Ryhope East railway station


Ryhope East railway station served the village of Ryhope, Tyne and Wear, England from 1858 to 1960 on the Durham Coast Line.

History

In 1854 the Londonderry Railway opened the Londonderry, Seaham and Sunderland Railway to link its network of colliery railways to the newly constructed South Dock in Sunderland due to the lack of capacity in Seaham Harbour. Though constructed primarily for mineral traffic, passengers were also carried between and Hendon Burn in Sunderland from 1855, where the LS&SR opened an additional station to serve Ryhope on 2 July. The station was originally named Ryhope and was designed by Brewer, the Marquis of Londonderry's Estate Clerk of Works at the time which meant that the design of station and footbridge was very different to most nearby stations that were designed by the North Eastern Railway.
From 1868 the LS&SR began to use the Hendon terminus of Durham & Sunderland Railway until this was in turn replaced by Sunderland Central station in 1879. The LS&SR remained independent until the Londonderry Railway sold its Seaham to Sunderland route to the North Eastern Railway in 1900, who then extended it along the coast to West Hartlepool in 1905. To distinguish the station from the NER's other Ryhope station on the Durham to Sunderland Line, the station was renamed Ryhope East in 1904.
The station closed to passengers on 7 March 1960 but remained open to goods traffic until all stopping services between Sunderland and West Hartlepool were withdrawn in 1964 as part of the Beeching Axe.