Kensington is a passenger railroad station located at 10417 Howard Avenue in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built by the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O), the Kensington station is currently served by

MARC Train MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) is a commuter rail system in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. MARC is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) and operated under contract by Alstom and Amtrak on track owned by ...

Brunswick Line The Brunswick Line is a MARC commuter rail line between Washington, D.C., and Martinsburg, West Virginia, with a branch to Frederick, Maryland. It primarily serves the northern and western suburbs of Washington. The line, MARC's second longest ...

. There are fifteen weekday scheduled stops at Kensington, as well as one

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

scheduling on Fridays.

Station layout

Kensington station has a former B&O station master's house. The building is open during the Kensington Farmers Market, which is held in the station parking lot. Inside there is an old stove, waiting area, and restrooms. Tickets can be purchased from a self-service machine. During the Kensington

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

Parade,

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

, which currently owns the railroad line, offers free souvenirs. There is also a small

model train Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

layout. The platform is a low level concrete platform. On the other side there is a covered waiting area and some benches. Elaborate safety measures can be found on the crosswalk between the platforms leading to the station entrance that include

crossbuck A crossbuck is a traffic sign used to indicate a level railway crossing. It is composed of two slats of wood or metal of equal length, fastened together on a pole in a saltire formation (resembling the letter X). Crossbucks are sometimes suppl ...

signs with warning bells, highway signs, and pedestrian signals. The station is not compliant with the

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 19 ...

, lacking raised platforms for level boarding.

History

The B&O completed construction of the

Metropolitan Branch Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

through Montgomery County in 1873. The line connected

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

, Maryland and points west. Initially the settlement around the railroad line was known as Knowles Station. The town was incorporated in 1894 and was named Kensington at that time. The B&O station was designed by architect

Ephraim Francis Baldwin Ephraim Francis Baldwin (October 4, 1837 – January 20, 1916) was an American architect, best known for his work for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and for the Roman Catholic Church. Personal life Although born in Troy, New York, Baldwin liv ...

and opened in 1891. p. 14. From 1893 to 1935, the station was used as a terminal for the Kensington Electric Railway and offered passenger service to

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...

, Maryland. The station is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

to the

Kensington Historic District The Kensington Historic District is a national historic district located at Kensington, Montgomery County, Maryland. The district includes the core of the original town that was incorporated in 1894. It is dominated by large late-19th and earl ...

Gallery

File:Train approaching Kensington MARC Station.jpg, MARC Locomotive #72 arrives at Kensington station File:Kenstation.jpg, Kensington station shelter

References

External links

10417 Howard Avenue. The Kensington B & O Train Station
— North Kensington — Historic Photos — Kensington Historical Society
Kensington Farmer’s Market. Located at the Historic Train Station at 10417 Howard Ave.
— Town of Kensington
MARC services mapMARC Brunswick Line scheduleMARC stations listRide-On Bus Service - official siteStation from Google Maps Street View
{{Amtrak Maryland stations Brunswick Line Former Amtrak stations in Maryland Historic district contributing properties in Maryland Kensington, Maryland MARC Train stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1891 Former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stations Railway stations in Montgomery County, Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Maryland Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland

Station layout

History

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links