Dover Plains station is a

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

stop on the

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

Harlem Line The Harlem Line is an commuter rail line owned and operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. state of New York. It runs north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Southea ...

, located in

Dover, New York Dover is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 8,415 at the 2020 census. The town was named after Dover in England, the home town of an early settler. The town of Dover is located on the eastern boundary of the ...

History

Rail service in Dover Plains can be traced as far back as December 31, 1848 with the establishment of the

New York and Harlem Railroad The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and ...

, which became part of the

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

in 1864 and eventually taken over by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

(NYC). Besides passenger service, freight service also originated and stopped at this location, in both directions north and south. It even contained a nearby railroad hotel. Under the New York Central, for the first five decades of the 20th century the station hosted through trains such as the ''

Berkshire Hills Express The ''Berkshire Hills Express'' was a full-service passenger train of the New York Central Railroad that went from New York City to North Adams, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. It served as a channel for tourist travel from downstate New York, ...

'' to

North Adams, Massachusetts North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the home of the largest contempor ...

via other towns in the

Berkshires The Berkshires () are highlands located in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut in the United States. Generally, "Berkshires" may refer to the range of hills in Massachusetts that lie between the Housatonic and Connecticut River ...

section of Massachusetts. As with most of the Harlem Line, the merger of New York Central with

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

in 1968 transformed the station into a

Penn Central Railroad The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania Railroad, ...

station. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

and abandon service north of Dover Plains, thus transforming it into a terminal station in 1972. Freight service north of Dover Plains was abandoned by

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

on March 27, 1980. The ticket office was closed in September 1981. The line itself became part of Metro-North in 1983. The 1860-built NYC station house contained a bagel restaurant, until it was closed in the 2010s, and left vacant, and the former freight house also still exists. Dover Plains was a terminal station until 2000 when Metro-North expanded the line back to Wassaic.

Station layout

The station has one four-car-long high-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

to the west of the track.

Notes

References

External links

*
Dover Plains Station (Road and Rail Pictures)October 16, 1993 Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter NRHS Fantrip (TrainsAreFun)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dover Plains (Metro-North Station) Metro-North Railroad stations in New York (state) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1848 Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in Dutchess County, New York 1848 establishments in New York (state) Transportation in Dutchess County, New York