Station Name: FOREST HALL (NER)

[Source: Alan Young]
Forest Hall Station Gallery 3: c1964 - September 2012


Class V2 2-6-2 No.60892 hauls a northbound freight through the closed Forest Hall station c1964. The faces have been removed from both platforms prior to the complete demolition of the station. The waiting shelter on the down platform (right) is still in place. The signal box and crossing are still in use, but they would both be abolished in January 1965. Technically the signal box had been a ‘gate box’ since 1940, as its role was to open and close the crossing gates to operate the signals which protected the crossing. The Gresley-designed loco seen here was built at the LNER Darlington works in January 1940. It was withdrawn from 64A, St Margarets shed, on 21 November 1963 and cut up at Campbell’s of Airdrie in January 1964.
Photo from Alan Young collection


Probably in late 1964 Class V2 2-6-2 No.60962 hauls a mixed freight southbound through the disused station at Forest Hall. The up platform has been demolished, and the facing of the down platform has been removed but the down waiting shelter is still intact. The Gresley-designed loco was built at the LNER Darlington works in December 1942. It was withdrawn from 52A, Gateshead shed, on 20 September 1965, a month before that shed closed to steam locos, and cut up in October 1965 by Ellis Metals of Swalwell, Co Durham.
Photo from Alan Young collection
Forest Hall signal box in December 1964, looking north-west. The station building, which would have been on the far right behind the picket fence, has just been demolished, and the waiting shed on the opposite platform has also gone.
Photo from Alan Young collection

A view north-westwards over the parapet of Forest Hall road flyover towards Forest Hall level crossing and signal box. The date must be late December 1964 / early January 1965 as the level crossing gates are still in use, closed over the East Coast main line: the signal box was taken out of use on 7 January 1965. Beyond the crossing, the station buildings are no more, and only a fragment of the former up platform can be seen just beyond the signal box. Construction of the flyover has clearly not been completed. This bridge was apparently recognised a few years later as the ‘no-man’s-land’ territory where, despite the affluent reputation of the two suburbs, Benton and Forest Hall gangs would hold their ‘aggro’ encounters.
Photo from Alan Young collection
Looking south-east at Forest Hall level crossing in December 1964 as a freight train disappears towards Newcastle. On the degraded up platform (far left) the main station building has been demolished, and fragments beside the footbridge steps are all that remain of the c1900 extension. The platforms have been cut back and would soon disappear completely. This scene captures the brief interval between the demolition of the station buildings and the closure of the signal box (on 7 January 1965) when the level crossing was taken out of use and road traffic diverted over the new flyover (distant far right), under which the freight train is passing.

Demolition of Forest Hall signal box is under way in March 1965. The nameplate is still in place. The fine NER footbridge has been retained although the road crossing has been closed.
Photo from Alan Young collection
Looking north-west from the 1960s road flyover towards the site of Forest Hall station in July 1987. The footbridge seen in the photo replaced the NER structure and provided clearance for the overhead electrification of the East Coast main line for which engineering works would soon begin. Nothing is to be seen of the former station whose site is immediately beyond the footbridge.
Photo by John Mann

Looking north-east across the sites of the former down (this side of the tracks) and up platforms at Forest Hall station in February 1999. Virgin Cross Country liveried class 47 47818 passes the site with the 1015 Edinburgh - Swansea rugby additional service. 47818 entered service as D1917 on 3 December 1965 and is currently in Direct Rail Services livery .The ‘Flying Scotsman’ pub is on the right.
Photo by Richard Allen from his Flickr photostream

The East Coast main line in Northumberland was electrified in 1991 on the overhead system. However from 1904 until 1967 a short stretch of the line, between Heaton Junction and Benton Quarry (half-a-mile south-east of Forest Hall), was electrified with third rail as part of the North Tyne suburban project, and ‘express’ multiple units could clip a few minutes off the journey between Newcastle and the coast by taking this route instead of the normal one via South Gosforth. This view, looking north-east in April 2006 from the footbridge at the former level crossing, is across the site of the up platform of Forest Hall station towards the ‘Flying Scotsman’ public house on Briar Edge, which was built on the site of the station building soon after it was demolished.
Photo by Steven Hedley from his Flickr photostream
Looking north-west from the 1960s road flyover towards the site of Forest Hall station in September 2012.The station was on the far side of the footbridge.
Photo by Paul Franks, reproduced from Geograph under creative commons licence



 

 

 

[Source: Alan Young]

Last updated: Thursday, 18-May-2017 11:58:06 CEST
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