for now). Other than that, there are no remnants of the line other than a small "12" marker sign a short distance north of Shady Lane and another signal box some distance south of the signal.

North of Moredon Road, the trail's surface has also been completed, but I am unsure of where the trails ends. This is a longer stretch than Shady Lane to Moredon Road. I tried walking this portion a few weeks ago when it was still just gravel, and it's gotta be at least a mile. I'll try walking it again sometime soon to see exactly where it ends. The only remnants are another signal box and a "W"histle sign.

R8Guy wrote:North of Moredon Road, the trail's surface has also been completed, but I am unsure of where the trails ends.

I believe the trail will end at the former R3 crossing.

I finally got around to walking north of Moredon yesterday and it was a letdown. The trail ends abruptly at the old bridge over the creek, just before Huntingdon Pike. They have removed the rails north of this point as well. There is no real exit at that point except through some brush and out onto Old Huntingdon Pike which is pointless. The path is pretty scenic with the creek to your right as you head north but other than that there's not much. I did spot the remnants of signal 709 shortly before the north end of the trail but it is covered in weeds.

Ah, that's progress for you.

I took my own tour of the "Pennypack Trail" today. Its definitely nicely done and quite a few people using it. As I was taking my time looking over the artifacts (signal boxes, masts, etc) a few people commented on how interesting some of this stuff is. I overheard another woman with her toddler son remarking how this used to be a railroad, so most people are aware of the trail's history.

Grade Crossing circuit box at Moredon Road, still intact


Old trailine phone box, still intact, but no phone




End of the trail at the bridge over the Pennypack. Bridge is open deck, I strongly advise against trying to cross.


View of the bridge at the base of Old Huntingdon Pike



From the other side of the bridge, the old signals for NK diamonds (needs to be de-foliated)


Cut between Huntingdon Pike and NK, somewhere in here was the Valley Falls station.

So what they paved the trail with? Gravel? Asphalt?

Its just crushed stone...perfect for a track roadbed

Awesome. Now that's what I call progress.

In an effort to bring light to the Newtown line, we received this "delightful" email from a wealthy constiuent in Abington Township.

I just want to be sure you realize that the County built this gorgeous trail running the length of Lorimer Park from the base of Old Huntingdon Pike to Shady Lane. I and other residents have used it frequently and I have applauded the commissioners for getting this done so quickly and so well. I want any issue of reopening a railroad to go away. It will never be supported by Abington Township or the County.

Dick

Richard F. Stern
Stern and Eisenberg, LLP
261 Old York Road
410 The Pavilion
Jenkintown, PA 19046
215-572-8111
215-572-5025 (fax)
[email protected]
http://www.sterneisenberg.com/

Email this man for his selfish, arrogant words. His attitudie towards the greater good of the region should be plastered everywhere.

Who is "we" ? ( Who are "we"? )

Is rehab and reopening on this line being held up because of money, politics, or both?

Pacobell73 wrote:http://www.r8newtown.com

Pacobell, are you a member of this organization?

I was somewhat surprised to see some of my original pictures, specifically the ones at Huntingdon Valley and Bryn Athyn, on the website?

Hi glennk419. I guess you could I am a member. It is not really an organization, but rather a website for gathering information on the Newtown line. There is a link on the site with email addresses of legislators http://www.r8newtown.com/action.html who need to be contacted to keep the line on life support. I just posted a reponse above.

I am guessing the photos were taken from the net (read: public domain). Email [email protected]. And please do what you can to promote the website.

rrbluesman wrote:Is rehab and reopening on this line being held up because of money, politics, or both?

both, I am afraid. SEPTA is the jellyfish. They will do whatever the counties want. Problem is the towns inb Bucks and Montgomery are not united. Such a short railway with such conflicting opinions

MONTGOMERY
Believe it or not, Bryn Athyn is changing their tune and in favor of the line. However, Abington...well, see post above. Robert A. Wachter, Esq. (Commissioner Ward-2 Abington) ([email protected]) and his Esquire cronies have pretty much said "go away - we got our trail." A great many Esq.'s involved with the trail, which makes me think much of this was done on the sly.

BUCKS
Newtown and Upper Southampton are 100% for the train and always have been. However, Northampton (Churchville, Holland, Village Shires) is run by a Vince Deon (Chairman, Northampton Board of Supervisors) ([email protected]), who appears to have gone to the school of Rod Blagojevich poltiics (link here and scan down - http://www.northamptondemocrats.org/issues.html). He is a problem.

I got one of the fake timetables at Market East the other day. Amusing.

Now I've never been up on that side of Philly before, don't claim to have grown up there, never rode the line back in the day, etc. I'm still having a hard time justifying making the investment in reinstating heavy rail service to Newtown. How can you say there's demand there when the two bus routes that claim to demonstrate demand run half-hourly and hourly? There's a ton of better uses for expansion/improvement of current service. For example, you can make the case for upgrading any bus route that currently has peak service headways of ten minutes or less and convert/upgrade them to trackless trolley. You could make the case for expanding the regional rail to small outlying cities like Reading, Allentown, or Lancaster/Harrisburg (Septa taking over the Keystone Corridor). You can make the case for increasing the service on the existing regional rail for more frequently than the hourly service you get most of the day. You can make the case for improving the current stations and update them from their third-world decor. You can improve the fare vending and collection systems (just imagine TVM's at all stations). But I still feel you need to make the case for reinstating the R8 to Newtown.