Fighting Cocks railway station

In 1829, the Dinsdale Spa Hotel was opened close to the village of Low Dinsdale, which led to an increase in travel to the village using the railway. As a result, a permanent station was opened during the 1830s (appearing in timetables by 1838), on the east side of the level crossing, to cater for this traffic. It was originally called Middleton and Dinsdale but was renamed Fighting Cocks in 1866.[2]

In 1863 the S&DR was amalgamated into the North Eastern Railway (NER),^[4] who on 1 July 1887 opened a new line from south of Darlington Bank Top station to Oak Tree Junction, east of Fighting Cocks station,^[5] to enable passenger services on the former S&DR route to serve Bank Top station.^[3] However the opening of this new route meant that Fighting Cocks was bypassed, and so a new station was provided at Dinsdale to replace it. Over the course of its life as a passenger station, approximately 30,000 passenger tickets were sold to Fighting Cocks. From this point on Fighting Cocks was only served by goods trains until it was closed completely as an economy measure in 1964.^[2]

The line through the station remained as a through line until it was severed at the western end on 21 May 1967,^[3] though it was partially retained as a short branch line from Oak Tree Junction until the 1970s.^[2]

A public footpath now runs along the alignment of the railway through the site of the station.^[6]

References