Gateshead railway station served the town of

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

, England between 1844 and 1981. It was situated on the northern and western sides of the triangular junction to the south of the High Level Bridge which connects Gateshead with

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. There were two portions to the station on different routes; at times they were known as Gateshead East and Gateshead West.

History

Blaydon, Hexham, Newcastle & Scotswood RJD 50

The station was opened by the

Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway The York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (YN&BR) was an English railway company formed in 1847 by the amalgamation of the York and Newcastle Railway and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. Both companies were part of the group of business interest ...

on 18 June 1844. The Team Valley Line from Gateshead to via opened to passengers on 1 December 1868, and on that day, a second pair of platforms at Gateshead opened to serve that line; these were known as ''Gateshead West'', and the original pair became ''Gateshead East''. Facilities were initially modest at both stations, but the

NER NER may refer to: * New European Recordings, a record label * ISO 3166-1 three letter code for Niger * Named entity recognition, a text processing task that identifies certain words as belonging to one class or another * Northeast Regional, an Amt ...

subsequently provided trainsheds on both sides to give waiting passengers shelter from the wind at what was quite an exposed location. The West station has its roof built prior to opening, whilst its immediate neighbour was given one when rebuilt between 1884 and 1886. Both stations were well served in NER and LNER days - the East station had over 100 departures on the lines to and whilst West had around 30 trains per day to Durham and to Blackhill via . The frequent service and location close to the main centres of industry and population meant both stations were very well patronised - in 1911 more than 491,000 tickets were issued from the two combined. In 1938, the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

also electrified the lines through the East station as an extension of the electric system already in use on the suburban routes north of the river. At some point between 1948 and 1953, the name was simplified to ''Gateshead'' as the number of services from the West station had dwindled to almost nothing by 1951. The 1960s brought further retrenchment -

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ended electric services to and from South Shields in 1963 in favour of diesel operation (deeming that the cost of renewing the electrical equipment was not justifiable in the face of declining patronage) and on 1 November 1965, the former Gateshead West platforms finally closed. The remainder of the station lost its trainshed in 1968, but continued to be served throughout the 1970s. It was eventually closed on 23 November 1981, having been effectively made redundant by the newly commissioned

Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in ...

route between Newcastle and . A new sub-surface

Gateshead Metro station Gateshead Interchange is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the town of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 15 November 1981, following the opening of the third phase of the network, between Haymarket and Heworth ...

on this line had been opened about to the south-east a few days previously. The platforms and buildings at Gateshead East remained substantially intact until the late 1980s, but after sustaining major fire damage they were demolished in 1990. The former West platforms by contrast are still intact and visible from passing trains, though the buildings have been cleared and the line passing through them singled in 1991 as part of the Newcastle area resignalling scheme.

References

External links

Gateshead Station on navigable O.S. map
{{Closed stations Tyne and Wear Disused railway stations in Tyne and Wear Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1844 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1868 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1981 William Bell railway stations