THE FAMILIAR TWO “ALL ABOARD” BLASTS ON THE LOCOMOTIVE WHISTLE YOU JUST HEARD, HAVE SOUNDED IN THIS VALLEY FOR OVER A CENTURY AND A HALF, SIGNALING THE START OF JOURNEYS TO LANDS FAR AND WIDE. WITH THEM, OUR OWN MAGICAL JOURNEY BEGINS!
Ours is one of the oldest railroad rights of way in the entire world. Largely forgotten by time, the Colebrookdale was saved from abandonment by volunteers contributing tens of thousands of hours making today’s expedition possible. The progress you see in reviving the Secret Valley Route is part of our continuing commitment to keep local business competitive in a global economy through offering freight and passenger service to the region. We hope you will come back again as our stations are constructed, additional coaches and dining cars enter service, and the Colebrookdale comes fully back to life.
Our locomotive has now begun its steep descent into the Secret Valley. The gradient is nearly 3 percent at places, meaning our engineer will work very hard to keep the train under control. While run-away trains have happened on the Colebrookdale, we will not repeat them today!
Our circuitous route into the deep sheltered valley of the Ironstone connects the sites of rare history, geology, flora and fauna.
The once-sacred paths of the Lenne Lenapi upon which our iron rails are laid, would form a core corridor in the earliest industrial iron center of colonial America. Magical ores unique in all the world were found in these lands, and the entrance to one of the mines underlying all of Boyertown can be seen in the grass pocket surrounded by the tidy little fence to our right.
Just as the railroad’s salvation has been a community effort, its construction was at the behest of local folks generations ago. As early as the 1830’s there had been rumblings of the need for a railroad to connect the multiple forges and mills dotting the Ironstone and Manatawny Creeks. On April 15, 1853, an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the Colebrookdale Railroad to build a line connecting the two communities. A financial panic in the 1850s delayed the project, and it was rechartered on March 23, 1865.
Construction on the Colebrookdale commenced in 1865. Historians among our number will mark the import of that date. Many of the workers who built the line were soldiers just returned home from the Civil War. The fruits of their arduous toil are ours to enjoy today—a connection not only to a brilliant past but also a better future through the bright promise of the railroad.
The 20,000-30,000 annual visitors expected to the Colebrookdale will bring up to $2M of annual economic boost to the region.
Morysville is next.
(APPROACHING ROCK CUTS BEFORE MORYSVILLE)
The Colebrookdale’s deep rock cuts posed a nearly insurmountable challenge back in the 1860s. Before the advent of mechanized tools, chisels, hammers, wheelbarrows, and black powder were the only means to carve these cuts; you can still see the chisel marks yet today.
A rock cut just up ahead provided the back ground for a notorious labor struggle. In March of 1869 the Colebrookdale’s track workers went on strike, protesting for higher wages. They were successful—sort of—their strike resulted in a twenty-five cent pay raise to a whopping $1.75 per day: however, their work day increased to eleven hours of work daily.
Even at that pace, it took over 4 years to build just 8 miles from Pottstown to here, in Morysville. Now, to give you some context, at the very same time, half a continent away, Chinese and Irish immigrants working on the Transcontinental Railroad were building up to 10 miles of track per day! The difference here was the mountainous terrain. While many people don’t think of the Pottstown region as a mountainous one, we have every attribute of a mountain railroad—you’ll see tall forests, meandering creeks, deep rock formations, lots of twists and curves, and lots of bridges and trestles. Our first two bridges lie just ahead.
(APPROACHING IRONSTONE CREEK BRIDGE)
Just after we cross over Mill Street, we’ll enter onto a large steel ‘through-truss’ bridge built in 1906 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, by the Phoenix Iron Company. Many people remark at the large size of the bridge relative to the tiny little creek passing underneath. That’s because this bridge was not built for this location but rather for the Reading Railroad’s crossing of the Schuylkill River in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, many miles from Boyertown. When the Reading Railroad audaciously diverted the course of the Schuylkill River in 1924, this bridge became superfluous. It was disassembled—piece by piece—and re-erected here, replacing a 24-span wooden trestle.
Iron historians will be familiar with the Phoenix Iron Company which manufactured the bridge. The Boyertown Rail Yard Crane near where you parked today was also built by the Phoenix Company in 1867. We restored it to operation and to our knowledge, ours is the only operating Phoenix crane in the entire United States. Its central support beam, called a Phoenix Column, was a renowned design for tall, strong structures in an era before readily-produced I-beams. Phoenix Columns can be found in the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Washington Monument in Washington, DC—and the railroad crane in Boyertown, PA.
(APPROACHING FARMINGTON AVENUE)
The lordly, twin-towered mansion high on the hill to the left stands watch over the site of Wren’s Ice Plant. The Old Ice plant offered generations of locals a means to keep perishables fresh in the era before mechanical refrigeration.
Farmington Avenue is next—Farmington.
AFTER CROSSING FARMINGTON AVENUE
In a few moments, the gentle rolling rhythm of the rails will be accompanied by the sweet sounds of softly falling water. A dam on the Ironstone Creek off to our left marks the site of the Colebrookdale Iron Works. The original Colebrookdale Iron Works were founded by Thomas Rutter, a friend of William Penn and fellow Quaker. Penn convinced Rutter to come here in the earliest days of the Pennsylvania colony for a grand experiment to find if an iron industry here would be feasible. Rutter named the area Colebrookdale, after Coalbrookdale, England, site of the world’s first iron works. It was a fitting name, as Colebrookdale was the new world’s first iron works. From it grew the Iron and Steel industry that made Pennsylvania internationally-renowned as an industrial power and garnered its reputation as the Keystone State.
(PASSING COLEBROOKDALE IRON)
To our left, connecting us to the old ironworks and the creek is an old wooden trestle and siding.
In a moment, a lonely dirt path through the woods crosses our tracks to a now-open lot to the right. The path was once the main street of the long-vanished village of Colebrookdale. Through the woods to the left, you might see you might see the abutments to an old bridge that carried the road across the Ironstone Creek to meet Farmington Avenue near a mail pouch tobacco barn visible yet today. The open lot was the site of the Colebrookdale Station, and two cast iron crossbuck poles still stand guard as silent sentinels at the station crossing, waiting for passengers who likely shall never pass this way again.
Greshville is next—Greshville
(JUST AFTER GRESHVILLLE ROAD)
The bright noontide of the railroad era was still several decades to come when very first train reached Boyertown on September 16, 1869, just four months after the driving of the Golden Spike on the Transcontinental Railroad half a continent away.
A raucous, libation-infused celebration greeted that first train. Contemporary accounts reported it reeked of alcohol so badly by the time it reached Boyertown, you might have thought its locomotive was fueled by whiskey. It chugged into town—four hours late– as the band played “Hail to the Chief”. As it rolled to a stop, the townspeople rushed the coaches, extracting the unwitting passengers, foisting them onto their shoulders and parading them around the area where you parked your cars today. Gunsmoke from pistols fired in celebration darkened the afternoon sky. The weary passengers had endured this circus at each of the stations along the line, each determined to out-celebrate the other. The newspaper reported “Silk Hats Suffered Martyrdom in the Ardor of the Reception.”
In just a moment, a whistle signal unique to the Colebrookdale—a long and three shorts—will indicate our train is approaching a very dangerous spot—Devil’s Claw! The sharp rocks of Devil’s Claw extend to within 6 inches of the coach windows! Devil’s Claw is one of the closest rock cuts on any railroad in the world. The soldiers who built the line joked the coaches could barely fit through with only one coat of paint! Our engineer will bring the train down to a crawl as the old train eeks through the cut. Please remember to keep all of your fingers and toes inside the train!
Devil’s Claw and the other deep rock cuts characteristic of the Colebrookdale Railroad have long been the subject of fascination for the many peoples who called this region home. The Lenni Lenape who lived here held the rock formations to be sacred, noting their magical properties—one of which was magnetism. The various iron ores located within the rock cuts have a low-grade magnetism, making them easy to find by early iron pioneers who came here to establish their industries. Among the industrialists who followed in their wake was none other than Thomas Edison, who rode the Colebrookdale each week for six years in the early part of the last century. Mr. Edison was in search of a particular ore for use in a separator device he was working to patent. While his device was not successful, the stories of his many journeys on the Colebrookdale—journeys which included unscheduled stops in the rock cuts much to the dismay of train conductors trying to keep a schedule—remained the subject of note for decades after.
Clearing the cut, we’ll enter one of the very few sections of straight track on the railroad. Those that built the line joked it was so crooked and curvy, a passenger train was likely to run into itself on its return trip.
(APPROACHING RED SHALE ROAD)
Just before our train crosses high above Red Shale Road, look to your right. Sharp eyes among you will notice large concrete block with a short cost iron pipe. That block was the base to a very tall semaphore signal that awaiting passengers would raise to bring passing trains to a stop. This was the Ironstone Whistle stop. Ironstone was one of several locations along the line where farmers would bring milk and produce each morning for delivery by Colebrookdale trains to Reading Terminal in Philadelphia. Returning trains would drop off mail to this and other stations along the line each afternoon. The Ironstone Whistle stop also served schoolchildren, who would ride the line to school each day.
(AFTER CROSSING RED SHALE)
Much of the remarkable infrastructure carrying the Colebrookdale over the many tributaries to the Ironstone and Manatawny creeks is hidden far below our tracks. Below us in this location is an S-bend culvert nearly 200-feet long originally built by those Civil War soldiers a century and a half ago.
(ENTERING FORMER KINK AREA)
In a moment, our train will round a curve high overlooking Ironstone Park to the left. This vista was once a stargazing spot, and in a moment you’ll see why. This location was also the source of a famous wreck. A train travelling a little too fast once one cold winter night jumped the track, plunging to the icy Ironstone Creek four and one half stories below.
Ironstone Park off to our left is one of four municipal parks connected by the Colebrookdale.
In just a moment we’ll be passing over one of the Colebrookdale’s two tall timber trestles. Our two timber trestles are among the oldest and tallest still in use anywhere in the United States. Imagine the entire weight of the 150,000-pound railroad car in which you are travelling being held up by nothing more than hand-hewn wooden timbers.
Coming into view shortly on the left is a beautiful old brownstone house that, according to legend, served as George Washington’s residence during his many visits to the Secret Valley. His purpose, unlike ours, was not a sightseeing one, but rather to encourage the ironmasters here to ramp up their production of iron for the Continental Army. Just after that, we’ll pass by one of the many grist mills that once were powered by the fast-flowing Ironstone Creek and served by the Colebrookdale Railroad. These beautiful buildings typify the unique vernacular architecture that is typically colonial Pennsylvania construction and characteristic of the Secret Valley.
(APPROACHING SECOND WOODEN TRESTLE)
We are now approaching our second wooden trestle. It carries our tracks over a tributary to the Ironstone Creek forming Pennypacker Hollow. The many glens and hollows formed by the tributaries to the Ironstone and Manatawny Creeks crossing under our tracks once were home to hobo camps and, as you can imagine, the source of many colorful stories from years gone by.
Pine Forge will be next. In just a moment, a graceful stone arch bridge will carry our tracks over Pine Forge Road. We’ll immediately cross onto an iron trestle bridge carrying us over the Manatawny Creek making its way from the north. Pine Forge marks the confluence of the Mantawny and Ironstone Creeks. From here, the two flow together until they meet the Schuylkill River in Pottstown. Translated, Manatawny means “place where we gather to drink alcohol” so even the Native Americans thought of this as a good-time spot. Who are we to argue with that?!”
(JUST AFTER CROSSING PINE FORGE BRIDGE)
We are now passing the former site of the Pine Forge station. You will notice a siding track going into the industrial buildings to our right. Within the unremarkable metal walls of those buildings are the remains of the Pine Iron Works, one of the oldest ironworks in the new world. During the 19th century, Pine Iron garnered a reputation for producing locomotive boiler steel of a very fine quality. As such, the many tracks once located here at the base of Rattlesnake Hill near the site of the former Pine Forge or Manatawny Station were loaded with iron cars heavily laden with boiler steel.
On August 29, 1929, two workmen loading one of those iron cars accidentally damaged the handbrake, setting the car free. It rolled uncontrolled all the way to Pottstown—reaching over 60 mph—with the two workman clinging for life on the precariously balanced iron load. Almost immediately the car was reported to the Boyertown station telegrapher who forwarded the message ahead. The line was cleared all the way to Pottstown. The car was switched onto the main line towards Philadelphia at the Colebrookdale interchange. Gradually the car began slowing down until it came to a halt in Sanatoga—many miles from Pine Forge!
The rock cuts along this section of our railroad are equally famous as those to the north, but for a different reason. Each year, Temple University sends its geology department here to study these cuts because they are among the very few places in the world where the entire geologic record of the ancient supercontinent Pangea can be seen. Rocks here are a match to rocks found in North Africa. Mountaintop rocks can be found in at the base of the cut. Ocean floor rocks can be seen at the top of the rock cut—exactly the inverse of what you’d expect, evidencing the significant tectonic forces at play in the creation of the Secret Valley.
Manatawny Road will be next.
Just after we cross over Manatawny Road, take a look off to the right. You will see two, tall cement walls parallel to each other and parallel to our tracks. These walls formed the foundation of a 6-story tall rock crusher located here in an area known as Egolfs Bridge. Rock from a quarry at the top of the hill was fed into the crusher, crushed, then deposited into railroad cars situated on a track between the two walls. The railroad cars were switched onto the Colebrookdale for delivery around the nation.
(CROSSING MANATAWNY STREET)
The Secret Valley of the Colebrookdale was a special place for local tribes of the Lenni Lanape. Two Tribes lived here, one along each of the two creeks our train follows. Accordingly to legend, Onewago, chief of the tribe that lived along the Manatawny, was guilty of having killed the chief of the tribe that lived along the Ironstone creek. Popodicken, the dead chief’s son, swore he would never forgive Onewago and for many years thereafter, a dead-line boundary separated the tribes who, though neighbors, lived in strife.
As legend continues, trekking along the banks of the Manatawny one warm spring morning, Popodicken realized he had accidentally crossed the dead-line boundary. Making his way back to his side of the boundary, he came upon the sounds of struggle. Peering up the slope of a hill from around a mossy boulder, not far from where our train is now, Popodicken saw Onewago. Blood was streaming from his arm, and a fierce bear was circling him for another attack.
Realizing he had a clear shot of Onewago, Popodicken loaded his bow. Three times his steady hand sent swift arrows up the hill. A stunned Onewago looked toward the arrow’s source, as the bear fled from the projectiles which had so narrowly missed him. Behind them both, a tree with three arrows shot into its side told the story of Popodicken’s uncommon compassion. He had shot the arrows to scare off the bear, saving Onewago’s life. From that day on, the tribes lived in peace and when William Penn arrived several generations later, the two tribes greeted him as one.
Grosstown Road will be next.
(CROSSING GROSSTOWN ROAD)
We’ve now crossed from Berks County into West Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery County.
(APPROACHING GLASGOW)
Shortly coming into view off to the right is Glasgow Manor, the ironmaster’s house for the former Glasgow Iron Plantation. Off to the left side of the train is the former Davis Brother’s scrap yard, built on the foundation of the old iron works. It might not look like much, but we are quite proud of it. It was recently donated to the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust. Over the course of the next few years, we’ll be cleaning it up and turning it into our coach and locomotive restoration facility. The old brick building was the steam boiler house for the old iron works.
As we approach our crossing with Pennsylvania Route 100, a look to the right will show the shards of thousands of clay tile pipes. In this area was the Robinson Clay Tile works and clay pit, one of the nation’s leading producers of clay tile pipe.
We are about to enter our busiest highway crossing, Pennsylvania Route 100. Many of you probably used Route 100 to get to the railroad today. The locomotive will soon sound an aggressive volley of whistle signals to warn motorists to stop. We’re going to ask each and everyone one of you for a favor—as you can imagine motorists very much enjoy coming to a full stop so our train can creep through. Let’s say hello and let them see what a great time you are having here on the railroad—give a great big wave and smile as we go through.
Pennsylvania Route 100 is next.
(AFTER CROSSING ROUTE 100)
We’ve now entered the Borough of Pottstown’s Memorial Park, its recreational and cultural core. Constructed on lands that once belonged to the Pottsgrove Iron Plantation on which much of Pottstown is built, it is home to the County-owned Pottsgrove Manor historic site. The stunningly beautiful Pottsgrove Manor is the iron master’s house and is adjacent to our track near where we will stop today. Memorial Park attractions include a dog park, a skate park, a water park, bandstand, playing fields, and a world famous BMX trilogy park, which brings folks from all over the world to Pottstown.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Pottstown!