Thornwood station

The Thornwood station was a stop on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, serving the hamlet of Thornwood, New York until its closure in 1984.[3] During its existence, the station was one of the most lightly used on the Harlem Line. Prior to closing it had only half the weekday service of the neighboring Hawthorne and Pleasantville stations, and was merely a flag stop for four trains on weekends.[4]

Thornwood
LocationCommerce Street and Franklin Avenue
Thornwood, NY, 10594
Coordinates41.1211°N 73.7822°W / 41.1211; -73.7822
Owned byThornwood-Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce
Line(s)Harlem Line
Platforms1 side
Tracks2
History
Openedc.1891
ClosedMarch 5, 1984[1]
Previous namesSherman Park (c. 1891–1914)[2]
Former services
Preceding station Metro-North Following station
Hawthorne
towards Grand Central
 Harlem Line Pleasantville
towards Wassaic
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
Hawthorne
toward New York
 Harlem Division Pleasantville
toward Chatham

History

The New York and Harlem Railroad laid tracks through what would later become the Village of Sherman Park during the 1840s. The community of Sherman Park was built around the tracks in 1891, and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad station was soon established there. The village was dissolved in 1914 and renamed "Thornwood," and the station was renamed as such.[5] Sometime during the late-1950s the former Richardson Romanesque depot was replaced with a simple brick structure.

As with most of the Harlem Line, the merger of New York Central with Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 transformed the station into a Penn Central Railroad station. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which made it part of Metro-North in 1983. When electrification of the Harlem Line between North White Plains and Brewster North in 1984, the station was not upgraded due to sharp track curvature and low ridership precluding such upgrades, and as such was closed on March 4, 1984. At the time of closing, what few customers Thornwood had were directed to use the Pleasantville station (1 mile north) as a replacement. The former station house, which is located where New York State Route 141 moves from Commerce Street to Franklin Avenue is now occupied by the Thornwood-Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce, which was established the year after the station was closed.[6]

References
  1. Walzer, E.B. (March 5, 1984). "The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore". The Herald-Statesman. p. A12. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  2. New York State Railroads: Passenger Stations and Stops
  3. Shown on timetable effective 1 January 1984 but not on timetable effective 28 October 1984
  4. Harlem Line Timetables effective 1 January 1984 and 30 October 1977
  5. Grogan, Louis V. (1989). The Coming of the New York and Harlem Railroad. Self-Published. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-962120-65-0.
  6. Thornwood-Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce (Established in 1985, according to the seal)



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