Bishop Auckland And Weardale Railway

Bishop Auckland is a railway station that serves the market town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, North East England, north-west of Darlington. The station is the Western terminus of the Tees Valley Line, which links it to via . It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

History

Opening

Bishop Auckland gained its first rail link in 1842, when the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) backed Bishop Auckland & Weardale Railway (BA&WR) gained the powers via an Act of Parliament to build a railway line from the S&DR's station at via Bishop Auckland and Witton-le-Wear into Crook, County Durham.

The company initially built a temporary terminus at South Church, which opened on 19 April 1842. A road coach service then extended the service into Bishop Auckland, and a secondary road coach service also ran to Rainton Meadows. After completion of the Shildon tunnel, the BA&WR erected a permanent station on the current site, which opened to freight on 8 November 1843, and passengers on 30 January 1843. All operations were sub-leased as agreed to the S&DR.

Early developments

In 1844, after the West Durham Railway extended from a junction with the Clarence Railway at to Crook, the S&DR extended the BA&WR from Bishop Auckland along the river valley to Witton-le-Wear, and then into . In 1845, the S&DR came to an agreement with the Derwent Iron Company to sub-lease the southern section of the former Stanhope & Tyne Railway. It extended the line from Crook to and then to Blackhill, and it was opened as the Weardale Extension Railway (WXR).

In July 1845 Parliament passed the Wear Valley Act, which allowed the extension of the BA&WR from a junction at Witton-le-Wear to , and a small branch line across the river to Bishopley. With all works again undertaken by the S&DR, this line opened on 3 August 1847. After these works had been completed, the BA&WR amalgamated with the WXR. All service were operated by the S&DR, which officially took over the new company in January 1857.

On 1 April 1857, the North Eastern Railway (NER) started a service from to Bishop Auckland at a new terminus in Tenter Street. However, the S&DR and NER quickly came to the agreement of development of a joint station in the town, and so rebuilt the existing former BA&WR station, with NER trains using it from December 1857.

In 1862, an Act of Parliament was passed allowing the S&DR-backed Frosterley and Stanhope Railway to extend the line to , thus allowing trains to transport limestone from the Newlandside Estate on the south side of the town. This brought about the extension of the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway from into Bishop Auckland in 1862, and with the final addition of traffic from an extension of the Clarence Railway at , eventually resulted in the NER rebuilding the station again in December 1867.

The final extension of the Weardale Railway to opened on 21 October 1895, with the NER having resited the station at to provide a more suitable gradient for the heavy limestone trains. Between Eastgate and Westgate at Cambo Keels, sidings were established to serve the Weardale Iron Company's Heights limestone quarry, which is still in operation today. This final extension of the Weardale Railway bought about the final and largest layout of Bishop Auckland railway station, which was now rebuilt in triangular form with four platforms in 1905. Only three of these were normally used for passenger trains, with platform 1 handling trains towards Crook and Wearhead, and platforms 2 and 3 dealing with services on the Barnard Castle, Ferryhill and Durham lines. Platform 4 (on the chord linking the Durham & Crook lines) was mostly used for parcels & newspaper traffic and for racing pigeon specials.

Decline

As elsewhere the UK, rail traffic in the area declined after World War II, with the Wearhead branch the first to lose its passenger trains in 1953. The principal closures came in the 1960s mainly as a result of the Beeching cuts, with services to: Barnard Castle via West Auckland ending in June 1962; Durham in May 1964; and Crook in March 1965. This left only the former original S&DR line to line in operation, along with the freight-only branch traffic to Eastgate. In 1976, the disused platform was reinstated avoiding need for passengers to use a footbridge.

The station remained more or less intact (although increasingly forlorn and run-down) for more than 20 years thereafter, though by the early 1980s only the former platform 3 was in use (along with the former Bishop Auckland East signal box). It was eventually replaced by the current structure on 6 June 1986. This stands on the site of the former Crook branch platform, on a siding off the now single 'main' line which continues on towards Stanhope and Eastgate. The signal box was abolished at the same time, with neighbouring Shildon box assuming control of the much-simplified layout.

The remaining station buildings were then demolished and the site sold off for retail redevelopment. The former goods yard is now a supermarket with carpark, and the Durham platform is now the site of a cycling and motoring store and a bank.

The station today

The station is currently operated by Northern, which provides National Rail passenger services. In 2012, Bishop Trains adopted the station from Northern Rail (the operator at the time), providing a National Rail Ticket Office and staff for the station. Bishop Trains have further developed the Ticket Office and now provide a booking service for coach trips and holidays, and more recently, rail charters. It is staffed six days per week throughout the year (Monday to Saturday 06:50-16:15). At all other times, tickets must be purchased in advance or on the train. Service running information is offered by timetable posters and Bishop Trains staff (when open). Step-free access is available from the main entrance to the ticket office and platform.

In 2014, the station was revamped. In the former toilet block, a glass front waiting room was constructed, alongside a new toilet and office. Digital CIS displays have also been installed, as part of a scheme to provide these at all stations in the area (bar those at and , which both have only a limited timetable).

Stationmasters

*William Crawford 1843–1886
*William Boyne ?–1895
*Matthew William Seymour 1895–1907 (afterwards station master at Darlington)
*Robert Cocks 1908–1920 (formerly station master at Monkwearouth)
*J.C. Pigg 1920–1921 (afterwards station master at Durham)
*J.R. Winter 1922–?
*A. Howe 1934–?

Services

As of the May 2021 timetable change, the station is served by an hourly return service to via and operated by Northern Trains.

Rolling stock used: Class 156 ''Super Sprinter'' and Class 158 ''Express Sprinter''

Bishop Auckland West

Bishop Auckland West railway station is the eastern terminus of the Weardale Railway, a heritage railway which runs between there and . The station was built by the Weardale Railway and initially opened on 23 May 2010, with a regular passenger service which lasted until the end of the 2012 running season.

Regular heritage trains were reintroduced in 2014, mainly using a Class 122 ''Bubble Car'' and initially only running between and , but later extended to on 27 March 2016.

After a short section of track at ''Broken Banks'' – approximately west of Bishop Auckland – was lifted and the underlying embankment repaired in early 2018, the line through to Bishop Auckland was made safe for passenger traffic for the first time in a number of years. Thus, from July 2018, two of the three daily return services between Stanhope and Witton-le-Wear have been extended to Bishop Auckland West.

As the name suggests, the station is located a short distance to the West of the National Rail station.

References

Sources

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Further reading

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External links

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{{Railway stations served by Northern Trains

Railway stations in County Durham
DfT Category F1 stations
Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1843
Northern franchise railway stations
Railway station
1843 establishments in England