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Station Review #76: Kingsland (NJT)

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Kingsland is a station on NJT's Main Line. The station is located on Ridge Road in Lyndhurst, NJ.  History In the 1860s, the Delaware and Lackawanna railroad created a railway branch called the Boonton Branch. This branch was to be a freight bypass of their main line, going via Paterson and Totowa.  Among other stations on this line was two in Lyndhurst Township, Kingsland and Lyndhurst. The reason there were two is because the Kingsland family had a manor named Kingsland Manor there. The small village of Kingsland got a station for this reason alone.  Around the time the station was completed, there were also railway shops made for the line that were at Kingsland station. These shops then burned down in 1875, before being rebuilt. The shops were expanded in 1903 when the station itself was rebuilt and grade separated. It's unknown when the shops were removed. In 1916, there was a major accident at the station that caused a new westbound signal to ...

Station Review #75: Wayne Junction (SEPTA)

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Sign Wayne Junction is a train station located in the Wayne Junction neighborhood of Philadelphia. It has service from SEPTA's Airport, Chestnut Hill East, Fox Chase, Glenside Combined, Lansdale - Doylestown, and Warminister lines.  History  Old Wayne Junction station Wayne Junction was first built in 1881 as a station along Germantown Pike that also served as a junction station. This junction allowed trains from Germantown, Chestnut Hill, Bethlehem, Doylestown, and Newtown to all converge along the Reading Main line, which made transfers more convenient for passengers. Both the Reading Railroad and the B&O railroad used the station, so eventually, services from all over the US that went through Philadelphia started going through Wayne Junction as well.  Alas, the era of train being the main mode of travel eventually ended in the US by the 1950s. This caused the decline of Wayne Junction station. Even after this, there still was intercity train...

Station Review #74: Branch Brook Park (NJT)

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Branch Brook Park is a station on NJT's Grove Street branch of the Newark Light Rail (NLR), located at 5th Street in the city of Newark, New Jersey. Branch Brook Park is the final station on the Grove Street line in Newark.  History Before Branch Brook Park, there was Franklin Avenue and Heller Parkway stations. Franklin Avenue used to be the terminus station, with a loop for the PCCs used on the Newark Light Rail.  In 2001, NJT phased out usage of the PCCs, and in doing so went through with a planned extension to Bloomfield. This required Franklin Avenue station to be rebuilt. Considering that Franklin Avenue and Heller Parkway stations were extremely close to eachother, NJT decided to hit two birds with one stone and merge both stations into one station. This new station was near Branch Brook Park, the largest park in Newark, so what better to call the station than Branch Brook Park?  Today, the remains of Heller Parkway station is still able to ...

Station Review #73: Glenside (SEPTA)

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Glenside is a station serving multiple SEPTA Regional Rail lines, located at Easton Road and Glenside Avenue in Glenside, PA.  History Glenside station was built in 1873 by the North Pennsylvania Railroad, one of the few original NPRR station houses to remain to this day. Just six years later, the NPRR was bought by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, the predecessor to the Reading Railroad. Glenside station was originally named Abington station, and was renamed sometime later to Glenside.  In 2000, a café opened in the station building called Elcy's Café.  Routes that Serve Glenside Station  There are four Regional Rail routes that go to Glenside station, these are:  Airport Line: These trains go to Center City via the SEPTA Main line, before then going to Philadelphia International Airport. Oftentimes, these are combined with Warminister Line trains.  Glenside Combined Line: These trains usually just go from 30th Stre...