Ossining 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 Hudson Line, located in Ossining, New York. It is one of two express stations on that line south of Croton–Harmon, along with

Tarrytown Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hu ...

, that serve most trains, excluding peak hour trains to/from

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

. 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 25 to 30 minutes. It is from Grand Central Terminal and travel time to Grand Central is about 48 minutes. Near the station is a ferry dock which is used by the

NY Waterway NY Waterway (or New York Waterway) is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley. The company utilizes public-private partnership with agencies such as the Port ...

-operated ferry connection to

Haverstraw Haverstraw is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Ramapo; east of Orange County; south of the Town of Stony Point; and west of the Hudson River. The town runs from the w ...

, allowing

Rockland County, New York Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

commuters to use the Hudson Line as an alternative to the

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

-operated lines across the Hudson River. Just south of the station is a section of track which runs through the middle of

Sing Sing Correctional Facility Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...

History

The

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 ...

reached Ossining on September 29, 1849, opening the village up to industrial development along the waterfront and allowing farmers inland to ship their produce to the markets of New York City. Among the riverside industrial concerns benefiting from the railroad were the marble quarries at Sing Sing Prison,

Benjamin Brandreth Benjamin Brandreth (June 23, 1809 – February 18, 1880) was a pioneer in the early use of mass advertising to build consumer awareness of his product, a purgative that allegedly cured many ills by purging toxins out of the blood. He became a suc ...

's pill factory (still extant a short distance up the river) and others. These businesses gradually supplanted the boat builders and docks that had occupied the riverfront in the early 19th century. Originally the station building was at grade level. In 1914 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 ...

, which the Hudson River had long been merged into, built a new station, the current building, in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

. It was placed on metal stilts to allow Main Street to pass over the tracks, eliminating the grade crossing that had been part of the original station.Village of Ossining, , April 2010, pp. 252–54, retrieved June 26, 2011. Like the rest of the Hudson Line, the station became a

Penn Central 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 once the NYC & Pennsylvania Railroads merged in 1968. 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 ...

. The station and the railroad were turned over to Conrail in 1976, and eventually became part of the MTA's Metro-North Railroad in 1983. In 2000, New York Waterways used the station as the eastern port for the Haverstraw–Ossining Pedestrian Ferry creating a link between the station and Central Rockland County.

Station layout

The station has two high-level

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

s each 10 cars long. Track 1 does not have electric power, and is used by diesel trains only.

In popular culture

Ossining station was visible in the background of certain commercials for

Kaopectate Kaopectate is an orally taken medication from Arcadia Consumer Healthcare for the treatment of mild diarrhea. It is also sometimes used to treat indigestion, nausea, and stomach ulcers. The active ingredients have varied over time, and are differ ...

used in 2009. In the series premiere of

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

's ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

'' ("

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical '' Roberta''. The song was sung in the Broadway show by Tamara Drasin. Its first recorded performance was by Ge ...

"), set in March 1960,

Don Draper Donald Francis Draper, born Richard “Dick” Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the AMC television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), portrayed by Jon Hamm. Up to the Season 3 finale, Draper was creative director of fict ...

is seen disembarking the New York Central train at Ossining; this is the first indication that he lives in the area.

References

External links

*
Ossining Metro-North Station (TheSubwayNut)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ossining (Metro-North Station) Metro-North Railroad stations in New York (state) Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in Westchester County, New York Renaissance Revival architecture in New York (state) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1849 Ossining, New York 1849 establishments in New York (state)