Darlington station is a defunct commuter rail station on the SEPTA Regional Rail R3 West Chester Line, located at 612 Darlington Road in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania. Originally built by the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad, it later served the Pennsylvania Railroad's West Chester Branch, which finally became SEPTA's R3 line.
Darlington | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Former SEPTA Regional Rail station | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Former Darlington station site in March 2017. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Darlington Road, Chester Heights, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 39°54′14″N 75°28′09″W / 39.9039°N 75.4692°W | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Owned by | SEPTA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Line(s) | West Chester Line | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Structure type | demolished | ||||||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Closed | October 4, 1981[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrified | December 2, 1928[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Former services | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The station, and all of those west of Elwyn station, was closed in September 1986, due to deteriorating track conditions and Chester County's desire to expand facilities at Exton station on SEPTA's Paoli/Thorndale Line. Service was "temporarily suspended" at that time, with substitute bus service provided. Darlington station still appears in publicly posted tariffs. Darlington station was named after the dairy located at that place. For years it was a flag stop, but was abandoned and then re-established. However, Darlington Station was demolished shortly after service ended. The concrete curb for the platform edge and the access road are all that remain.
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Looking up the access road to the former Darlington station in 2017
Darling, Pennsylvania
editA post office was established at the station in 1879, which led to the place name Darling being officially recognized.[3] The GNIS classifies it as a populated place with "Darlington" recognized as a variant.[4] The post office remained in operation until 1964.[5] "Darling" was used to prevent confusion with the town of Darlington located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
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1896 Decision Card
References
edit- ^ Tulsky, Fredric N. (September 24, 1981). "Rail Cuts Approved by SEPTA". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 23. Retrieved October 30, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Electric Trains to Start Sunday". The Chester Times. November 30, 1928. p. 1. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Moyer, Armond; Moyer, Winifred (1958). The origins of unusual place-names. Keystone Pub. Associates. p. 31.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Darling
- ^ "Post Offices". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
External links
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Media related to Darlington station (SEPTA) at Wikimedia Commons