The Birmingham & Gloucester Railway (which later became part of the Midland Railway) built a terminus station roughly on the site of the current Gloucester station car park.

In 1896 a new through station was constructed on the Tuffley Loop line on a site that had previously housed the Midland Railway engine shed. The station, originally known simply as Gloucester, opened on 12 April 1896; it had three through platforms and one bay. It was sharply curved and featured buildings on both platforms as well as a main entrance building. The

Trains from the south gained access via Tuffley Junction and the Tuffley Loop. Had the southern approaches been either on embankment or in cutting, then road traffic could have easily passed under or over the line; however, as it was on the level, there were no fewer than four gated ‘road crossings’, the most notorious being the Barton Gates Crossing which, as car ownership increased in the 1950s, gained a reputation for traffic congestion.

After nationalisation the station came under British Railways’ London Midland Region but was transferred to the Western Region in 1950. It was renamed Gloucester Eastgate on 17 September 1951. It combined with Gloucester Central on 26 May 1968, and the new station was renamed Gloucester although it still appeared in BR timetables as Gloucester Eastgate – with its neighbour continuing to be shown as Gloucester Central - until the May 1975 – May 1976 issue inclusive. There was a walkway between the two sets of platforms which were 300 yd apart.

The goods yard closed on 1 August 1967 although private sidings remained in use after that date. After 1968 the station was rationalised. The island platform was lengthened at the Barton Street end, and the tracks were removed from the other two platforms. The extensive goods yard and sidings were also lifted at this time. Colour light track circuit block signalling

Since the late 1960s the maintenance of this site had become an unwanted liability for British Rail; furthermore, the road lobby and local councillors wanted to rid Gloucester of four of its level crossings. These factors conspired to bring about the closure of Eastgate station and the removal of the Tuffley Loop.

Eastgate station closed on 1 December 1975, along with the Tuffley Loop. Services that had previously called at Eastgate now had to perform a reversal at Central station, an operational inconvenience that has resulted in fewer trains calling at Gloucester. As the rebuilt Gloucester Central station was not completed until 1977, the administrative offices on Eastgate station lingered on in use for nearly two more years until demolition commenced in the summer of 1976. The site is now an Asda supermarket.