Heighington railway station

Heighington railway station is located on Heighington Lane and serves Aycliffe Business Park (formerly Aycliffe Industrial Park) in the town of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, England. The station is on the Tees Valley Line 5 ³⁄₄ miles (9.3 km) northwest of Darlington.

Heighington
Location
Place	Newton Aycliffe
Local authority	County Durham
Coordinates	54.5972°N 1.5818°W / 54.5972; -1.5818
Grid reference	NZ271224
Operations
Station code	HEI
Managed by	Northern Trains
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	19,750
2015/16	18,286
2016/17	18,958
2017/18	15,878
2018/19	22,756
History
Original company	Stockton and Darlington Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
27 September 1825 (1825-09-27)	Station opened as Aycliffe Lane
?	Renamed Aycliffe and Heighington
1 July 1871	Renamed Aycliffe
1 September 1874	Renamed Heighington
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Heighington from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The unstaffed station is operated by Northern Trains who provide all passenger train services.[1] The station is on the Bishop Line[2] which is a community railway from Bishop Auckland to Darlington.[3] It is somewhat unusual in that its platforms are staggered, sited either side of a level crossing.[4] The station has kept its listed manual signal box (which supervises the aforementioned crossing, the connection into the Hitachi plant and the single line section south of here through to Darlington), but this had its semaphore signals replaced by colour lights when the connection into the Hitachi factory was installed and commissioned in November 2014.[5]

Facilities

The station is unmanned and has a card-only ticket machine, so all passengers wanting to buy tickets with cash must buy on board the train or prior to travel. The amenities here were improved as part of the Tees Valley Metro project in 2013. The package for this station included new fully lit waiting shelters, renewed station signage, digital CIS displays and the installation of CCTV (all of the Tees Valley line stations apart from Teesside Airport and British Steel Redcar have been upgraded and provided with CIS displays).[6] The long-line public-address system (PA) has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements. Running information can also be obtained by telephone and timetable poster boards. Step-free access is available to both platforms via ramps from the crossing.[7]

History

The station lies on the route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&D), the first public railway. It was here in 1825 that Locomotion No. 1 designed by George Stephenson was placed on the track prior to first journey.[8] Once it was placed on the line and all was ready, it was found that nobody had means of lighting the boiler. Stephenson sent a messenger to get a lit lantern. However, at this point a navvy called Robert Metcalf stepped forward and offered use of his "burning glass" (a piece of glass similar to a magnifying glass) which he used to light his pipe. It was with this that Stephenson was able to light the boiler for that first journey.[9]

The main line of the S&D was opened on 27 September 1825 from Phoenix Colliery at Etherley to Stockton,[10] and this station was opened the same day, being originally named Aycliffe Lane. It was subsequently renamed three times: first to Aycliffe and Heighington, later, on 1 July 1871, it became Aycliffe, although this name lasted for just over three years, because on 1 September 1874 it gained the present name of Heighington.[11]

The signal box at Heighington Station

The grade II listed signal box was opened 1872 and was originally commissioned by the North Eastern Railway Central Division. It is one of the earliest signal boxes in the country still in existence and it is believed that at the most only four pre-date it. The design was possibly by Thomas Prosser, the company's architect. The building fits the earliest Central Division design which the Signalling Study Group classified the design as Type C1.[8]

The original signal lever frame mechanism was replaced 1906. At the time of its inspection prior to gaining listed status in 2007 this 1906 mechanism was still in use. The lever frame was extended around 1912. The extension to both mechanism and building is believed to have been done in order to fit signalling controls for a new electrified line. The lever system was to the current 11 levers in 1987.[8]

On the opposite side of the railway line are the original station buildings dating from around 1826-27[8] or 1835[12] depending on source. The original design called for a public house which would act as a waiting room. Although the buildings no longer form part of the modern station the pub is still in use, called the Locomotion Number 1.[8][13] A cobbled area outside of the pub is believed to be part of the original 1825 station platform.[12]

Accidents and incidents

• On 1 July 1828, the boiler of Locomotion No. 1 exploded, killing the driver.[14]

Services

Northern Trains Route 3: Bishop & Tees Valley Lines
Bishop Auckland Shildon Newton Aycliffe Heighington North Road East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh Darlington East Coast Main Line to London King's Cross Dinsdale Teesside Airport Allens West Northallerton to Eaglescliffe Line Eaglescliffe Durham Coast Line to Newcastle Thornaby Middlesbrough Esk Valley Line to Whitby South Bank Redcar British Steel Redcar Central Redcar East Longbeck Marske Saltburn
There are currently no trains calling at Redcar British Steel until further notice.

The station has a basic hourly service each way on weekdays (improved from two-hourly off peak at the December 2017 timetable change). The service is also hourly on Sundays. Trains usually run through to Saltburn, though there is one departure each weekday to Nunthorpe.[15]

Intercity Express Programme factory

The new Hitachi Intercity Express Programme train assembly plant was built not far from the station in the Aycliffe Business Park and opened in 2015.[16] Work commenced on the £82 million facility in March 2014 and it was officially opened on 3 September 2015 by UK Prime Minister David Cameron.[17] The factory has a rail connection to the running line controlled from the station signal box to allow for delivery of the new sets once completed (there are also 4.3 miles (7 km) of sidings and a 0.62 mi (1 km) long electrified test track within the plant).[18] The new class 800/801 IEP sets will be built or fitted out here for use on the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Line, along with class 385 (AT200) commuter EMUs destined for use on Scottish suburban routes around Glasgow and Edinburgh.[19]

References

1. "Heighington (HEI)". National Rail Enquiries.
2. "Heighington". Bishop Line.
3. "Bishop Community Rail Line". GOV.UK.
4. "Heighington railway station, County Durham - 2009 Thompson, N, Geograph.org; Retrieved 1 August 2018
5. "Hitachi's New Railway"Rail Engineer news article 23 October 2014; Retrieved 1 August 2018
6. "Report of meeting with Steve Payne, Tees Valley Unlimited" North East Coastliners news article 29 June 2015; Retrieved 17 February 2017
7. Heighington station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 16 February 2017
8. Historic England. "Heighington Signal Box (1391940)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
9. "Stockton to Darlington Railway". Hansard.
10. Allen, Cecil J. (1974) [1964]. The North Eastern Railway. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 24. ISBN 0-7110-0495-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
11. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 22, 117. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
12. Historic England. "Locomotion One Public House and East Platform (1322808)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
13. "Locomotion Number One". What Pub.
14. Hewison, Christian H. (1983). Locomotive Boiler Explosions. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 26. ISBN 0 7153 8305 1.
15. Table 44 National Rail timetable, May 2018
16. "Newton Aycliffe's Hitachi train plant opens". BBC News.
17. Denholm-Hall, Rupert (3 September 2015). "Multi-million pound factory opens to produce trains of the future for the Great Western Mainline". Wales Online. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
18. Keighley, Tom (25 March 2015). "Hitachi Rail Europe's Newton Aycliffe train factory connected to national rail network". The Journal. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
19. Hitachi's Class 385 Enters Service Shires, D, Rail Engineer news article 24 July 2018; Retrieved 1 August 2018

External links

• Bishop Line

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
North Road		Northern Trains Tees Valley Line		Newton Aycliffe
	Historical railways
Darlington North Road Line and station open		North Eastern Railway Stockton & Darlington Railway		Shildon Line and station open