Dover Plains station is a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...

stop on the Metro-North Railroad's

Harlem Line The Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line, originally chartered as the New York and Harlem Railroad, is an commuter rail line running north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Sou ...

, 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 ...

. Trains leave for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

every two hours, and about every 30 minutes during rush hour. It is from Grand Central Terminal and travel time to there is approximately two hour, two minutes. The 7.5-mile (12 km) distance from Dover Plains to Harlem Valley–Wingdale, the next station to the south, is the longest between two stations on the Harlem Line.

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, which became part of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad 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 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 ...

(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'' 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 contemporary ...

via other towns in the

Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

section of Massachusetts. 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 The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

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 public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

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 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, now abandoned, more recently contained a bagel restaurant, 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 platform ...

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