This is the first in a series of historical caches relating to my two websites, Amusement Park Nostalgia and Forgotten Places in Phila.
In 1829, the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad built a railroad line through Philadelphia. The line was to cross the Schuykill River on the Columbia Bridge then climb the hills on the west side of the river. The railroad accomplished the climb by digging a gradually rising grade
into the steep hillside of what is now Fairmount Park.
The Belmont Plane (so called because it ended near the Belmont Mansion) was a half-mile long and rose 187 feet. At first, a 60-hp steam engine would pull cars up the incline by rope, where they would be reconnected to a locomotive. But about 1836, locomotives were powerful enough to pull the train up the hill.
The incline proved to be inconvenient and hard to maintain. It was very costly, and there was more than one accident where something would break and the cars would roll down uncontrolled, to crash at the bottom. So, by 1850, the railroad replaced the incline with other, less direct, routes to the top. The incline was abandoned.
It would later be included in plans for a never-constructed "gravity passenger railway" (1889) and, even later, would serve as part of the right-of-way of the Fairmount Park Trolley line (1896-1946).
Now, 175 years after it was created, half of the Belmont Incline can still be found.
The cache is a red 2-pound plastic coffee can. It's primed with "stretchy" men, "motorcycle" erasers, "dinosaur" erasers, and a few "tic-tac-toe" keychains. There are also some "coin" erasers and "coin" pencil sharpeners.
Park in the lot off Montgomery Ave. near the Schuykill Expressway. Drive as far back as you can and park.
More information on the Belmont Incline