Whitford (SEPTA station)

Whitford
SEPTA Regional Rail commuter rail station
Location	1597 South Whitford Road and Spackmans Lane, Exton, PA 19341 USA
Owned by	Amtrak
Operated by	SEPTA
Line(s)
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	3
Construction
Parking	229 spaces (daily)
Bicycle facilities	2 racks (4 spaces)
Other information
Fare zone	4
History
Opened	1880
Electrified	1915
Traffic
Passengers (2011)	323 (weekday boardings)
Services
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station Downingtown toward Thorndale Paoli/Thorndale Line Exton toward Temple University
Whitford Railroad Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	405 South Whitford Road Exton, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
Built	1880 (1880)
Architectural style	Clapboard
NRHP Reference #	84003324
Added to NRHP	1984

Whitford Station is a commuter rail station located in the western suburbs of Philadelphia at South Whitford Road and Spackman Lane, Exton, Pennsylvania. It is served by most Paoli/Thorndale Line trains.

The Whitford Flyover

File:Main Lines—Freight and Passenger.jpg

Artist Grif Teller's classic Main Lines—Freight and Passenger painting captured Whitford Station in its prime, circa 1949.

File:Low grade Crossing at Whitford, Getty 07147701.jpg

The station house is just visible under the bridge in this 1904 photograph by William H. Rau.

Whitford Station is best known for the abandoned railway trestle that sits directly above the station site. The current station sits along the once-busy former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) four-track Main Line, which, in its prime, hosted a constant flow of commuter and long distance trains. To circumvent constant bottlenecks near Philadelphia, the PRR constructed a low-grade double-track electrified line in 1906 to host its freight traffic. This was done to bypass the steep grades and busy Philadelphia suburbs. Known as the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch (or the "High Line"), the line ran alongside the current Paoli/Thorndale Line, crossing (or "flying") over it via a massive trestle directly above the Whitford Station. After the sharp decline in rail traffic in the 1970s, the freight line was abandoned outright by Conrail in 1989. In addition, the current passenger line was reduced from four tracks to three in the 1960s.

In its heyday, the PRR produced a series of calendars that included paintings of scenes throughout the extensive rail system. Artist Grif Teller captured a busy moment at Whitford in his "Main Lines—Freight and Passenger" painting from 1949, when the overhead trestle was still in use.

Current station

On August 2, 1984, the station house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is no ticket office at the station. There are 229 parking spaces at the station for daily parking, some of which sit on the abandoned freight line that crosses over the station site.

This station is 28.7 track miles from Philadelphia's Suburban Station. In 2011, the average total weekday boardings at this station was 323, and the average total weekday alightings was 315.

External links

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-522, "Pennsylvania Railroad, Whitford Bridge"
• SEPTA - Whitford Station