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GATESHEAD EAST RAILWAY STATION OPERATED BETWEEN 1850 AND 1981, CLOSING WHEN THE NEW METRO SYSTEM ARRIVED 00:15, 01 Jun 2025 Gateshead East railway station had entered the last decade of its
long working life when this striking view was captured in 1972. Momentarily recalling the golden age of steam, it’s one of three images of the now-vanished station shared by photographer
Trevor Ermel. “The steam loco had just come tender-first over the High Level Bridge behind me after being on display at Newcastle Central Station,” explains Trevor. “It was the preserved
Class A4 Number 4498 'Sir Nigel Gresley', confusingly bearing 'The Tynesider' headboard. The train at the other platform is just about to set off over the bridge to
Newcastle.” Today, Gateshead town centre is one of the largest in the UK not to have a station on the National Rail network - but there was a time when it was served by both Gateshead East
and Gateshead West. They were situated not far apart on a triangular junction close to the approach of the southern end of the High Level Bridge. Gateshead East station began operating in
1850, adjoining Wellington Street - also the site of the town’s tram terminus (incidentally. it wasn't until 1923, after decades of discussion, that the first trams travelled across the
High Level Bridge between Gateshead and Newcastle). A glance at its old timetables reveals trains stopping at Gateshead East ran back and forth between Newcastle and South Shields, and
between Newcastle and Sunderland. In 1971, Gateshead East slightly amended its name to simply become Gateshead. The station closed in November 1981 when the new Tyne and Wear Metro took over
the route to Heworth (it would be extended to South Shields a few years later), while some of the old railway stations would be revamped to become stops on the new system. Article continues
below Gateshead West Station could be found off nearby Hudson Street. Operating from 1868, it served passengers travelling between Newcastle and Durham (via the Team Valley), and Newcastle
and Blackhill in Consett. Customer numbers fell sharply after World War II and, although it was not one of the stations named for closure in the 1963 Beeching Report, it ceased operating in
1965. The second and third photographs shared by Trevor Ermel show respectively the entrance to Gateshead East on Wellington Street in 1978, and a group of youngsters sitting on the
station’s platform edge a year later. Trevor’s rich body of work documents the changing face of urban Tyneside and the River Tyne over the last five decades. Born and bred in Gateshead, and
now living in Whitley Bay, he has kindly shared much of his work with ChronicleLive in recent years and recently published his first book of photographs. All My Yesterdays: Three decades of
Tyneside photographs, by Trevor Ermel, is priced at £19.95. It contains around 200 pictures, both colour and black and white. You can buy the book at the Newcastle City Library and Gateshead
Central Library. Today, Gateshead East Station has been totally demolished, but the old platforms at the former Gateshead West station remain, deserted and strewn with weeds. Article
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