History
The first, wooden station was built on the Oude Weg, just outside the Amsterdamse Poort in 1839 to accommodate the passengers of the first railway in the Netherlands between Haarlem and Amsterdam, which had a rail width of 2 meters. The station was built outside the city, on the current location of the Centrale Werkplaats (maintenance depot) of the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij. At great expense, the rail width was later reduced to 1.435 meters in order to conform to George Stephenson's standard gauge. The train engine "De Snelheid" was the twin of the Amsterdam "Arend", which along with the carriages, were designed by Stephenson's apprentice, the English rail engineer Thomas Longridge Gooch of R.B. Longridge & Co. There were 4 trains per day to Amsterdam, scheduled at 9:00, 14:00, 16:00, and 18:00. The prices of the tickets for 1st (closed carriage), 2nd, and 3rd class (char-à-banc) were 1.20, 80c, and 40c (guilders). A few years later the new railway turned out to be a great success, and in 1842 a real station was built on the current location. It was designed by F.W. Conrad in a semi-Greek neo-classicistic style. The front of the building was open to the street.
Read more about this topic: Haarlem Railway Station
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