spur line at kinzers, pa.

Hi. I am brand new to the group, and I would like to start with a question that I think may be interesting... only yesterday did I become aware, while looking at a map on historical.maptech.com, that a spur line came off the prr main near kinzers, pa. and ran for about a mile, at best, in a southwesterly direction, ending seemingly in the middle of nowhere... Presently there is a quarry in this general area, and it seems it may have been the only reason for a rail line to have ever existed here... I drove out there later in the day; tried to find any remnants... and it was difficult to imagine a line going through this area; although- beside vintage road, there are several rails laying about... this line crossed both vintage and mcilvane roads, and ended somewhere just west of that... any idea what this was, when it was, how long it's been gone? it's pretty obscure, to say the least? Thanks. Ken

Modern map:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.99396,-76.06865&z=14&t=T

Historical map:
http://rutlandtrail.org/mapview.cgi?sca ... +-76.06865

If you're using a tabbed browser like Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com) you can flip back and forth between those two maps. Highly recommended.

BTW, looking at the aerial photos, there seems to be NO trace of the interurban which ran north of the PRR.

Digging further back in time, I believe that this spur was once part of the original Philadelphia & Columbia RR alignment through this area. Somewhere on it or near it is a stone bridge over Vintage Rd. The bridge dates to two eras -- the original P&C structure on the south and a later extension on the north to accommodate an additional track. I don't know when the PRR replaced this with the present line -- maybe in the 1890s or early 1900s, when a lot of upgrading was done.