Campbell Hall (Metro-North station)

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NJ Transit train arriving at Campbell Hall. Norfolk Southern freight operations are at left.

The Campbell Hall Metro-North station is located just south of the eponymous hamlet in the town of Hamptonburgh in Orange County, New York. It is served by trains on the Port Jervis Line, which either go west to Port Jervis or south to Hoboken, 65.6 miles (106 km) away. Travel time to the latter is around an hour and a half. As with most of the Port Jervis Line stations, serves not only Campbell Hall, but customers from such towns as Goshen and Montgomery.

Situated amidst farms and fields, it is the northernmost Metro-North station west of the Hudson River, as the line begins to curve in a southerly direction just west of the station. Facilities used to be rather minimal, but recent renovations by the MTA have given it similar amenities to other stations along the line: decorative lights, a longer platform roof and an elevated platform at the east end of the station for access by riders in wheelchairs. In the course of these, however, parking is no longer free. A permit/meter system like those at other stations has been instituted.

The station is located at the end of Watkins Road, off Egbertson Road a short distance from NY 207 near its intersection with NY 416. This is also where the Wallkill Valley Railroad once connected to the main line via a still-used wye, and Norfolk Southern still runs freight operations up to customers in Montgomery and the end of the tracks in Walden. As a result, not only is Campbell Hall the only double-track station besides Harriman and Otisville on the Port Jervis Line (with a wooden platform allowing passenger access to the long siding that goes through the station and some distance past it in case trains have to use it), it has become a small yard for the freight carrier, with unused stock stored along several sidings at and just west of the station. This is all easily visible from the platform, and local railfans sometimes come here on weekends or middays (when passenger service is limited) to watch any action that might be going on.