Wilmington & Western Station Improvements

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Fri Jun 23, 2023 12:04 pm

This Facebook update covers an important update to the Wilmington & Western's passenger facilities at Greenbank, northwest of Wilmington proper.

If I have the history correct, when the W&W was formed in 1965 they relocated to Greenbank the B&O freight station from Yorklyn (further up their line) and then the tiny PRR depot from nearby Kennedyville, Md., the former initially as a full station and then later the Kennedyville one as a ticket office with the Yorklyn one becoming a museum. The Kennedyville one was removed to Hockessin (on the line) in 1997 as the W&W built an all-new, more modern facility with food area and modern restrooms (replacing rudimentary, inadequate facilities across the parking lot, as I remember).

Quote:

The Greenbank Station was built and opened in the late 1990s. The Railroad has had significant growth in our ridership as well as our scheduled excursions since that first season in the building. Over the last several years it has become apparent that our current restroom design is inadequate for today's ridership.
Therefore, we are excited to share the news that the Railroad has partnered with Breckstone Architecture and MP Diversified Contractors on a restroom renovation project to Greenbank Station. Construction on the project is set to begin at the beginning of July and should take approximately 4 months. The project will include the building of new men’s and women’s restrooms in the current snack bar area, updating the current men’s room to a family restroom, as well as other improvements.
The project will be done in stages that will allow the Railroad to remain open with functioning restrooms during the construction phase. To prepare for the project, the snack bar has been permanently closed and starting next week will will begin removing wall decorations and furniture. The Gift Shop will now be selling light refreshments including soda, water, juice, chips, and candy.
We are looking forward to these improvements and are asking for understanding and patience as we navigate the construction period.

This raises the question as to whether the snack bar will be replaced eventually.

junior · **Posted:** Thu Jul 27, 2023 6:16 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

This Facebook update covers an important update to the Wilmington & Western's passenger facilities at Greenbank, northwest of Wilmington proper.

If I have the history correct, when the W&W was formed in 1965 they relocated to Greenbank the B&O freight station from Yorklyn (further up their line) and then the tiny PRR depot from nearby Kennedyville, Md., the former initially as a full station and then later the Kennedyville one as a ticket office with the Yorklyn one becoming a museum. The Kennedyville one was removed to Hockessin (on the line) in 1997 as the W&W built an all-new, more modern facility with food area and modern restrooms (replacing rudimentary, inadequate facilities across the parking lot, as I remember).

Quote:

The Greenbank Station was built and opened in the late 1990s. The Railroad has had significant growth in our ridership as well as our scheduled excursions since that first season in the building. Over the last several years it has become apparent that our current restroom design is inadequate for today's ridership.
Therefore, we are excited to share the news that the Railroad has partnered with Breckstone Architecture and MP Diversified Contractors on a restroom renovation project to Greenbank Station. Construction on the project is set to begin at the beginning of July and should take approximately 4 months. The project will include the building of new men’s and women’s restrooms in the current snack bar area, updating the current men’s room to a family restroom, as well as other improvements.
The project will be done in stages that will allow the Railroad to remain open with functioning restrooms during the construction phase. To prepare for the project, the snack bar has been permanently closed and starting next week will will begin removing wall decorations and furniture. The Gift Shop will now be selling light refreshments including soda, water, juice, chips, and candy.
We are looking forward to these improvements and are asking for understanding and patience as we navigate the construction period.

This raises the question as to whether the snack bar will be replaced eventually.

As someone who ran the snack bar there, both in the Kennedyville building and the current building, the money is made on the train, not so much in the station, particularly since the railroad did not want to deal with the state codes for official food prep, so anything hot has to be of the pre-cooked variety….ie hot dogs, soft pretzels. On board where you have a captive audience, cold sodas, water and general snacks are your money makers, if priced right for the customer. The most recent operator was their retired mechanic, Henryk, who took over when I took on a full time job. Has to be almost 25 years now.

The current snack bar area is 1/3 of the building and is too big but was intentionally done so to provide space for their then booming charter business. That’s why it is pretty generic inside overall. While they still do a very good amount of charter business, but like everything, it has shifted focus to more “on board” activities.

And the Yorklyn Station building was and still is a combination Passenger and Freight Station, as built.

R.L.Kennedy · **Joined:** Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:37 pm **Posts:** 242

What, if anything, is doing with ex CNR 92? Is it still laying outdoors in pieces?

Wilmington & Western Station Improvements

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