Posts

Station Review #78: Cornwells Heights (Amtrak/SEPTA)

Image
Cornwells Heights (pronounced and often misspelled as "Cornwell Heights") is a train station along the Northeast Corridor. The station is located at 700 Station Avenue in Cornwells Heights, PA, a CDP located within Bensalem, PA.  The station is mainly served by SEPTA's Trenton line. Despite this, three trips of Amtrak's Keystone Service stop at the station every day: 640 (7:02 AM), 649 (3:51 PM), and 655 (7:40 PM). Cornwells Heights is currently the least used Amtrak station in the state of Pennsylvania.  From Station Avenue to the edge of the park and ride, this station is about half a mile long.  History Despite how it is today, Cornwells Heights was not nearly as important as it is now for much of its existence. The first known iteration of Cornwells Heights station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1891. It's unknown if there was any iteration of the station from before that year, and was only rebuilt by the PRR or not. This is ...

Station Review #77: Lyndhurst (old) (NJT)

Image
Lyndhurst is a station on NJT's Main Line. The station is located on Stuyvsant Avenue in Lyndhurst, NJ.  History In 1868, the Morris and Essex Railroad created a line called the Boonton Branch, as a freight bypass for their main line. This line went from Hoboken Station to Dover, NJ via Paterson and Towaco, linking with the current Montclair-Boonton line somewhere a bit past Midland Park. Along the line the station Lyndhurst was built in the small village of Lyndhurst.  In 1928, the current station was built to replace an older variant of the station. Over the years, this station was left in disrepair, barely maintained. Not much has changed in that regard since then, although the line it was on has changed hands multiple times.  The station depot has not been a ticket office in decades. Although it is shuttered and closed now, it used to be a restaurant in the 1990s or so. The exact timeline for the depot is unknown, and there is a possibility tha...

Station Review #76: Kingsland (NJT)

Image
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)

Image
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...