Atco to Atsion Spur of the D&R

[Ben Ruset]

I was reread the Atsion chapter in "Forgotten Towns" tonight. One of the interesting things that struck me (besides Beck's ghost encounter) was the inscriptions of the "Catholic Cemetary" at Atsion, near where the tracks of the D&R spur from Atco came in to Atsion.

The spur is there, at least part of it, today, one section being used as a street in Atco. Back of Atsion there is another section, it's rails rusted and ties sagging, overgrown with tall weeds. Unused and unexplained, it passes by an old cemetary which is altogether forgotten by those who think of the burial ground behind the Atsion chapel as Atsion's official plot. Graves are caving in and most of the stones have toppled over.

On one is inscribed "John Ross, son of John and Dolly Ross, of the Parish of Madgiligan, Ireland, who departed this life Feb 22, 1804, Aged 20 years." On another is Rovert McNeill, Died May 6, 1965, aged 55 years." These were probably pioneers of the Roman Catholic group which was strong at Batsto and with the help of the elder Richards once reared a church. Here, forgotten with the railroad line which served early and more prosperous days, they sleep under the pines on the lake shore."

Anyone know if any of the RR spur is still visible, or has it been obliterated by the Atsion recreation center?

 

[Ben Ruset]

Here's one of Barry's photos of the graveyard.

 

[Teegate]

Ben,

There is still evidence of it just across the plastic bridge. The first main road that crosses that road after crossing the plastic bridge from Atsion road is the railroad bed. If you turn left and head towards Atsion Lake it narrows and the road ends for car traffic, but continues for bike traffic. There are pieces of rail still visible there.



Topozone is down so this Terraserver map will have to do. The plastic bridge is where the road crossed the large river, and the road running horizontal is the RR bed. If you follow the RR road to the right slightly you can see where a smaller steam crosses the road and that is where large vehicle traffic stops. Now if you zoom out and follow the road to the left, it goes right to a residential street in Atco.


http://terraserver-usa.org/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=1301&y=10997&z=18&w=2

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Again, with Beck when he says "passes by" that could be a mile. The graves in the recreation area are not that close to the former train tracks. But if you look over old photo's of Atsion there were no woods around the town like today. So he was able to stand on the tracks and look around and see the graves in the close distance and say passes by, which if you tried that today you would see trees. So from his perspective the tracks indeed passed by the graves.

BTW the street in Atco is Raritan Ave that the tracks went to Atsion from.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

Thanks Guy, I will have to check it out.

 

[Teegate]

Ben,

Jessica and I traveled this morning across the plastic bridge and walked along the route of the Atco Branch of the Southern RR to search out where I saw the ties that still remain. I did not find any evidence of them where I said they were, except some in the road that were used by someone who had been stuck. But I walked over a mile down the road and found a spot where they are still in the ground from when they were used many years ago.

Waypoint 137 is the plastic bridge, 138 is the intersection of the former tracks, and 140 is the bridge where you must park and walk if you come in from the plastic bridge. Waypoint 139 is where there is a gate to keep vehicles from coming anywhere near the recreation area of Atsion Lake. Right at this point you can view the remains of the ties.

Here is a photo of the small bridge.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/Atsion/140.jpg

Here is the gate and the arrow is pointing to where you can view the rails. It is hard to believe how long they have been there.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/Atsion/139.jpg

Here are the tracks

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/Atsion/139_1.jpg

BTW the GPS coordinates are:

Waypoint 140:

39.44.24.3
74.45.21.2

Waypoint 139:

39.44.17.2
74.44.15.2

And there were some small roads in the gate area that had vehicle tracks, so there may be access from the recreation area or nearby.

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Ben,

I forgot to add the link with the arrow in my last post. Look the links over again if you are interested.

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Another nice bit of detective work by Guy.

Guy, what the heck is that cylindrical thing lying down just to the right of the bridge in the photo?

 

[Teegate]

It is a cement pipe that has metal wire wrapped in it. There are a few large pieces laying around. That had to be a bridge for the train at one time, and it appears there were multiple pipes going across. But they have been mostly removed and set along the road. It was a deliberate attempt to keep vehicles from getting down that way toward Atsion Lake from my point of view.

If you look at my tracks you can see that I went the other way on this road for a short distance. I had noticed a vehicle down there when I arrived and when I returned to my car I saw someone down there. It appeared they were stuck so I walked down to see if they needed help. It turns out it was the ranger with a stolen car. It was reported stolen by a young girl from the Berlin Mart. The ranger said it was about his 25th stolen car find this summer. They had stomped on the hood, the roof, and anything else they could. The windows were smashed and the lights also. They even had removed the spare tire to try to use it to get out.
He had called in for fingerprint tests so I was not allowed to touch the car. For a second I think he though it might have been me returning to the crime, but he then seemed to think differently. He was pretty nice to talk to and I wish I had walked down with my camera. I had left it in the car with Jessica. He told me more but it was hearsay so I will not post it.


Guy