Seaham Hall Dene railway station

The former station building at Seaham Hall Dene which is now a private residence, seen in July 2017.

In 1854 the Londonderry Railway opened the Londonderry, Seaham and Sunderland Railway to link its network of colliery railways to the newly constructed South Dock in Sunderland due to the lack of capacity in Seaham Harbour. Though constructed primarily for mineral traffic, passengers were also carried between Seaham Harbour and Hendon Burn in Sunderland from 1855 until the LS&SR began to use the Hendon terminus of the North Eastern Railway in 1868.[1] An additional station was opened in 1875 to serve the home of the Londonderry family who had provided much of the funding for the line.[2]

The station was situated north of Seaham station (originally Seaham Colliery station) and south of Ryhope East station.

In 1879 the North Eastern Railway closed Hendon station to be replaced by Sunderland Central station and so all LS&SR services were diverted into the new station. The LS&SR did, however, remain independent until the Londonderry Railway agreed to sell its Seaham to Sunderland route to the North Eastern Railway in the Act of 30 July 1900 though this sale did not include Hall Dene station which remained under the ownership of the Marquess. The NER took over operation of the route on 6 October 1900 and then, on 1 April 1905 opened an extension of it along the coast to West Hartlepool.[3]

As part of the 1900 Act that enabled the NER to purchase the Seaham to Sunderland line, the Marquess retained the power "to stop other than express trains within reasonable limits" although this privilege was only used four times between 1900 and 1923. After the NER was amalgamated into the London & North Eastern Railway in the grouping of 1923, the LNER requested that this privilege be abolished and consequentially the station ceased to be used from 1 March 1925.[3]

The original station building remains and has been convert to a private house.[4]