More maps

[Teegate]

All,

I acquired more photo’s of maps today, and will mention a few that may be of interest.

It was odd finding a map of Pickett’s Charge in Gettysburg but I did. I also found various old maps of the pines area with purchases and sales of Joseph Wharton. I found a map that shows that on 10/23/1856 three Commissioner Stone were placed on the corner of the Atsion tract all the way over on the east side of Carranza Road. That apparently was a big piece of property. Now to find the stones....I doubt they are there.

I also have photo’s of a JCRR map that shows the stations and intersections all along the route. It was a series of large maps bound together on one side making them into a large booklet. The maps are from about 1913 but updated to the 1940’s. Here is Parkdale. Notice that A.J. Rider owned all of Parkdale. He was as I mentioned the founder of Rider college and a cranberry grower. If you look closely you can see that Parkdale had a second track there and it appears A.J. Rider owned the property between the two. Hard to believe but it shows that. The map also shows the signs that were at all the intersections where a road crosses the tracks.

I found some other maps that go along with other posts. I will mention them there.

Guy

 

[Jerseyman]

All,

I also have photo’s of a JCRR map that shows the stations and intersections all along the route. It was a series of large maps bound together on one side making them into a large booklet. The maps are from about 1913 but updated to the 1940’s. Here is Parkdale.

Guy

Guy:

The JCRR maps you found are known as valuation maps or val maps for short. All US railroads prepared these maps of all their routes at the behest of the Interstate Commerce Commission beginning in 1913. In part, Congress authorized the ICC to determine a basis for the transportation costs each railroad charged for passenger and freight traffic, although originally the emphasis was on freight charges to provide some protection to farmers shipping agricultural goods. The ICC undertook this charge with glee and the program developed into a bureaucratic Nirvana called the Bureau of Valuation! Field engineers criss-crossed the county taking photographs, measuring buildings and structures, and calculating every ounce of physical material comprising the railroad. So, for instance, the field crews would calculate the board feet of wood in a frame station or the total number of bricks in a roundhouse. The field crews accounted for all the rail, ties, and ballast in a given line. Nothing escaped their attention, even down to the privy behind the smallest station! The ICC then developed a particular railroad's tarrif rate based on exhaustive calculations of the company's investment and physical value. Every month the railroads would submit reports indicating additions or subtractions from their physical plant's value. It was all very unbelievable and demonstrates how the government absolutely buried railroads with government over-regulation.

Nonetheless, the Bureau of Valuation records that survive--and most do--are a treasure trove of information, maps, plans, and images for the acme of railroad operations in the US--from 1913 through the World War II. The field notes are of particular importance and the photographs contained within the field books are irreplaceable vignettes of railroad buildings during the second decade of the twentieth century. The station list in the back of The Trail of the Blue Comet would not be nearly as well illustrated without the photos from the field notes.

Val maps can provide very important information about a specific piece of railroads and offer a historian a detailed glimpse of a track section at a given point in time.

Nice find, Guy!!!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Teegate]

Thanks Jerseyman for the info! They are great maps.


I wish I had photographed all of the pages, but unfortunately I brought the wrong cable to connect my camera to my computer, and had to rely on the storage cards I have for my camera. Normally I load them in and take more, but today I had to stretch things. This is the second time I have done that...the first time the person at that location had a cable that fit my camera

BTW, the maps did say these particular maps were used to show all of the property owners along the route. And it did just that. Quite interesting!

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Maybe you would be interested in this. Notice how close the station was to the road. And notice the road we call Atsion Batsto Road is called Pleasant Mills road.

You may want to download it to view better.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegat...DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2169&g2_serialNumber=1

If anyone is interested I have the same view updated and the station is gone. I also have some of the area around there.

Guy