Place Walker Pre-grouping North Eastern Railway 13 May 1889 Renamed Walker | Area Newcastle upon Tyne 1 May 1879 Opened as Low Walker Platforms in use 2 | |
Post-grouping London and North Eastern Railway Similar Bensham railway station, Millfield Metro station, St Peter's Metro station | ||
Walker railway station, known as Low Walker until 1889, served Walker, a residential suburb of Newcastle, in Tyne and Wear. It was situated on the North Eastern Railway's Riverside Branch from Newcastle to Tynemouth via Carville. The station served as a passenger halt and goods depot for shipping companies such as Armstrong Whitworth and other land-based companies including the Northern Wood Haskinizing Company.
Contents
Opening
On 13 July 1871, the North Eastern Railway (NER) obtained authorisation to construct a 6.5-mile (10.5-kilometre) branch line running from Riverside Junction, between Manors East and Heaton, to Percy Main. The line, which was actually a loop line, had been proposed as a means of relieving the Newcastle and North Shields Railway from Newcastle to North Shields via Wallsend, which was failing to cope with the growing communities around the River Tyne and in the Walker area. According to W.W. Thomas, "the route consisted for the most of tunnels, bridges, cuttings, retaining walls and embankments - an exceptionally heavy series of works". In addition, the line was quite indirect in comparison with the Wallsend tracks.
The Riverside Branch opened in 1879 and served the following stations: Byker(from 1901), St Peters, St Anthony's, Low Walker (Walker from 1889), Carville, Point Pleasant and Willington Quay before rejoining the North Shields line at Percy Main.
Area served
Walker station was on the edge of the south-eastern part of Newcastle. It was located far south of the main line and Walker Gate railway station. It was also very close to the River Tyne. The shipyards and warehouses lay to the east and the sparsely populated surroundings of Walker Road to the west. Despite having tram, bus and trolleybus stops in the locality, Walker became the most booked station on the Riverside branch.
Station facilities
The station had two platforms with a one-storey brick station building at the far south end and a subway under the tracks to connect the platforms. The main two storey brick-built stationhouse was at the northern end of the station. A conservatory was added to the stationhouse at an unknown date. Beyond the southern end of the station is a brick lock-up and a typical NER signal box. This remained until the closure of the station to passengers. There was also a bricked-up waiting room on the easternmost platform.
The station buildings and lock-up structure survived closure of the station to passengers when one track was removed. However, when goods traffic between St Peters and Carville was withdrawn in 1987, the remaining track was lifted and the buildings were demolished.
Run down and closure
Following the war, economy measures led to trains being limited to Monday-Saturday peak hours. Then Byker and St Anthony's were quickly closed one after the other in 1954 and 1960. Further economies on the Riverside branch and the main line saw the withdrawal of electric services and a further reduction of trains to a few diesel services.
Although the Beeching Report recommended the complete withdrawal of services on the line, it remained resilient to closure and continued in use despite the construction of roads from Wallsend to Willington Quay and from Carville to Point Pleasant and Willington Quay. Nevertheless, the lack of patronage and costs of upkeep saw the Riverside branch lose £85,000 annually. Thus, in 1973, the line along with Walker station was finally closed.
No special train was run to commemorate the line's passing and the final service was a random 16.24 Newcastle direct, which was also the last ever train on the branch and into Walker.
Present day
The station buildings have been demolished and the site is now under a scrapyard. Such has been the change that there is no real way of ever knowing a station was once here. The trackbed however remains as a cycle path and the station lies under a scrapyard.