Heaton railway station was a railway station in

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, near the southern boundary of Heaton with

Byker Byker is a district in the east of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. Home to the Byker Wall estate, made famous by TV series '' Byker Grove'', Byker’s population was recorded at 12,206 in the 2011 census. Byker is borde ...

. The station was built in the nineteenth century and closed on 11 August 1980.

History

In 1839 the Newcastle and Shields railway was opened and this line later became the direct line to the coast from Newcastle upon Tyne, although at that time the line terminated in Carliol Square and not at

Newcastle Central station Newcastle Central Station (also known simply as Newcastle and locally as Central Station) is a major railway station in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the East Coast Main Line, around north of . It is the primary national rail station ...

. This predecessor of the North Eastern Railway company (NER) shared those two tracks up to Heaton Junction and "on the 1st July 1847 Newcastle was connected by rail with Berwick, and thus placed on the main line between

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

." The railway line and station at Heaton were built in a cutting.

First station

The first station stood in a cutting on the double track shared by the main line to Edinburgh and the Newcastle & North Shields route. There were two platforms about in length. The principal building stood on the down (NW) platform, facing a smaller building on the up platform. When it opened the station stood in a rural location, the nearest village being Byker Hill, about ¼ mile to the east, but during the later decades of the 19th century the terraces of the residential suburb of Heaton began to fill the fields on both sides of the railway. In 1887 the line from

to Heaton Junction was widened from two tracks to four tracks. The original station was demolished and a new station built further to the west of Heaton Road.

Second station

In 1887 the line from

Newcastle Central Station Newcastle Central Station (also known simply as Newcastle and locally as Central Station) is a major railway station in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the East Coast Main Line, around north of . It is the primary national rail station ...

to Heaton Junction was widened from two tracks to four tracks. The two tracks to the north were for mainline services to

and the two southern tracks for the direct services from Newcastle Central Station to the coast. These two southern tracks were electrified in 1904. There were two island platforms about long reached by ramps from the ticket offices, which were at ground level alongside the road bridge carrying Heaton Road over the railway. Heaton Junction signal box was about to the east and gave access from all four tracks to Heaton engine shed and carriage sidings. The station was used principally for services on the direct line from Newcastle Central station to the coast but with some local services such as the line to

Morpeth Morpeth may refer to: *Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia ** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales * Morpeth, Ontario, Canada * Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK ** Morpeth (UK ...

on the main line and some mainline services on the line from Newcastle to

Edinburgh Waverley Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; gd, Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the north ...

Tyne & Wear Metro

The

Tyne & 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 ...

did not use that section of line which included Heaton railway station and the station became redundant when the Metro was built. Metro train services are now available from

Byker Metro station Byker is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the suburb of Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 14 November 1982, following the opening of the fourth phase of the network, between Tynemouth and St Ja ...

which is about to the south, and Chillingham Road Metro station about to the northeast.

East Coast Main Line

When the East Coast Main Line (ECML) was electrified the opportunity was taken to rationalise the track work in many places including the section from Newcastle Central Station to the carriage sidings at Heaton. The station platforms at Heaton were demolished and the previous four tracks were replaced with three tracks, each signalled for running in either direction. The electrification was completed in 1990. Owing to the positioning of the bridge piers for the road bridge over the line the southernmost track still follows the alignment around the now non-existent platform.

References