Oakbourne (West Chester Railroad station)

OAKBOURNE
Abandoned West Chester Railroad station
File:Oakbournestation1907.jpg Oakbourne station, c. 1907.
Location	Oakbourne Road Westtown Township, PA.
Coordinates
Owned by	West Chester Railroad
Line(s)	Pennsylvania Railroad, SEPTA R3 West Chester Line
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
Construction
Platform levels	1
History
Opened	1854
Closed	1961
Rebuilt	1871
Electrified	1928
Previous names	Lecompton Hemphill
Services
No services   Former services   Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station West Chester University (closed 1986) toward West Chester West Chester Line R3 Elwyn/West Chester Pennsylvania Railroad Westtown (closed 1986) toward Suburban Station Pennsylvania Railroad West Chester Terminus West Chester Branch Westtown toward Suburban Station

Oakbourne was a West Chester Railroad train station located on Oakbourne Road in Westtown Township. The station was a stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) West Chester Line. It closed before becoming part of SEPTA's R3 West Chester line.

SEPTA discontinued regular passenger service to the line 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 restored in 1997 by the West Chester Railroad, a privately owned and operated heritage railway that operates between Glen Mills and West Chester on weekends.

History

Oakbourne Station was originally called Lecompton Station, and later Hemphill Station after a neighboring landowner, but was changed to Oakbourne when a post office was established there in 1883, with Ellen Jane Speakman serving as postmistress. During the American Civil War, the station was used as a marshaling point for the neighboring Camp Elder, which housed Union prisoners captured by the Confederacy and unofficially paroled during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

A post office was located in the station building until it closed in 1928, when Ellen Speakman retired. A small single-track siding served as a freight yard for the Oakbourne Epileptic Hospital and Colony Farm and other local industries.

Service to the station was terminated in 1961, and the building was razed several years later.

External links

• West Chester Railroad's official website