The Hinky Dinks

The Hinky Dink Railroad (aka The Westville Cut-Off)

 The Hinks, The Gully, What Is It?

From 1924 to 1941, airplane pilot, Victor Dallin operated an aerial photography company. At first he flew out the Clementon NJ airport ( yes there was an airport in Clementon), but later from Philadelphia.. He took thousands of high resolution aerial photographs many of which are of the Philadelphia/South Jersey area. They are view-able online (link here)

The Dallin Aerial Surveys are an invaluable resource for historians. A time machine for the eyes. A portal to what once was. It's fascinating to be able to view what existed around you 80-90 years ago and how things have changed.

Camden NJ 1931 - click to enlarge

It was while viewing some 1927 photos of the Brooklawn/Gloucester City, NJ area, that I noticed something I could not explain. What appeared to be railroad tracks curving east off the West Jersey and Seashore Line that ran from Camden to Woodbury and points south. Zooming in I could see a long row of box cars,a switching tower and and an elevated line complete with bridges that extend at least to the Black Horse Pike and possibly beyond

Brooklawn NJ 1927

Here was a mystery of history and an investigation I needed to pursue. Although I am not a so called "train enthusiast", I knew that no such railroad line existed during my 60 plus years of existence. I needed to answer the questions of what? when? where? and why? Time to put my detective hat on.

WHAT THE FRICK?

First I looked at some old maps, but no luck here as this line did not appear.

1920(thanks to SJRail.com)

 Next thing I tried was current satellite photos as I knew that abandon railroad rights of way sometimes can be traced from the air. Here I hit pay dirt. The remnants of what I could see in the 1927 photo were still very apparent today! What I could see was a five mile scar that ran east/west across Camden County.  I had passed it hundreds of times and really never gave a second thought to what it was or why it was there. Some areas I thought were rights of way for utility lines and other areas, possibly old creek beds?  Now I could see from the air that this was one continuous feature that extended from Broadway in Brooklawn to Haddon Ave near Grove Street in Haddonfield. If it was a rail line, what happened to it? 

The Remnants Of This Railroad Is Still Very Much Visible From The Air

I next asked a few friends, who are longtime residents of the western portion of the this area. They were not familiar with any railroad but did have a name for the elevated dirt piles that I observed in the photo and once supported the track. They called it the "Hinks" or the "Hinky Dinks" For decades children from Gloucester City, Brooklawn, Bellmawr, Mt Ephraim and West Collingswood Heights would play and ride bikes on these mounds and use them as an off road short-cut, especially to the Black Horse Pike Shopping Center area. Other friends from the eastern section that border Oaklyn, Audubon and Haddon Township had always assumed that what they called "the Gully"  was a natural feature or a creek or stream.

Off Crystal Lake Ave

Now armed with some new info, I returned to Google and did some searches of the terms 'Hinks". "Hinky Dinks"  "Gully" and "railroad and finally found the answers I had been looking for.

thanks to SJRail.com

What I had discovered was "The Westville Cut-Off", an abandon railroad line that was built in 1906-08, but was never completed. A brainchild of the West Jersey Seashore branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who a few years earlier built the Delair Railroad bridge over the Delaware River which created increase rail traffic in South Jersey and especially into Camden. The Westville Cut-Off would have created a by-pass around congested Camden for rail traffic to Woodbury, Vineland, Salem, Bridgeton, Millville and Cape May

Delair Delaware River Railroad Bridge

Online I was able to find some limited information  about the cut-off and I need to thanks all those railroad historians who have done such a great job documenting the heritage of our once great rail lines. Here are some links to additional information - (link) (link) (link)

Construction began in the spring of 1906. This line would not have any grade crossings, meaning that several bridges would have to be built so roads could either go under or over the tracks. On the western end the track were elevated on mounts of soil (The Hinks) and iron bridges were constructed over the Little Timber Creek, Market St and Park Ave in Gloucester and also over the tracks of the Glenloch Branch of the Reading Railroad ( where Klemm Ave is today ). A land bridge was constructed over the south branch of the Newton Creek with a culvert below.

The Track Was To Go Under Nicholson Road

1927 - Click to Enlarge

 On the eastern end the tracks were to go below grade, so a cut or ditch was dug ( The Gully ). The excavation began just north of Nicholson Rd. A culvert was constructed at Peters Creek and bridges over the line were installed at Newton (East Atlantic) Ave., the parallel Reading Railroad line in Oaklyn and over the White Horse Pike just north of Nicholson Rd. It's unclear whether other bridges were ever constructed They were planned at least at Merchant Ave at Haviland in Audubon, Crystal Lake and West End Ave. The gully was dug to about Crystal Lake Ave and it still exist today.

The Beginning of the "Gully" off Nicholson Rd

Land Bridge Over Peter's Creek, Oaklyn NJ

Peter's Creek Culvert

View of the Gully from Manor /West Atlantic Ave , Oaklyn, NJ

Bridge over Gully at Newton/East Atlantic Ave(left) and a bridge for the Reading Railroad

Construction Photo & Current Aerial View - Oaklyn

The White Horse Pike over the Gully

October 1906 Courier Post Gloucester Article

July 1907

October 1907

By December of 1908, all construction ceased when the railroads found themselves short on cash because of the financial Panic of 1907. In 1912 the Pennsylvania Railroad considered finishing the line but railroad infrastructure improvements through Camden had made the need for the cut-off a expensive gamble. It was never completed.

The Cut-Off  effectively cutoff an undeveloped section of Audubon from the rest of town. E Merchant & Haviland Aves came to dead ends at the gully. A real estate developer had a  Roebling steel suspension bridge built over the gully in 1912 so new residents could walk to town and the train/trolley stations. The bridge was demolished in 1942 for scrap metal needed during World War II

May 1911

Although never used as a railroad, the cut-off found other uses. The Pennsylvania Railroad installed utility lines in order to transmit cheaper Philadelphia Electric Co  power for their electric West Jersey Seashore Lines. About a mile of track and a siding where laid between Broadway and Market St in Gloucester City.. This track was used to store idle freight cars for the Campbell Soup Co and probably other companies.

December 1913

1923

The Switch Tower near Brooklawn

1927

 By the 1960's the railroads were no longer electrified the power lines became obsolete. The right-of-way was then sold to the Public Service Electric and Gas Co, who installed their own overhead power lines and underground gas lines. PSE&G  still has various facilities along the cut-off. Substations along Klemm Ave in Gloucester, Nicholson Rd at the Shopping Center and along the PATCO line in Westmont

PSE&G Right-of-Way across the Black Horse Pike

Storage Tracks Removed West of Market St Gloucester

Cut-off bridge in Gloucester

 

The Cut-Off Along Gloucester High. An Elevated Bridge Over Market Street Was Constructed Here.

PSE&G Gas Line

Traces of the Westville Cut-Off still remain. The elevated metal bridges and storage tracks were dismantled during World War II for scrap drives.  The concrete bases of the Little Timber Creek and Grenloch Branch bridges still remain, as do he culverts and land bridges over the Newton Creek and Peters Creek. So do the iron bridges over the gully in Oaklyn. 

Little Timber Creek Bridge Bases

West Jersey Railroad Electric Tower Base

Base of Electric Line Towers

Bridge Bases at Grenloch Branch RR on Klemm Ave

Bridge at Park Ave Completely Gone as are the Hinks

Land Bridge and Culvert At the Newton Creek

The Newton Creek Tunnel aka "Devils Hole"

The low lying gully  has become a collection point for runoff water and and tributary like streams and marshlands for nearby natural waterways like Peters Creek and the Newton Creek adjacent to Saddlers Woods in Westmont. In fact if you ask most residents who live adjacent to the gully they will tell you it is a natural waterway and have no idea that it was man made.. 

 

The elevated mound of dirt, the Hinks were gradually removed and only a small portion still exist off Pennsylvania Ave in West Collingswood Heights. The railroads steel girder power towers where removed about 30 years ago, but their concrete bases can still be found all along the route..

The Last Remaining Dirt Mounds - The Hinks

Narrow gauge track can also be found in the gully. This track was used for construction and excavation equipment and was never intended for freight traffic. Much of the track has been obscured by soil and vegetation, but they sometimes surface as a result of erosion and the shifting stream at the bottom of the gully. It is said to be the last narrow gauge track in South Jersey

Remnants of Track East of the White Horse Pike

One of most lasting and apparent remnant of the cut-off is that mysterious unused strip of grass that has always divided the Black Horse Pike Shopping Center. In the 1950's the Penn Fruit Co opened their iconic architectural marvel at the corner of the Pike and Nicholson Rd, and a few years later the adjacent Korvette/Penney outdoor mall opened. Over the years this shopping center has changed, has been demolished and rebuilt, and has been renamed and redesigned. The one thing that has barely changed is that strip of grass that cuts off the two sections. The stores have never encroached and there was even a time when the owner, PSE&G, prohibited traffic between the two sides of the shopping center by installing a fence. It was eventually removed.. Recently PSE&G allowed a small parking lot for the employees at the Chick Fil A and the Sonic restaurants to be built on this right-of way..

The Strip - Black Horse Pike Shopping Center

The Strip - Black Horse Pike Shopping Center

Penn Fruit Supermarket Audubon 1950's

One of most lasting unanswered questions surrounding the Westville Cut-Off is the origin of the term "Hinks" or "Hinky Dinks". Over the years that question has been raised many times, but has never been answered. I know this term goes back at least 60 years and possibly almost a hundred and it's beginnings might be lost to history. Here's my take:

Dinky is a railroad term for a short line railroad, a word that may of come from  another railroad term "dinkey" which is a small locomotive that was used to move cars around a railroad yard, or an industrial or construction site. Perhaps such a small locomotive was used at the western end of this line where freight cars were stored or during the the construction of the elevated portion. "Hinky" is defined as something that it not quite right, out of place, or unreliable. My guess is that as the mounds went unused and seemed to have no purpose the dirt piles indeed seemed out of place or hinky.  So this Dinky of  a railroad probably became Hinky over time. Thus the Hinky Dink