Hart railway station

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Coordinates: 54°43′10″N 1°15′06″W / 54.7194°N 1.2517°W / 54.7194; -1.2517
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hart
London & North Eastern Railway
  • British Railways (North Eastern)
    • Key dates
    1 May 1839 (1839-05-01)Opened as Crimdon
    October 1871Renamed Hart
    27 July 1941Temporarily closed
    7 October 1946Reopened
    31 August 1953Closed to passengers
    September 1963 (1963-09)Closed completely

    Hart railway station was a station that served the villages of Hart and Crimdon in County Durham, England.

    The station was built by the

    Hartlepool–Ferryhill and Durham Coast
    line.

    History

    The Hartlepool Dock & Railway and the opening of the station

    Construction of the HD&R was first authorised by an Act of Parliament obtained on 1 June 1832 which granted the railway company powers to construct a 14-mile railway from

    Durham & Sunderland Railway) diverted much of the traffic that the company had been intending to access along other routes[2] thus meaning that the H&DR only reached as far as Haswell and most of its branches were either cut short or left unbuilt.[1] Nonetheless, the curtailed line opened to mineral traffic (as far as Haswell) on 23 November 1835[1] and, when passenger trains were introduced on 1 May 1839, a station, originally named Crimdon, was provided[3]
    to serve Hart village.

    From 1845, the HD&R leased the

    York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway, on 22 July 1848.[2] These leases meant that, from 1846, passenger trains serving Crimdon began to also run through to Ferryhill over the GNEC&HJR.[4]

    NER improvements and the Durham Coast Line

    A view across the site of station's platforms from under the footbridge in April 1965. The two tracks nearest the photographer are those of the Coast Line and the farthest two are those of the original Hartlepool Dock & Railway. Note the station house on the far side of the tracks.
    Hutton Henry Colliery
    Castle Eden
    Castle Eden Colliery
    Hesleden
    Hesleden Bank Top
    (Site of stationary winding engine)
    Original rope-worked
    incline (1 in 34)
    Hesleden Bank
    NER deviation lines
    (1 in 50)
    Sunderland via Seaham
    Culvert over
    Crimdon Beck
    Crimdon Dene Viaduct
    over
    Crimdon Beck
    Durham Coast Line
    to Stockton
    Hart West Hartlepool
    & Railway
    │ NER
    branch
    & Railway
    Stockton & Hartlepool Railway
    to West Hartlepool Docks
    Shipyards
    Hartlepool Docks
    Coal drops on
    demolished dock wall
    Victoria Dock
    Staithes
    Victoria Dock
    Hartlepool
    (second)
    Stockton & Hartlepool Railway
    to West Hartlepool Docks
    Hartlepool
    (original)

    On the 31 July 1854, the YN&BR was amalgamated with other companies to form the

    Stockton & Hartlepool Railway network at West Hartlepool (which gradually became the primary southern terminus for Crimdon's passenger services).[2] In October 1871, Crimdon station was renamed Hart[3]
    despite being located over 1 mile (1.6 km) from the village of that name.

    Despite the improvements of the 1850s-1870s, the route through Hart continued to provide a steep and indirect route between West Hartlepool and Sunderland and so the NER purchased the Seaham to Sunderland line of the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway in 1900 and extended it along the coast to meet the ex-HD&R line at the station, paralleling it between there and Cemetery North Junction (approximately 1.25 miles (2.01 km) further south).[8] The new line, opened on 1 April 1905, bypassed both Hesleden Bank and Seaton Bank further north,[2] thus contributing to the gradual diversion of much of the longer-distance traffic away from the inland route.[4] Although the new line passed immediately to the east of the original platforms at Hart, early line diagrams indicate that additional wooden platforms were only erected to allow trains on the Coast Line to call at Hart several years after the line opened.[9][4]

    From 1920, a then popular holiday park was developed at the nearby settlement of Crimdon and Hart station became the primary railhead through which day trippers from the surrounding mining communities arrived at the resort.[10]

    Decline and closure

    The NER became part of the

    wartime economy measure on 28 July 1941.[3] The station initially reopened as a summer-only station on 7 October 1946, before services were fully restored on 6 October 1947.[3]

    The station site in May 2009 viewed from the western end on what was once the trackbed of the original Hartlepool Dock & Railway line. The modern footbridge can be seen close to the site of the earlier station footbridge.

    The LNER in the North East came under the control of the North Eastern Region of British Railways following its nationalisation in 1948.[2] By this time, passenger and goods traffic across the country was in decline and this was the case for Hart station and the routes from West Hartlepool to Sunderland and Ferryhill through it. Consequentially, Hart lost its weekday service from August 1950[3] and stopping passenger services were withdrawn completely from the inland lines on 9 June 1952.[12] Nonetheless, Hart continued to be served by Coast Line passenger services until the station was closed to passengers on 31 August 1953[3] and was retained as a goods station until September 1963 when it closed completely.[13] By 1967, the station platforms had been demolished.[2]

    Many of the stations on the inland Sunderland and Ferryhill lines remained open to goods traffic until 1966

    1984 miner's strike.[14]
    The Coast Line remains open and, as of 2021, a modern footbridge still crosses it at the site of Hart station.

    Once the remaining tracks were lifted on the Haswell line, work commenced on converting the disused section into the Hart to Haswell Walkway[1] which reaches its southern terminus at the station site and which was later extended to Ryhope after the closure of the remaining northern section of the line between Hawthorn Colliery and Ryhope Junction in 1991.[15]

    References

    1. ^
      ISBN 0946537313
      .
    2. ^
      ISBN 0711028036
      .
    3. ^
      OCLC 931112387
      .
    4. ^
      ISBN 0852068352
      .
    5. ISBN 1852600721
      .
    6. ISBN 0946537313
      .
    7. ISBN 0852068352
      .
    8. ISBN 1852600721
      .
    9. ISBN 9781873513682
      .
    10. ^ "Crimdon: A walk of nature, sea, sand and countryside" (PDF). Co-Curate. Durham County Council. 2013. p. 4. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
    11. ^ "Disused Stations: Scremerston Station". Disused Stations. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
    12. ISBN 0711008299
      .
    13. ^ "Site of Hart station © Ben Brooksbank cc-by-sa/2.0 :: Geograph Britain and Ireland". Geograph. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
    14. ^ a b Goodyear, Alan (January 1992). "MURTON CLOSURE ENDS AN ERA". The Railway Magazine. 138 (1089): 56–57.
    15. ^ "Colliery Railways: Hartlepool to Sunderland via Haswell 1835/6-1993 | Durham Records Online Library". Durham Records Online. Retrieved 8 January 2018.

    External links

    Preceding station Historical railways Following station
    Hartlepool
    Line and station closed     		 
    Hartlepool Dock & Railway
    		   Castle Eden Colliery
    Line and station closed
    West Hartlepool
    Line closed; station open     		 
    Hartlepool–Haswell–Sunderland Line
    		   Hesleden
    Line and station closed
    West Hartlepool
    Line closed; station open     		 
    Hartlepool–Ferryhill Line
    		   Hesleden
    Line and station closed
    West Hartlepool
    Line and station open     		 
    London & North Eastern Railway
    Durham Coast Line
    		   Blackhall Rocks
    Line open; station closed
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hart_railway_station&oldid=1215243034"