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Showing posts with the label Regional Rail

Station Review #158: Richard Allen Lane (SEPTA)

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Richard Allen Lane is a SEPTA station on the Chestnut Hill West line located on Allen Lane in the West Mount Airy neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia.  History Richard Allen Lane was built sometime around the 1880s, though the exact time when during this is unknown. It's likely that the station was built as an infill station. The station was named after the road Allen Lane, which itself was named after local mansion owner William Allen. In 1890 or so, a depot was built at the station to accommodate a new influx of passengers from the at the time newly relocated Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.    In the 1990s, a project was put underway to rehabilitate this depot and station, the first part being to actually rehabilitate everything, with the second part to make the station accessible. Both of these were completed by 2011. The Allen Lane station was renamed to Richard Allen Lane station in 2017, after Allen Lane was rededicated to R...

Station Review #157: Eddystone (SEPTA)

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Eddystone is a SEPTA Regional Rail station located at East 7th Street and Saville Avenue in Eddystone, PA. This station is a flag stop for the Wilmington-Newark Line. Eddystone is by far the least used station on the Wilmington-Newark Line and for the entire SEPTA Regional Rail network as a whole. Eddystone is unsurprisingly also a flag stop.  History      Eddystone station was most likely built in the 1870s, named after the Eddystone Print Works, which relocated there from Philadelphia in 1876. Said print works were named after the Eddystone Lighthouse near Plymouth, UK. In the 1890s, Eddington became an incorporated borough. Saville Avenue near the station was named after the man who founded the borough's wife's maiden name, in honour of her.        The height of this station was in the early 1900s, when the famous Baldwin Locomotive Company was established and had a factory very close by. At its peak, this factory produced mill...

Station Review #141: Penllyn (SEPTA)

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Penllyn is a station on SEPTA's Lansdale-Doylestown Line. The station is located at 908 Pershing Road in Lower Gwynnedd Township, PA. Despite this, the station attracts traffic from nearby Whitpain township (particularly Blue Bell) as well. Penllyn as a village is located in both townships, and grew mainly in part due to this station. Penllyn is a zone 3 station.  History   This station's history is to an extent unclear. Penllyn was built by the NPRR when they made their main line to Bethlehem in the 1860s or so. If Penllyn was built for the opening of the line, or if it was an infill station built after is unknown. What  is  known however is that this station was demolished by the Reading Railroad and replaced by a newer station in 1903.    In the 1990s, SEPTA rented part of the depot to CDNow, a popular online CD sales service, for its headquarters. This lasted for a few years until they then moved to Jenkintown and finally Fort Washington. Th...