Walking Belleplain’s old seashore railroad

The line under the trail

The New Jersey State Park Service trail guide says the Seashore Line Trail follows an abandoned Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines railroad that once ran from Cape May to Manumuskin. The old grade makes an unusually direct way through a forest otherwise crossed by winding sandy roads. Today the state marks 7.3 miles of trail along the corridor, from the Weatherby Road area toward Woodbine.

Woodbine was a point where two rival shore railroads crossed. Cape May Seashore Lines' historical account describes the 1894 fight over a track crossing at Woodbine and identifies the surviving railroad bridge over Dehirsch Avenue. That crossing and bridge are part of the wider rail landscape near the trail's Woodbine end; the bridge is not itself a trailhead or permission to enter active rail property.

Choose the section before setting out

According to the state guide, the 1.5-mile section from Weatherby Road to Hunters Mill Road is nonmotorized. The remaining 5.8 miles are open to walkers and other trail users alongside road-legal vehicles. The route is not contiguous across Route 605, and the state says vehicles cannot enter the northern section from that road. These details matter more than the appealing 7.3-mile total: the full mileage is not one seamless car-free walk. ATVs are prohibited. The forest's official trail map shows the yellow route, road crossings and parking symbols.

For a quieter first exploration, use the state-marked nonmotorized section and the official map to choose an arrival point. The guide names Weatherby Road and Hunters Mill Road as trailheads, but it does not publish a street address or GPS coordinate for a specific parking space there. Do not infer a parking lot from an arbitrary point on those roads. The park office can confirm present parking and trail conditions at 609-861-2404. Trail use is permitted between sunrise and sunset; parts of the forest are open to hunting in season.

A second stop in Woodbine

The railway's own history gives 1356 Dehirsch Avenue, Woodbine for the 1898 railroad bridge. It identifies the former railroad intersection there and says the West Jersey & Seashore line between Woodbine and Belleplain went out of service in 1951. This address helps locate a separate historic rail feature from public roads; it is not a designated Belleplain trail entrance. The state trail map, rather than the bridge address, should govern a hike.