As we have read here, Kurt Bell has written an article of a now defunct tourist railroad, The Wawa and Concordville, which will appear in a future publication. I, for one, cannot wait to read his work, because I have been a fan of the railroad since I was a little boy, when I first rode behind that odd blue locomotive and sat in those silly looking coaches, (of course back then, I thought they were perfectly normal).

It amazes me how many people still talk about the Wawa and Concordville bothe here and on other sites. I work near the old Wawa and Concordville, which ran on part of the old abandoned section of the Octoraro branch of the Pennsylvania RR. I, and some of my co-workers have become devotees of both the W & C and the OctoraroÂ…Â…Â…not what once wasÂ…..but what still exists today. Large traces of the line sit, hidden in most cases, exactly where there were 30 some odd years ago. The best thing is that none of this is supposed to exist anymoreÂ…Â….but it does. Millions of people travel up and down the Baltimore Pike in western Delaware County PA every year, completely oblivious of the fact that there was once a railroad nearby, not to mention the fact that so much of it remains hidden so close to their daily lives. But, for those of us with GPS in our cars, we all know that if you drive near it, and especially if you drive over where it used to be, it displays it, as if itÂ’s still there. Also, Yahoo Maps (and maybe Mapquest) show the tracks. Odd, because when this line was abandoned after 1972, IÂ’m certain neither GPS or the internet were available to the general public.

So many of us know the few obvious things. The locomotives are both in Delaware (for now) #37 is in Marshallton, along route 141. #3 is in Ocean View Delaware, along with some metal coaches, to be made into a railroad themed restaurant. And two of the old passenger (old Jersey Central Box Cars that were converted) cars sit rotting behind a pool company on Concord Road in Concordville, exactly where they sat for about 35 years.

My friends and I have, just this week, come across a treasure trove of remnants of the tourist line. Of course, all that we discover are observed only, nothing is touched or handled. They should remain where they are until the elements, or their true owner removes them.

Here is a short list of some of the things that we have come across ourselves over the past year. This is working east from Concordville. For anyone who wants to “railfan” the Wawa and Concordville/Octoraro, I must warn you not to trespass and be careful of the thorny brush and mud, and remember Ailanthus grows everywhere!!!!

THINGS are much easier to find in the Winter than the summer. Summer overgrowth hides a lot.
• Just east of Route 322, the tracks that served as the W and C’s boarding area are fully intact, and in some of the best shape of any on the line today. There is a lot of overgrowth though
• A siding track, along Station Avenue is partially intact
• The switching mechanism at this point is intact
• The W and C’s water plug is still standing and in relatively good cosmetic appearance.
• A fairly large piece of twisted and rusted metal near the tracks. The origin is unknown, but the traces of blue paint on it indicate it may have been originally attached to #3, (the #3 was adorned by a good deal of cosmetic appliances, fake stack, headlight and pilot)
• Painted and broken boards everywhere. The railroad had a wooden railing leading onto a wooden platform at this point. Most of the wood is white, but there are traces of red and blue.
• Small aluminum railings. There used to be a chain running along the wooden platform and these railings held it up.
• The area just east of where the passenger cars sit now, near where the Concordville Station once stood, is completely grown over. It is hard to believe a railroad ever ran through there.
• Most of the rails east of Concord Road are buried.
• Past the thicket of trees by the old Concordville station is a straight path. Walking east, you can see that rails are running beside you. They are washed out and covered in very thick brush here.
• Along this path, many ties have been removed and even some rails. They litter a little rise to your right.
• After about a half mile, the thicket covering the rails disappears, but so do the rails. The path that you have been walking on shift slightly to the left. You are now on a much smoother and developed stone trail. It is the actual right of way. This belongs to Newlin Mill Park, and they have removed the ballast, ties and rail, and made a nice ¼ mile walking trail on it.
• Walking towards the Newlin Mill Park the path crosses a bit of the creek. You can see the stone footers of what had been the supports for a metal railroad bridge. The bridge you walk on is wooden now.
• Right in the front of the office of the Newlin Mill Park there is a 30 foot lengthe of the track, completely preserved.
• Crossing Cheney Road, you can see the pave over of the rails. The rails reappear, and begin to curve to the right.
• A large metal bridge, sitting low over the Chester Creek still sits where it has for decades. An attempt to make it into part of a walking trail seems to have been started and abandoned. There are wooden railings across it.
• The rails bend sharply to the right and begin to parallel Pole Cat Road.
• There is a spot where the rails almost touches Pole Cat road. For the most part, the rails are hidden from the road by a thin clump of fairly new trees, but the rails are still visible here if you look for them.
• You lose the right of way for a brief while. Some of the rails here have been pulled up. But a long driveway on the first home on the right hand side of Pole Cat Road clearly shows a pave over of the rails. If you look closely, you can see the rails coming back up through the blacktop.
• The road bends to the left, and the right of way stays straight now. Most of the rails here are gone, but behind a house, the 3rd or 4th on the right hand side, there is a 40 yard long rise. It is covered by overgrowth, and the owners firewood, but you can clearly see rail sticking out.
• The road bears away from the railroad here, and access to the right of way is hard.
• The road bears hard to the right in a bit, and begins to parallel the railroad again. But you are separated from the tracks by the Chester Creek. As you drive along this quite secluded part of Pole Cat Road, you can see parts of it to the right, (as long as it’s not summer)
• A very large bridge appears off to the right (still low over the Chester Creek). This is the longest bridge on the line (east of Concordville). It is about 150 from the road here. I see no way of reaching it. It is intact, (Most of the bridges on the line were not washed out in 1971 and 72. I know of one or 2 that are gone, but most of them are still there in 2004.)
• As you approach the ruins of a mill, you can see the rise of the roadbed
• Pole Cat Road Ends, turn right onto Ivy Mills Road. Go 50 yards, cross the PAVED OVER tracks. You can then park to the right. Go back to the pave over. On either side you will see 2 rails, NO ties, no ballast, no ground…just rails suspended in midair, from the floods in 1971 and 1972. The only thing holding the rails up is the paved over crossing.
• From here, the railroad goes ¼ straight, and then starts it’s final turn to go the last 1 ¼ miles to Wawa (My group had not done much examining of this section here, as it’s almost unreachable by foot or car.
• Turn around, drive the other way on Ivy Mill Road for ½ mile till it ends. Turn right onto Valley Brook road. Go ¼ to a small park on the right. There is a place to park here. There is an embankment on the far end of the park. In the winter months, you can see some of the rail here. Some of it is buried in mud some is not. On the other side of the tracks, behind the Chester Heights Post Office, (also on the other side of the tracks. If you look carefully, down the hill, you will see a small concrete foundation. It was the base of the former Chester Heights train station, which was nothing more than a shack. Also look then to the left, you will see the overpass for Valley Brook Road, which the railroad passed under, it’s almost like a little tunnel.
• Leave the park, turn left back onto Valley Brook. Go around ½ mile to Wawa Road on the right. You won’t see much, but we have adventured down dirt roads here and have come across the right of way as it goes through thick woods. Part is gone, but most is still there.
• The railroad eventually bears to the left, and although Wawa Road does too, the railroad is now running right beside it. You won’t see it at first, just a steep hill. The hill is the roadbed. In 1968, there were no trees on it. Now it is a little forest.
• Station road appears to the right. In 1968, this was a thin road that led to the station. Today, it is part private road, part entrance to the Women’s Alternative Center. There used to be a bridge over Station Road. Today, there is no bridge, since there really is no railroad. But when you turn right here, if you look immediately to your right, you will see the one side of the stone wall that held the tracks up. The other side was removed so the could make the driveway for the WAC. But if you look to the left, you will see the tracks, at the spot where they cut them where they removed the bridge.
• You can get to where the Wawa station is if you turn in her, but you will have to drive on a closed road, and down a steep embankment to do it, so I don’t suggest you do it.
• If you get back on Wawa road, take it to where it ends on Baltimore Pike. Turn right, (only way) and go under the railroad overpass. Turn into the first little street there. It is Station Road again, but they no longer connect. Park if you can. You can walk towards the West Chester Branch , and cross it to find two great treasures.
• The Wawa Station. It is long gone, but the curb between it and the tracks is still there. The walkway under the tracks is still there, (but blocked off). The Station also had many pillars. They are gone, but the concrete block supports for the pillars are all still there. Also the rails for the W & C/Octoraro are there on the other side of the structure. The bricks are all over the place.
• If you walk backwards along the Octoraro, it is intact all the way to that destroyed bridge back over station road mentioned before. You can walk it. Some nice old things on the way. You can also see these tracks from Baltimore Pike in the Winter.
• While at the Wawa station, you can be brave and walk along a very short stretch of the West Chester Branch towards the Baltimore Pike. You have to be brave because there is a bridge over the creek, and you have to walk on ties!. But it is worth it, because right after the bridge, and before you get to the bridge over Baltimore Pike, to the left among large trees is the entire concrete base of the turntable for the Octoraro Branch. Aside from trees and litter it is in good shape.

It is fun but sad to look at all of these things. This railroad was part of my life for a few years when I was young, and since I love railroad, especially tourist railroads, it breaks my heart to see things like this disappear. If not for some good business and luck, someone might have been writing a similar “Archeological” rail fanning bit for say, the East Broad Top, or the Wilmington and Western, or the Black River and Western, or The New Hope and Ivyland, or even the Strasburg Rail Road. We need to preserve what we have, so that this, never happens again.

Paul



plc95@yahoo.com

Paul that was an amazing description.
Did you take any pictures while you where there that you could share with us? I'm a real fan of Ferro Equine Archaeology.

John

IMTHEVOICE@AOL.COM

> It amazes me how many people still talk
> about the Wawa and Concordville bothe here
> and on other sites.

*Perhaps reinforcing White's Law, made famous by John H. White Jr, past Curator of Transportation of the Smithsonian:

"Scholarship is inversely proportional to importance."

<;-)

(Guilty as charged when it comes to MY hometown branch lines, though.)

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

> Most of the rails east of Concord Road are buried. You are now on a much smoother and developed stone trail. It is the actual right of way. This belongs to Newlin Mill Park. Walking towards the Newlin Mill Park the path crosses a bit of the creek. You can see the stone footers of what had been the supports for a metal railroad bridge. <

Is this the bridge that was dammaged in the flood? The Phila. "Inquirer" did a story long ago with a photo of a deck girder bridge with one end dropped into a creek bed. The text mentioned that there was a washout not very far around the curve from Wawa station.

Is there still trace of a siding at Chester Hts.? I remember spare W&C equipment stored there in 1968.

104577.651@compuserve.com

> Most of the rails east of Concord Road are buried. <

This crossing had flashing lights, there may be some trace.

104577.651@compuserve.com