Leamside railway station
# Leamside railway station

Leamside railway station served the villages of Leamside and West Rainton, in County Durham, England from 1844 to 1953 on the Leamside line.

## History

The first station was opened on 15 April 1844 by the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway as an intermediate station on their route from Gilesgate and Ferryhill to the Durham Junction Railway at Rainton Crossing. The station was situated on the south side of Station Road bridge.

On 1 April 1857, the North Eastern Railway opened a line from Bishop Auckland to a junction with the former N&DJR south of the original Leamside station and, due to it becoming a junction station, decided to open a new, more suitable, Leamside station a short distance to south of the previous one. The freight facilities were on the up side with a goods shed. In 1913 NER statistics show that 11,128 tons of bricks and 21 wagons of livestock were handled at these goods facilities. Passenger booking plummeted from 61,571 to 5,968 in 1951. The station was closed to both passengers and goods traffic on 5 October 1953.

## Members of Staff at Leamside

James Lowrie was the station master for almost 50 years until his retirement in 1909.

Robert Cochrane worked from 1857 to 1882, first as a Fireman and later as Signalman.

William Cowan worked as the Assistant Station Master from 1882 to 1904.

