Campbell Hall is Port Jervis Line Station that opened in 1983 when the former Erie passenger mainline was abandoned that passed through the center of various towns, and trains were rerouted via the Graham Line freight cutoff that is completely rural. The station would be impossible to find except for the small directional signs that appear from the main roads directing motorists to the station. This requires finding Egbertson Road before turning onto Watkins Road, past some fields for the final third of a mile that ends at the station's 231-space parking lot. Since nothing (except for a few farm houses) is walking distance from the station sidewalks are non-existent.
The station was originally nothing more than a parking lot, single bus shelter, information panels and a telephone but around 2005 received improved waiting amenities. These include a white sign held up by two brick posts that says Campbell Hall Station in black letters near the entrance to the parking lot (I assume at the property line where Egbertson Road ends and becomes the station's driveway). Parking become paid with the spots on the outside of the lot for daily parking ($2.50, recently reduced to $1.25 per day in 2014) along the wooden fence where the small parking spot numbers are posted, and only $20 for a yearly permit (originally $235, reduced in 2014 to spur ridership and make the train more competitive with Shore Line Buses) in the spaces in the middle of the lot. Throughout the parking lot are green lampposts and small trees in wooden boxes painted orange add some greenery in the yellow striped areas of the parking lot where odd angles reduce the number of spaces and are not needed for the driveway lanes. The parking lot is triangular shape.
At the northern edge of the parking lot is the station's single low-level platform with a tactile warnings strip added. This platform can accommodate begins along the parking lot and extends east, accommodating five cars. At the eastern end is a mini-high platform, requiring a bridgeplate for freight train clearance with a ramp up to a bench. The station's modern canopy structure with teal beams holding up a red roof starts by covering the mini-high platform and extends to cover most of the platform (except for the westernmost car). The original Campbell Hall signs were kept when the station received it's canopy structure with the old Metro-North Commuter Railroad M logo in the corner of each of them and held up by tall silver support posts. Other amenities for waiting passengers include a silver enclosed waiting area that has the station's TVMs inside and parking pay machines under their own canopy.
Finally, the track area requires special mention. The stop is along a small train yard and is in the middle of the wye where the Walden Secondary, currently in service from by the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad meets the main line and interchanges with Norfolk Southern. Two tracks actually platform at the station with a small wooden board allowing one set of doors to open if a train ever stops on the opposite track (this isn't scheduled), some trains do pass near the station but normally switch onto the siding where it extends east of the station. In the freight yard though an interesting variety of MOW equipment is often visible. When I visited there were a couple of hopper cars full of ballast, along with a Middletown & New Jersey caboose and two of the railroads three locomotives.
All Photos taken on 28 June, 2015 on a visit by automobile
Middletown 