Eaglescliffe railway station

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Eaglescliffe

Location

Place

Eaglescliffe

Local authority

Stockton-on-Tees

Coordinates

54°31′44″N 1°20′56″W / 54.529, -1.349Coordinates: 54°31′44″N 1°20′56″W / 54.529, -1.349

Operations

Station code

EAG

Managed by

Northern Rail

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

54,555

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Eaglescliffe from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

Eaglescliffe railway station serves the town of Eaglescliffe in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees . It is located on the Tees Valley Line at the junction with the Northallerton-Eaglescliffe Line and is operated by Northern Rail. Direct intercity services are provided by Grand Central between London and Sunderland.

[edit] History

Eaglescliffe Station was the second station to be built along Yarm Road and deviates from the original course of the Stockton and Darlington Railway being the world's first passenger railway service. Originally the line ran on the east side of Yarm Road through Preston Hall (now more commonly known as Preston Park. However it is said that Lord Preston was so unhappy at the disruption that trains such as Locomotion No. 1 caused to his cattle he insisted that it be moved to the other side of the road.

The train station that served the parishes of Preston and Egglescliffe was called Preston, however the railway owners displeased at the cost of moving the railway decided to name the new station after Egglescliffe instead of Preston.

The new station became known as Eaglescliffe. There are various different stories as to how the station got the name Eaglescliffe instead of Egglescliffe as intended. One such avenue of stories is that the signwriter was sent a telegram to paint the sign 'Eaglescliffe' due to an error and another variant was that the signwriter thought there must have been an error and changed the name himself.

In each variation of the story it is said that the sign was not changed for a period of time by which time the station became known as Eaglescliffe and the surrounding area has taken the name.