Union Clay Works Railroad?

[Teegate]

Lets see if I can explain this map.

The red line is the Burlington/Ocean County line. The yellow line is the road in question with all the nails. The blue, pink, and green are known locations on both maps. As you can see the yellow line with the nails is not heading towards the pits. This could be because there are a few properties during this time period owned by others in the way of a direct line to the pits. BTW, the map is about 1902 or so. As you can see at the very bottom Old Half Way is owned by the Adams Clay Mining having been sold to them by John L. Miller. So there is a possibility the tracks were going to avoid those properties and circle around. Or the rail may have ended at the end of the Brooksbrae Land Improvement Company property line.

Guy

 

[Teegate]

You need to wait for late fall to do this sort of thing. It is so much easier to see.

Guy

 

[Boyd]

There's a thread about the railroad crossing sign here: http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/upcoming-railroad-repair.8582/

 

[Ben Ruset]

Even with Permethrin on my pants and socks I was reluctant to do a full Ben Ruset-stye bushwhack into the heart of chiggerville.

Haha, I'm not even the big bushwacker on the site! If it was truly a Ben Ruset style explore you'd have trekked into the woods and found nothing BUT the chiggers!

I think the car you found was a 70s or 80s Datsun Z-car. I have pics of it somewhere, maybe I can find them.

Edit:

 

[mike hummel]

I found a railroad spike over the weekend behind hansons to small to be from the jersey cental railroad

 

[1Jerseydevil]

Surprised I missed this thread, glad it was renewed.
What's amazing is with all the combined knowledge and some with historic documents this [rail] road remains a mystery.
I would think the discovery of spikes and other hardware along the route would confirm a rr of some type.
I know this is nit picking and that Guy's yellow line is only an approximation, but the actual road is slightly to the left. It does not go into the V field but just below and into the clearing [parking area] that Guy has the blue circle. I think this is where it ends also. As mentioned it may have never been finished. I once tried to continue on the other side of the parking area, but there is a lot of deadfall to distract. I think I may have found a couple shallow depressions but they could also be natural as they didn't seem to line up with the road across the parking lot.

This may be wishful thinking and grasping at straws, but if you were to project the road South on a current satilite view it seems to align perfectly with the left border of the V rye field. If you were to continue to project it runs into the Union Clay Works. I don't think it did or for there to be any reason?

Looking closely at the 1930 aerial you can see the road, but in the area of Guy's blue circle it appears to end. It gets somewhat confusing with those black lines in the picture, but I believe those are just where the photo's were overlayed?
Greenwood was a "busy" and interesting area that holds other mystery's. In various aerials, ever notice where the trees are outlined differenty with definite boundarys? Also what about those broken brick pilliars in the rye strip along Blood Ridge rd also in the same area?

Oh, btw, it took me a while to figure out what all those blue blazes you see. They're drive lines cut in by hunters. They're all over Greenwood. I also come across them in other areas. The blue is probably universal among hunters although I have seen old yellow, red, white, but blue predominates. Three dots or blazes is an end point, two I think may be a turn while one is just a route marking.
Yes there are blue blazes along the road in question, then at a point near a field there is an intersection where the blazes go into the rye field off Bloody Ridge rd. The blazes contine along the [rail] road in question until behind another rye field where the blazes turn off and come out at a corner on the boundary line road [Hay rd?] The [rail] road continues to Guy's blue circle.

 

[Kevinhooa]

Kbright64 - this should provide some insight as to what is / was going on with the former CNJ when you posted.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=31458&sid=7a45c65f036f03972edcfe5fd8dbe6da

 

[Ben Ruset]

Railroad fans sure take things seriously.

140 page 8 year old thread.