Then and Now

[Teegate]

All,

I visited Hampton Furnace and the bridge over the Batsto river near Hampton Furnace today, for the first time in 20 years. It has really changed. Especially disturbing is the theft at the Hampton Furnace warehouse. I have included a link below showing it 25 years ago and today. I now can believe that in 25 more years all that you will see there is ground level foundations.


http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/warehouse1978-2002.jpg


I have also included a photo showing the JCRR Batsto river bridge then and now. Notice the trees blocking the tracks today.


http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/tracks1978-2002.jpg


Also, if you have been to the bridge on the road from the Hampton Furnace warehouse to the JCRR tracks, you have crossed the bridge in the next photo. The photo on the right shows it today, and the photo on the left shows it in the 70's. Some of the cement can still be viewed if you look down from the present bridge into the water. The last time I was there before today was in the very early 80's when they had a large piece of equipment there removing the cement foundations in the picture on the left. The photo on the left was taken on the small wooden bridge who's foundations can still be viewed today. So the cement bridge came first, the wooden bridge where the cement photo was taken came next, and then the present bridge is in the right photo.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/bridgethenandnow.jpg

The small wooden bridge where the above cement photo was taken from, can be viewed at the below link. The photo on the left shows me 27 years ago in 1975, and the photo on the right shows the foundations today.


http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/woodensmall.jpg

If anyone is interested in high quality or larger photos of any of them, post back and I will post them.


Guy

 

[ed]

Guy,

I would very much like to see higher resolution photos. I remember how interesting it was driving across that old wooden bridge as it leaned to one side. Unfortunately I took no pictures.

I parked at the bridge at Hampton Furnace yesterday morning (6:30 AM) and hiked in to the Batsto bridge. I took the pictures you posted earlier of the jeep riding the tracks, just to see how much it has changed. Sorry I missed you.

BTW, I found the landing gear with the help of your directions, more on that in a seperate post.

Ed

 

[VTowner]

Did we all walk to the Batsto River Bridge this weekend? I was there too, but I hiked from Buzby's, so I was probably there much later in the day. Any of you guys drive a forrest green jeep? The only human I saw all day between Chatsworth and Atsion Lake was someone in a jeep. Somewhere between Carranza and the Batsto bridge.

BTW, Ed, I found your markers. I replied to your original post with my findings.

 

[Teegate]

Ed,

For being so remote, that bridge was a busy place yesterday. Not only were you Chip and I there along with my brother and two daughters, but as we were about to leave a dog showed up. A few seconds later it's owner arrived, saw us, and both he and the dog left on some sort of ATV.

Possible one of you had a hole in your pocket because I left there with more change than when I arrived. I didn't even need a metal detector...


I have uploaded a few different photo's of higher quality that you may want to view. One of them shows the Land Cruiser looking directly down the tracks. I just happened to take a photo from the same location yesterday so you can compare them. You probably should download them to your drive to view them properly.


http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/high/bridgejcrr.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/high/3-24.jpg



Here are the same two photo's that comparing the Hampton furnace warehouse then and now.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/high/warehousehampton.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/high/3-24hampton.jpg



Here are the road bridge photo's, the second one showing me.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/high/hamptoncement.jpg

The below photo link was taken standing on the above photo link.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/high/woodenhampton.jpg



I am glad to see that you made it to the landing gear. I always enjoyed visiting that place. I was always hoping that I would find more wreckage since the man who years ago informed me of the gear, said there was metal embedded in the trees. I was never able to find that. I am looking forward to hearing your story on finding it.

By the way, you can view all of the pictures I have uploaded along with viewing my web pages at the link below.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate

Guy

 

[sschliv]

Vtowner,

I have done that hike b4 between the firehouse in chatsworth and Atsion along the railroad. It's great! I think it is about 10 miles or so in one direction. Is it private property in any spots or is there a right-of-way along the whole route? I remember being a little wary in some spots near Chatsworth.

 

[sschliv]

Are there any other ruins in that Hampton area??

On a side note, two weekends ago there were dozens of spring azures sunning on the banks of the large body of water near HF. (it is not far from the ruin site if you are heading toward rt 206 from HF.

 

[VTowner]

sschliv,

I'm not sure if parts are private property. I was a little wary myself when walking by those cranberry packing buildings in Chatsworth, or whatever they are. I just stayed ON the tracks in those parts. I know that it's trespassing to walk down active railroad tracks because the land they're on is owned by Amtrak or whoever, so I imagine that the property lines in those parts are drawn around what was then the JCRR's property.