Hartlepool railway station (Hartlepool Dock & Railway)


Hartlepool railway station was a railway station that served the Headland Estate area of Hartlepool in County Durham, North East England. Though originally built as the coastal terminus of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway in 1839, for most of its life the station was the terminus of a shuttle service from the town's main station in West Hartlepool.

History

Though the first mineral train along the HD&R reached Hartlepool on 1 January 1835, the first passenger station in Hartlepool was not opened until 1839. From 1845, the HD&R leased the Great North of England, Clarence & Hartlepool Junction Railway which had opened a line from a junction with the HD&R at Wingate to only six years earlier. However just a year after the HD&R leased the GNEC&HJR, both companies were leased by the newly formed York & Newcastle Railway, and both were amalgamated with the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway on 22 July 1848. Passengers from Hartlepool were first carried over the GNEC&HJR in 1846.
The York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway was amalgamated with other companies to form the North Eastern Railway in 1854 and in 1877 the NER constructed a line linking the former HD&R directly to the former Stockton & Hartlepool Railway in West Hartlepool. As part of the rationalisation of the rail network around Hartlepool, the NER opened a new terminus at Hartlepool, north of the original station, on 16 November 1878 and a new through station at West Hartlepool two years later. The growth of West Hartlepool, combined with the decline of "old" Hartlepool led to the diversion of passenger services from the former HD&R and GNEC&HJR lines into West Hartlepool station, leaving Hartlepool as the terminus of a shuttle service between the two towns.
In the grouping of 1923, the NER was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway and despite competition from trams and busses, in 1925 the LNER shuttle service consisted of 49 trains per day but by 1939 it had declined to 38, with services normally operated by LNER Sentinel steam railcars. Wartime economy measures led to this service being reduced to just four trains each way from 2 October 1939 and this service level was maintained until public passenger services were withdrawn on 16 June 1947. The station did, however, continue to handle services for school children until 23 March 1964.