Newtown Square Branch Trail: Marshall Road area
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After the Cardington Branch splits off, the Newtown Square Branch curves to the northwest. The right-of-way crosses Marshall Road, but the bridge has been demolished.
Looking northwest. This is just southeast of Marshall Avenue; the former bridge was just ahead.
Looking back southeast.
A nice little secret passage from the right-of-way over to Coverly Road. There are many places like this where the multiuse trail can easily hook into the street system.
One of the many places where the wooden ties are still visible.
The location of the former bridge. The bridge went directly below the power lines, above Marshall Road.
The view here is toward the southeast. The retaining wall is still there and could probably support a new bridge, but the wall on the north side has been demolished, and the ground has been somewhat sloped.
Looking north across Marshall Road. The bridge used to pass overhead, under the power lines.
A lumberyard business, whose main area is out of view to the right, is using the right-of-way area to store all kinds of odd jumk, visible at the top of the earthwork.
Another view of the lumberyard's encroachment onto the right-of-way. This is looking east from the beginning of East Marshall Rd.
After the lumberyard, the trackbed plunges down into a fairly deep cut. The sides might be as high as 15 feet in places. The underbrush has grown up heavily inside the cut.
Still, if I were with a volunteer group cleaning up this section, I think I'd need a machete more than a chainsaw to clear the brush away. You can just picture how pleasant it would be to bike thru this cut on a nice new asphalt trail.
You can't see it in this photo, but there are places where the rock is visible on the walls of the cut. I can imagine an educational sign beside the trail here explaning the geological period in which the rock was originally formed. There could be other signs along the way noting points of interest such as the locations of the early passenger stations, historical businesses which used the freight rail service, and so on.
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